Findings of carcasses
According to data communicated by the Emilia-Romagna Region on the proliferation of wild boars, "with regards to the control of the species, in the last 3 years we have gone from approximately 4.400 captures to 6.400, with an increase of over 45%". Confagricoltura Piacenza intervenes on these numbers and these statements, returning to talk about ungulates. From January 2022, 1567 to date in the province of Piacenza, 2019 wild boar carcasses distributed in the three restriction zones have been tested for Psa, given that the rules require all slaughtered wild boars to be tested, we know for certain that the number of slaughters is reduced by the findings of carcasses. The data published by the Region itself on hunting and control indicate that in the 2020-2104 hunting season alone in Piacenza, 262 wild boars were hunted and 1597 were slaughtered with control actions. The figure is 483 and 2126 respectively in the following season and 823 and 2021 for the 2022-XNUMX season.
Region Database
"The control plans have led, in our province, to the slaughter of 506 wild boars in 2023 and 530 in 2024 - notes Giovanna Parmigiani, president of the Pork product section of Confagricoltura Piacenza - since we can no longer count on hunting, the overall slaughters have been reduced to about a sixth. It seemed too little to us to remove 3000 wild boars a year, now with the threat of Psa, we are satisfied with just over 500. If hunting is not the tool, other strategies should be adopted, but it is essential to arrive at a drastic reduction in the short term". The data published in the Region's databases also report that in 2021, over 30.000 wild boars were slaughtered in Emilia-Romagna with a decrease in the following two years, but for a total of slaughters that in 2023 exceeded 20.000 (considering hunting and control together).
African swine fever
Our province is almost entirely in a restricted zone and hunting is not allowed in restricted zones, you can only act with control actions based on what is established in the National Plan for the Surveillance and Eradication of African Swine Fever, in the Commissioner's Ordinances and in the Regional Plan for Urgent Interventions. "The numbers clearly show the disproportion of control actions compared to the potential for culling that we had before, being able to count on the hunting season - underlines Confagricoltura Piacenza -. Even if we admit that wolves and Psa have significantly reduced the wild boar population, farmers still see them in large packs in the fields. Not to mention their uncontrolled proliferation in parks and surrounding areas, where containment actions are further reduced, making it, in fact, a repopulation area to the detriment of the agricultural companies that insist on the same territory. "The reports of damage to crops have decreased because, not obtaining adequate compensation, entrepreneurs no longer file reports - comments the association of agricultural entrepreneurs - this impacts the statistics and is the reason why we ask members to proceed anyway, even knowing that the compensations are not adequate".
Pig Farms
For years, Confagricoltura Piacenza has been asking for more incisive interventions, because the entrepreneur's goal is to be able to harvest the product and not obtain compensation. In this scenario, since 2022, the Psa drama has entered, of which wild boars are the main vector. "It gives us hope that the Extraordinary Commissioner for Psa and the Regions are cautiously confident - comments the president of Confagricoltura Piacenza, Umberto Gorra - however it was February when the Commissioner announced the arrival of the cages, it seems that 3 have been allocated to our territory, it becomes difficult to think that with these numbers and these times they can be a decisive tool". In the meantime, concern grows because the agricultural season is entering its full swing, crops in the fields are damaged and the pressure of wild boars is a serious threat to pig farms. "We know that wild boars are the privileged viral reservoir of PSA, if they wander around farms they expose them to a constant threat against which farmers shield themselves with maximum biosecurity, but this is not enough, we must eliminate the vector and the numbers tell us, unfortunately, that the time to win the battle against PSA, with the tools put in place to date, are not compatible with the survival of companies. For this reason - he concludes - we ask for a change of pace that to date we have not seen either in the statistics and even less in the campaigns".
You May Also Like ..
