The alarm after the Pavese cases
The swine fever is dangerously close to the Brescian borders. And the farmers of our house are in great alarm. Since they were discovered about a week ago two infected wild boar carcasses in the Pavia area, in Bagnaria and Ponte Nizza, in the Staffora Valley, the first cases in Lombardy (until a few days ago the red zone extended to the province of Piacenza, while today there are eleven municipalities involved in the province of Pavia). Now the dreaded infection is knocking on the doors of Brescia, only about 150 kilometers away. If the infection were to spread it would be a drama and enormous damage for the agricultural economy of Brescia. The Brescian pig sector has over 750 farms for around 1,2 million heads and almost three hundred million euros in total production value. “We are extremely worried – declares the councilor of Confagricoltura Brescia Serafino Valtulini, breeder of Orzivecchi -, the institutions have moved but evidently it is not enough or the actions are perhaps a little late. There is no longer a single minute to lose, as we have been saying for some time, to prevent swine fever from spreading through wild boars, which are the first vector of the virus: the only way remains to be slaughtered, there are no other viable ways today in the short term. Politics, businesses and trade associations must work together for a single common goal: to protect and protect the areas with the highest intensity of pigs reared, such as Bresciano".
House resolution
On June 21, the Agriculture Committee of the Chamber approved a resolution on the PSA, which provides for interventions to depopulate the wild boar through greater attention to the implementation of the extraordinary containment plan of the species even in areas not affected by the virus but suited to pig farming , in order to prevent its arrival. Not only that, the decree law 75 of 22 June introduced new measures to combat swine fever, strengthening the prevention and eradication of Psa and expanding the range of action of wild boar containment operations, as well as the functions of the extraordinary commissioner . To him the task of defining the extraordinary plan of the catches at national and regional level and the possibility of foreseeing extraordinary procedures (including the assignment to specialized companies) in case of inertia or failure to achieve the objectives by the Regions.
The pig herd
The pig farmers of Confagricoltura Brescia have met several times in recent weeks, officially asking to "implement all the necessary measures to reduce the risk of the disease entering the Lombardy Po Valley", where about 50% of the national pig herd is raised , one of the main supply chains for the most famous Italian DOPs. In the event of the spread of swine fever in this area as well, there would be a direct health risk for Brescian livestock, with very heavy economic damage estimated at around 60 million euros per month in Lombardy (the province of Brescia alone represents the first pig-growing district in the internal Lombardy, with 31 per cent of the regional production quota) (source: Confagricoltura Brescia).