Hunting in Emilia Romagna: Regional wildlife monitoring plan 2011-2012.
The “Regional Wildlife Monitoring Plan 2011-2012 ″ was presented in recent days, aimed at the important health surveillance activity for the presence of diseases potentially transmissible to humans.
About 150 Coadjutors, necessary reference points, hunters collaborate in the implementation of the Plan who, after the specific course and passing the qualification exam, coordinated by the Provincial Police, will make available - free of charge - their time to monitor the territory, delivering wild carcasses to the Veterinary Offices of the AUSL or directly to the analysis laboratory of the Zooprophylactic Institute.
The operational methods of monitoring were illustrated in a recent meeting, attended by about 200 listeners, attentive to the reports of Claudio Castagnoli, Commander of the Provincial Police, Elisabetta Mantovani, Director of the Flora, Fauna and Agricultural Production Protection Service, and Massimo Tassinari, Head of of the Veterinary Epidemiological Surveillance Organizational Module of the Veterinary Area of the USL.
In the last three years, in the period May-October, to carry out this activity, the Coadjutors have traveled over 12.000 kilometers to deliver the animals to the analysis laboratory, dedicating approximately 4.000 hours of pure voluntary work.
The collaboration agreement between the Department of Veterinary Public Health of the AUSL Ferrara and the Provincial Police has involved the Coadjutors since the winter of 2005-2006, when the veterinary emergency caused by "avian flu" was tackled. In 4 months, 271 birds of 21 different species were collected in the Ferrara area, found dead, all examined for the search for the virus, fortunately not present.
Since then, the need to monitor wild animals in search of the possible presence of diseases that can also be transmitted to humans has become increasingly important and prominent also for the recent episodes due to West Nile Disease.
The Regional Wildlife Monitoring Plans, which are published and modulated from year to year, also pursue other objectives, including trichinellosis and rabies in carnivores, Usutu virus in birds and tularemia in hares.
Source: Ferrara 24 hours