By provision of 4 November 2020 (Annex A) the Ministry of Health has prohibited the use of live decoys belonging to the orders of Anseriforms and Charadriforms until further notice. High-risk areas A and B are described in Annex B, where there is also the list of the municipalities concerned. The provision therefore does not involve the whole national territory, but only some areas, which however are all of great interest for hunting waterfowl, and many of these are also located in "yellow" regions for the COVID-19 situation, therefore the hunting continues regularly in them also in this period.
Hunting Federation and the sectoral ACMA have always collaborated with the Institutions for the avian problem, through an intense conversation over time and organization of swabs on killed birds and calls, but today the provision of the Ministry leaves us decidedly surprised. There is no case in Italy, but only a few in Holland and Germany, areas located on the North European and Atlantic migration route, so the arrival of migrants from these areas is extremely unlikely, given that they arrive in Italy waterfowl mainly from the eastern and Balkan areas.
We have been monitoring live and dead ducks in the Venice Lagoon and in the Po Delta for months, the results of which are evidently negative for the virus, as there is no trace of these data in the measure. The decision then appears at least forced with respect to the current epidemiological framework. Federcaccia has already contacted the management of the Ministry that deals with the problem for a constructive discussion and to analyze possible short-term solutions.