New measures against ASF
Confagricoltura welcomes theregional ordinance on new measures to combat African swine fever. “The initiative welcomes our requests - commented Enrico Allasia, president of Piedmont Confagriculture - allowing more incisive interventions in the containment of wild boars, an activity that up to now has not yet achieved the desired results: we hope that it will now be applied quickly, to begin to effectively combat the abnormal proliferation of ungulates that creates increasingly serious damage to agriculture and threatens the holding of the pig sector ". The provision that has just entered into force provides, among other things, for the possibility of carrying out selection hunting for wild boar even at night with the use of vision tools that facilitate the selection of individuals.
Wild boar hunting
Furthermore, the hunter who intends to hunt wild boar in a Territorial Area or Alpine District other than the admission one, will simply have to request the relative authorization from the Management Body, which must issue it within 48 hours, without any additional economic burden. Another significant change introduced by the ordinance is that a hunter enrolled in a boar hunting team in any Hunting Area or Alpine Area can, with a simple request, be admitted to other teams organized throughout the Piedmont Region. , at no additional cost, subject to acceptance by the host team.
Specific training
The figure of the "coadjutor" is then recognized and valued, who can be an owner or tenant of funds (with a license for "port of shotgun for hunting use"), a voluntary hunting security guard or a hunter named by name, all in possession of specific training. The ordinance provides, in fact, that the Region, in collaboration with the Provinces and the Metropolitan City of Turin, publish on its institutional website a special list of assistants who will be able to carry out urgent operations for the containment of wild boars, upon request for intervention by the owners or tenants of the funds concerned; the management body must then carry out, at least once a month, a coordinated depopulation program that affects the entire territory under management, including areas prohibited from hunting.
Risks to be avoided
Finally, the specific training activity was strengthened: from the second half of September Provinces and Metropolitan City of Turin, territorial hunting areas, alpine districts, agricultural and hunting associations, managing bodies of protected areas, will have to organize courses every two weeks. of qualification for all those involved in hunting operations. “We trust - concludes Allasia - that the prompt adoption of the envisaged measures will make it possible to contain the spread of swine fever and to limit the serious risks for livestock, agricultural crops and the safety of citizens. Confagricoltura - Allasia concludes - will continue to strongly support the need to drastically reduce the wild boar population until the situation is finally under control in all its aspects, including economic and damage compensation ".