La Basilicata region continues to put in place all the tools available to face the constant numerical expansion of wild boars, which as is known determine implications of a biological nature but also economic and social. In addition to causing direct and indirect damage to agricultural and forest crops, the presence of wild boars in the vicinity of inhabited centers raises concern and alarmism in citizens, putting at risk the safety of people due to road accidents caused by the sudden crossing of specimens of this species on the roads".
This was stated by the Regional Councilor for Agriculture, Francesco Fanelli, commenting on the approval by the Regional Council of the "Plan for the selective culling and control of the wild boar species", which also makes use of the favorable opinion of Ispra. It will be up to the territorial hunting areas competent for the territory "the publication of the subsequent selection notices of the operators authorized to carry out wild boar harvesting, exclusively for the recruitment of newly qualified persons for selective harvesting". Within 10 days the Atc will have to apply the provisions of the Plan and in the regulations using the operators included in the lists who have already participated in the sampling activities in the previous hunting seasons, without any request and additional payment to the ATC to which they belong.
The Atc must also transmit to the competent office of the Region on a monthly basis “a detailed report indicating the number of animals killed and the extent of the damage to agriculture caused by the wild boar species divided by municipality ". The selective collection of wild boars can be carried out, for the year 2021, every day of the week with the exception of Monday, Tuesday, Friday, taking 5.600 animals according to the distribution indicated in the plan; the plan also provides for the possibility of emergency or on-call sampling. The plan of three-year control 2021-2023 aims to reduce by at least 30 percent the requests for damage caused to agricultural crops with a controlled withdrawal without qualitative-quantitative restrictions and without numerical limits, adopting, depending on the periods, the forms of withdrawal allowed in the period of duration of the plan (2020-2023).
The collection is allowed every day of the week, also providing the possibility for the owners and / or conductors of agricultural land with a hunting license to carry out the control, upon request for authorization, whose validity is 12 months from the date of release. Against the risk of introducing the African swine fever virus, the Region will provide the insiders with appropriate indications so that any killed wild boar that exhibits anomalous behavior, attributable to this specific infection, is reported to the competent authorities such as hunting guards, provincial police, forest police, veterinary services of the local health authorities.
Accepting a specific request from the hunting associations following the suspension of hunting due to the covid-19 emergency, the Regional Council has also decided to extend the closing date of the hunting activity for ten days (from 21 to 31 January 2021). species woodcock, song thrush, redwing and cesena. A choice that, in the opinion of the Department's technicians, "does not produce any significant alteration on the reproductive and migratory trends of the species concerned", explains Councilor Fanelli, specifying that "in any case, the suspension of hunting activities is envisaged in the event of atmospheric events adverse, as required by law ".