Animals positive for the virus
The situation of pig farms is serious in PSA restriction zones (African Swine Fever): production is at a standstill, movements are blocked with the consequent risk of overcrowding and, - adds Confagricoltura - for companies that can still market, there is the mockery of the collapse in the sale prices of animals. To date, 50 outbreaks have been recorded in Italy (Pavia and Lodi the most affected areas) and approximately 25.000 positive animals. The situation is no longer sustainable. Confagricoltura therefore urges the institutions to act firmly to immediately identify a way out and allow the survival of agricultural companies and the protection of one of the strategic sectors of the Italian agri-food industry with a total value of over 13 billion euros and 2,3 billion in exports.
The damages suffered by companies
We must intervene quickly with compensation for breeders - says Confagricoltura - not only for direct damages resulting from the slaughter of animals, but also for all those companies that are suffering indirect damages due to the blocking of the movement of piglets born on the farm and that should go to other fattening facilities, or for the impossibility of selling the surplus animals that have reached the end of their cycle and should be sent to the slaughterhouse. "Companies - explains the president of Confagricoltura, Massimiliano Giansanti - need all the tools needed to support them to be put in place, also by easing the pressure of bank debt and social security costs". The advancement of the disease in areas with a high vocation for pig production requires a change of pace in the containment of wild fauna: so far too little has been done in this regard, so much so that ASF continues to cross new boundaries.
High viral load
"It is no longer acceptable that so few wild boars are being eliminated, the real cause of the spread of the disease and its spread to farms, nor can the farmers be blamed. If there were not such a high viral load in the environment due to the number of infected wild boars, there certainly would not be such a high risk of transmission to farms that are victims, and not causes, of the contagion - reiterates Giansanti -. Intervention on fauna and incentives for investments in biosecurity for all farms, starting with those bordering the restricted areas, will be the way forward to get out of this serious epidemic". (Source CONFAGRICOLTURA)
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