The session of the Chamber
In today's session, Tuesday 9 April, the question relating to the relevant initiatives aimed at encouraging the depopulation of wild boars and protecting the national pig heritage and the related supply chain took place, presented by the Hon. Stefano Vaccari – PD-IDP). The Undersecretary of State for Agriculture, Food Sovereignty and Forests Patrizio responded for the Government Giacomo La Pietra. From the Parliamentary Acts on the Chamber website, the text of the question and the response of the Undersecretary are reported.
The question in detail
VACCARI, FORATTINI, MARINO and ANDREA ROSSI. — To the Minister of Agriculture, Food Sovereignty and Forestry, to the Minister of Health. — To find out – given that:
More than two years after the first case appeared in Italy, swine fever has affected over 15.400 wild boars and almost 14 thousand pigs. In the Pavia area alone, prevention rules have led to the slaughter of 46 thousand pigs;
Italy has long established an extraordinary commissioner and a few days ago appointed three ad hoc sub-commissioners. The results so far, however, do not seem to be as expected. Prevention initiatives have focused on the culling of healthy pigs, with an excess of precaution, while the problem of infected wild boars has been neglected. The experience gained in recent years has shown that the culling of wild boars, without adequate containment work, is of no use;
Even in the absence of contaminated farms, the discovery of an infected wild boar carcass is sufficient to activate surveillance zones and health restrictions around the affected municipalities which block activities and have a cascade impact on the entire pig production chain, with the consequent devaluation of the price of the pig. meat. Furthermore, to rehabilitate imports from Italy, two years must pass from the discovery of the last swine fever positive carcass, and then wait another two years to complete the requalification process;
all non-European Union countries have closed imports. In China, a market worth over 25 million euros for the supply chain, imports have been at a standstill for two years. In addition to the economic and image damage, all this entails competition from the main European producers ready to replace Italian products with raw and cooked delicatessen, nullifying the work and investments carried out by the Italian pork supply chain;
the Emilia-Romagna region has developed a specific strategy to contain swine fever through: depopulation activities, intensified especially in the districts most suited to pig production; increase in the level of biosecurity in livestock farms, with tenders of up to 9 million euros; reimbursement of expenses for the anti-intrusion fence and for the construction of areas for the disinfestation of vehicles and filter areas;
the initiatives of one region alone are not enough. We need a single national strategy –:
what urgent competent initiatives they intend to adopt to encourage the depopulation of thousands of wild boars and to ensure the protection of the national pig herd, exports and therefore the national production system and the related supply chain.
The response of the Hon. The stone
The sen responds. Patrizio Giacomo La Pietra, Undersecretary of State for Agriculture, Food Sovereignty and Forests.
Thank you, President. Honorable deputies, the issue of the excessive proliferation of wild ungulates has long been under the attention of central and regional administrations, not only due to the economic impact on the agricultural sector, on the safety and security of people, but also due to the presence of African swine fever (ASF), the spread of which is attributed precisely to this phenomenon. In this regard, I would like to highlight in the introduction that the matter mainly concerns health aspects, the responsibility of which lies with the Ministry of Health. In any case, considering the repercussions of the epizootic also on the agricultural sector, I note the following, first of all specifying that, based on the data in our possession, the carcasses of infected animals found amount to just under 2.000. Having said this, I would like to underline that the Meloni Government, to address these problems, promptly intervened by providing, in paragraph 448 of article 1 of law no. 197 of 2022, the inclusion of article 19-ter in law no. 157 of 1992, which allowed the adoption of the "Extraordinary plan for the management and containment of wild fauna", adopted with decree of 13 June 2023 by the Minister of the Environment and Energy Security, in agreement with the Minister of Agriculture , food sovereignty and forests. The aforementioned Extraordinary Plan is implemented and coordinated by the regions, which must update the Regional Urgent Intervention Plans (PRIU), in order to make them consistent with the contents of the Extraordinary Plan itself.
Wild boar management
Subsequently, considering the proven connection between the uncontrolled proliferation of wild boars and the spread of African swine fever, the extraordinary commissioner of the PSA, in line with the technical document "Management of wild boar and African swine fever. Essential elements for the drafting of a management plan", drawn up by the Ministries of Health, Agriculture and the Environment, adopted, last September, the "Extraordinary plan for the capture, killing and disposal of wild boars and strategic actions for the preparation of African swine fever (ASF) eradication plans in the restriction zones 2023-2028”. Said Plan has, as a general objective, the significant and generalized reduction of wild boar densities on the national territory, calibrated for the specific contexts in relation to the risk of further spread of the ASF and the impacts caused by the species on biodiversity and anthropic activities. The extraordinary plan, which defines the numerical objectives, times and methods of captures and killing, is valid for five years and is implemented through hunting and control activities. Based on the evaluation of the results achieved with respect to the expected withdrawal objectives, the implementation criticalities identified and the possible corrective measures identified by the regions, the Plan will be remodulated annually and the update will be approved by the commissioner. Specifically, in order to define the sampling plan and consistently with the objective of increasing sampling with methods with limited environmental disturbance, as suggested by the EU technical documents, and operating management in harmony with the conservation of non-target species , it was decided to significantly increase (over 200 percent) the amount of animals that can be killed using selective methods (selection and control hunting) and to provide for a limited increase (just under 40 percent) in the amount of harvest to be achieved through collective hunting. The collection, to be carried out during hunting activities, therefore represents overall almost 74 percent of the overall planned collection (approximately 612.000 animals).
Synergistic action
In any case, the different forms of harvesting must be encouraged taking into account the context in which they operate, in order to pursue the objective of reducing the number of wild boars throughout the entire regional territory, including protected and non-venable areas. I also note that, with a view to synergistic action with other institutional entities, the Ministry of Defense was also actively involved in the creation of a strategy for the containment of ungulates with the preparation and use of a specially trained military contingent to combat the spread of swine fever by wild ungulates. As regards support for pig farms, I would like to remind you that the Ministry, by decree of 28 July 2022, had already allocated 25 million euros to AGEA aimed at supporting entrepreneurs involved in the ASF epidemic for the period between 13 January 2022 and 30 June 2022. Considering the serious persistence of the epidemiological picture of African swine fever, the Ministry issued the decree of 29 September 2023 using the aforementioned residual and not yet committed financial resources, equal to 19.644.443 euros, for the period between 1 July 2022 and 31 July 2023. With a subsequent decree of 29 December 2023, MASAF provided for a further temporal extension of the aid until 30 November 2023. As regards the exports of our pig products, I would like to point out that, on the occasion of bilateral international meetings with third countries that have blocked it, the Ministry raises the awareness and guarantees its foreign interlocutors of the efforts that the Government is pursuing, to protect consumers, to safeguard farms in the pig production chain national from a possible infection of ASF.