Livestock farms decimated
In pig breeding companies, there remains high concern about the possible expansion of A dog, African swine fever, which has so far decimated 120.000 pigs. In the North, the virus has hit Emilia Romagna, Lombardy, Piedmont, Liguria and Tuscany. Fortunately, Veneto has remained unscathed, but the virus has arrived less than a hundred kilometers from the regional borders and, according to Confagricoltura Veneto, it is necessary not to lower our guard.
Prevention measures
Therefore Lodovico Giustiniani, regional president of the agricultural organization, and Rudy Milani, president of the national product federation of Confagricoltura, wrote a letter to the Veneto Region councilors Manuela Lanzarin, Federico Caner and Cristiano Corazzari to ask for a meeting to take stock of the prevention and control measures of the wild boar population.
Biosecurity
"We recall that the continuous updating of the situation is a commitment made in the meetings of August and September of last year - Giustiniani and Milani underline -, We are convinced that keeping alive the discussion and collaboration between the institutions responsible for managing the disease and the world of production is necessary, as well as useful for strengthening the prevention activity. An update on the implementation of biosafety and, above all, on the results that have been obtained in our Region would be appropriate, as only with constant control action of the wild boar population, a very dangerous vector of transmission of the virus, can the epidemic wave be contained. This is also demonstrated by the activity of the extraordinary commissioner for PSA, Giovanni Filippini, given that the prevention interventions implemented in the restricted areas have had a positive effect, preventing the spread of the disease to other territories".
As the commissioner recently underlined, the objective at the moment is to keep Psa within the infected areas and not let it spread. The pillars of this containment action are the motorway axes (A15 and A1), the fenced gates that prevent the transit of wild boars, controlled depopulation actions and biosecurity and controls in farms. Swine fever, in addition to the areas of Northern Italy, has struck in the South in Campania, on the border with Basilicata, and in Calabria. Last September, after 40 years, the virus was eradicated in Sardinia and just two weeks ago in Rome and its province. According to data from Veneto Agricoltura, the provinces with the highest number of pigs are Verona with 318.000 heads; Treviso, with 149.000; Padua with 91.000; and Vicenza with 40.000 animals. The production value at basic prices of the Veneto pig sector in 2022 was estimated by Istat at 290 million euros.
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