We have been in close contact with theExperimental Zooprophylactic Institute of the Venezie to look for a meeting point on the problem live calls. Yesterday 24 August a meeting was held at the Izsve headquarters in Padua (Italian and European reference body) on the avian problems affecting aquatic hunters. Present for the Izsve were dott.ssa Capelli, medical director and dr. Terregino national and European referent for avian, while for ACMA the president Gabriele Fasoli, the national secretary Marco Fasoli and the delegate of the Lombardy Region Alberto Bocchi. The very cordial and open meeting lasted for a few hours and touched on various aspects of the avian problem. During the same, the Hon. Maria Cristina Caretta.
The goal was to make the managers of the Institute better understand the importance of calls for the specialist hunter and that in our view do not involve a high risk for the spread of the virus, quite the contrary! The management of the same cannot in any way be equated to domestic poultry, but in particular, given the favorable situation underway, we wanted to understand the real possibilities of reusing live decoys. Useful information and data emerged for both parties and specifically that the current type of HPAI virus it is highly pathogenic and has already caused hundreds of outbreaks in central and northern Europe.
In a forthcoming study following research carried out in Italy in recent years on culled and wild caught animals (which among other things were asymptomatic) were found about a hundred positive samples both of intestinal origin, but also pharyngeal / tracheal and even detected on the plumage. So the general situation is in their opinion rather worrying and in this reality there is still a strong sanitary prudence and prevention. However, the IZSVe has given its availability, also following the recent MinSal circular, to examine and share valid surveillance and regional monitoring plans. which allow the reuse of live calls, as long as the European epidemiological situation remains stable. In a nutshell, in the presence of coordinated checks and analyzes (with the regional veterinary bodies) and repeated during the hunting season, you can safely take advantage of live calls.
What time during autumn / winter should new cases of avian occur, even only in other European countries, the institute reserves the right to ban again the use of calls in zones A and B for preventive purposes. It is difficult for us to accept all this, but the economic damage suffered by the poultry sector is enormous and they cannot fail to consider it. Despite this, they recognize the calls and the aquatic hunters as sentinels on the territory and an indispensable source of data to verify the presence of the virus.. If the collected data proves that our volatile auxiliaries are not infected or very little, they would be willing to discuss a less penalizing attitude towards our category. At this point the decisions and the initiative pass to the health / veterinary departments of the regions or to the political it's here …. we hope that all of us will be able to assert our reasons and expectations!