Experiences and intervention strategies
It was held yesterday morning in the “Giacomo Puccini” Hall of the National Headquarters of the Federcaccia in the presence of the Extraordinary Commissioner Dr. Vincent Caputo the seminar “PSA and Extraordinary Depopulation Plan: experiences and intervention strategies”, aimed at the managers of the Federation and those who, due to their role, deal with management and wildlife issues. General Donato Monaco, President Delegate of the National Technical Faunistic Hunting Committee, also spoke, bringing his greetings and thanking him for the initiative, which he defined as being of particular importance in relation to the management of the health emergency. Unable to attend, Sen. Patrizio La Pietra, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food Sovereignty and Forestry, sent his best wishes for the work.
New outbreaks of the disease
The works were opened by the National President Massimo Buconi, who highlighted the leading role of hunting and hunters in the management of the health emergency linked to ASF and the great contribution that hunters - and in particular organized hunting teams to wild boar - can guarantee both prevention and intervention works against the emergence of new outbreaks of the disease. “I thank the Commissioner and the General together with all those who participated and those who contributed to the realization of this initiative – declared Buconi – Once again we want to demonstrate how, even in cases of health emergency such as those linked to the onset of swine fever, the contribution of the hunting world could be decisive. Very often our category, although operating quietly, contributes to solving or reducing wildlife-environmental and management problems of the territory. Even in this delicate case the hunters - if duly valorised - will do their part to help get out of the emergency as soon as possible".
Good land management
At the end of his presentation, some FIdC managers and representatives of the ATC spoke, bringing to the Commissioner and those present some examples of good land management, cutting-edge from the point of view of collaboration with the institutions and the creation of rest and processing centers of meat - such as the ATC 3 Siena Nord, the ATC 8 Siena Sud, the Colli Euganei Regional Park and the Folgore Group Wild Boar Team of Fossato di Vico (PG) - and on the critical issues related to the management of the disease. Giuseppe Giordano, National Vice President and Regional President of Calabria highlighted the main problems faced in the region. “I thank the Commissioner for his availability, but we need to act quickly to resolve some issues relating to the application of the Extraordinary Plan in Calabria” he declared. “Allow the self-consumption of the animals killed in restriction zone '2', proceed with the investigations to free the current restriction zone '3' through the revision with the reclassification partly in zone '2' and partly in zone ' 1' depending on the epidemiological trend, making a public investment for the creation of cells and carcass collection centers that can be used by teams and all hunters to proceed with the urgent depopulation, are essential priorities for an effective and rapid solution to the problem" .
The Sienese experience
Marco Radi, FIdC Provincial Vice President of Siena and Atc 3 Siena Nord highlighted the main aspects of the Siena experience: "Already in times that were not suspicious from the point of view of the health emergency we decided to invest in an efficient territorial organization of meat management . This path is proceeding virtuously even outside of Tuscany, and next April 4th all the Umbrian ATCs will be guests of our structure to view and in the future adapt the system of our model to their territory". “It is now two years since the emergency began in Liguria” declared among other things Andrea Campanile, FIdC Liguria Regional President. “We must start thinking about the management of new territorial wildlife scenarios that are emerging in the first places affected by the ASF, trying to entice and encourage hunters in those areas”. Claudio Alzapiedi, President of ATC Parma 6 and Mayor of the municipality of Valmozza, highlighted in addition to the implicit difficulties of managing an area affected by the emergency, also the aspects relating to the impact this has on small mountain municipalities, which also experience of all those activities such as hiking, mushroom and truffle picking, etc... precluded or in any case strongly limited by the rules linked to the management of the epidemic.
At the end of the speeches, the Extraordinary Commissioner Caputo thanked President Buconi for the opportunity to present the latest updates relating to the emergency at a national level and in general for the continuous discussions. “Hunters, as bioregulators, are a precious resource for the territory and for society as a whole, also in the management of the health emergency linked to ASF. Hunting is a necessity, and all hunters must be informed and trained on the behaviors to follow to prevent the spread and eradicate ASF" he concluded, declaring the usefulness of the positive examples brought and the problems exposed by the participants (Press Office of the Italian Federation of the Hunt).