Emergency situation
This is what emerged from the words of the Special Commissioner for African Swine Fever , Giovanni Filippini, during the hearing before the Agriculture Committee held today, July 15. In describing the current epidemiological scenario of African swine fever, Filippini recalled that "we are still trying to manage one of the emergencies, indeed certainly the most significant emergency from a health standpoint that our country has ever faced, obviously with regard to the pig sector in the history of infectious diseases."
Hunters protagonists
Speaking about intervention strategies and the need to contain the spread of the disease by obstructing and halting the circulation and movement of wild boars, carriers of the virus, Filippini noted that, in addition to the physical barriers erected across the territory to close off the so-called ecological corridors along which wild boars roam, "we are implementing another type of barrier, the so-called biological barrier, thanks to close collaboration with hunters, who currently represent one of the most important players in the fight against African swine fever." The Commissioner then emphasized the importance of hunters in surveillance and alongside teams of handler-sniffer dog pairs in the search for and removal of infected carcasses: "All the pairs we have today, which are often not from these areas, are accompanied by hunters precisely because it also facilitates the dog's work and the search, because we cannot waste energy and time sending pairs into areas where we know very well there are no wild boars."
Hunting Management Unit
"Once this surveillance activity is completed," Filippini continued, "there's obviously the depopulation phase, which takes the form of monitoring. Consider that we are very fortunate to have hunting management units, which are the territories of each team within the ATCs, and to have people who know those management units very well and therefore act as sentries and support the surveillance and depopulation activities, which is certainly a fundamental element for us."
Bird flu
Responding to a question from the Honorable Bruzzone, Commissioner Filippini further emphasized the role of hunters in dealing with other zoonoses: "Senator Bruzzone also highlighted the issue of avian influenza, so hunters also make an important contribution there, because avian influenza surveillance doesn't just take place on farms, but primarily on wild fauna, which is what brings the virus to our territories. You know that wild fauna carries the highly pathogenic virus during their migratory routes; unfortunately, we have a high density of farms located precisely in the regions—I'm thinking of Veneto, Lombardy, Mantua, and partly Emilia Romagna—where these migratory routes pass because they are humid environments and therefore run the risk of infection. What does this mean? We have a surveillance plan, so all the birds that are hunted or found by hunters are taken to laboratories for analysis. So, there is also a surveillance system in place." volunteering” concluded the Commissioner.
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