Hunting and Fauna: Piedmont, following a health check on the meat of wild boars killed in the upper Val Sesia, residues of radioactivity from Cesium 137 were discovered.
In recent weeks, some veterinary researchers have analyzed the meat of 27 wild boars coming from the area of the upper Val Sesia after carrying out further analyzes in search of common parasites such as trichinella, it emerged instead that the analyzed samples showed traces of radioactivity ten times higher. at the maximum tolerated level. The meat was immediately seized and further and more specific analyzes were carried out which showed the actual presence in high quantities of Cesium 137, a dangerous radioactive isotope produced by the nuclear fission process and therefore coming from a functioning nuclear power plant or from an accident like that of Chernobyl.
The news apparently was not disclosed immediately and in the meantime the scientific research of the case was carried out with the intervention of the Ministry of Health; the boars subject of the analysis had been killed during hunting trips in the area of the upper Val Sesia, in the Vercelli area.
However, the mystery remains as to the causes that could have led to the contamination of wild animals but the concern is greatest since cesium 137 is dangerous for human health. and only a few wild boar samples are analyzed in search of much more common and much less dangerous than trichinellosis. There is in fact the fear that in the face of the twenty-seven wild boars analyzed and found positive for radiation from cesium 137 there may be many others still in circulation or perhaps already slaughtered and frozen in the refrigerators of hunters and restaurants in the area.
To deal with this situation, the Ministry of Health has sent a staff specialized in the search for radioactive material to the area who will analyze the places where the wild boars were killed., the grass, the soil and the water of the area possibly drunk by the animals, in order to find out what may be the cause of the radioactive contamination.
Only one certainty remains: the presence of cesium 137 in the environment cannot be traced back to a natural phenomenon but exclusively to nuclear fission generated in a nuclear power plant whether it is functioning or damaged by an accident.
8 March 2013