Piedmont and Liguria: the situation
The first case of African swine fever (ASF) in Ovada. A year later – with 86 cases in Liguria and 150 in Piedmont out of a total of 284 ascertained throughout Italy – we are in the quagmire. No culling, no resources. And sketchy and inconclusive solutions that refer to indecipherable if not contradictory data. In the 2022/2023 season, the regional PRIU plans provide for the slaughter of 50.000 wild boars in Piedmont and 38.000 in Liguria. “But we always remain in the field of unfeasible hypotheses -clarifies Stefano Roggerone, president of CIA-Agricoltori Italiani Liguria-. It is an impossible goal to achieve given that to date in the red zone a negligible number of animals have been killed compared to the objectives and not even hunting trips have been developed. The companies are living in a surreal situation: farmers continue to suffer damage from wild boars, breeders have had to cull the pigs (6499 pigs slaughtered in Piedmont, 286 slaughtered in Liguria: all healthy) and to date they have NOT seen any money for the damage suffered also with respect to the impossibility of reintroducing animals to farms, still blocked given the continuation of the state of emergency".
So much confusion
The data is merciless. And confused. The total (underestimated) number of wild boars is 104.816 in Piedmont, between 35.000 and 56.000 in Liguria: two figures that are surprising to say the least due to the unusual precision on the one hand and the very wide "fork" on the other. There is confidence in the hunting activity, but in Liguria there were 2011 active hunters in the 12-20.524 season; ten years later there are 13.885. In Piedmont they have halved in twenty years: today they are less than 17.000. It is no coincidence that in recent years the pre-established objective of slaughtering animals - moreover in the face of a greatly underestimated population - has never been achieved. In the Red Zone, the rules they have imposed have led to a "strike" by hunters who have NO business going on hunting trips. Result: in the part of the Red Zone subject to greater restrictions due to the possibility of infections, only 98 animals were culled in Liguria, 346 in Piedmont. If we take the total number of animals culled between the Red Zone and free areas, the figure is equally alarming compared the objectives set: in Liguria 10648 animals culled compared to the 38.000 expected; in Piedmont 9004 animals culled compared to the 50.000 hypothesized. There is no “logistics” of carcass handling.
No certainty
Faced with a depopulation objective of almost 90.000 animals, close coordination should have been set up between all the subjects involved, to create a structured organization, with cells, processing sites and laboratories, to manage the disposal system and the different situations of infected or healthy meat. The fence - about whose actual usefulness we have more than a doubt - is going slowly: to date 105 km have been installed out of the 170 planned. There is NO certainty of when the work will be completed in a phase of strong recovery of cases. “It is a national emergency and must be treated as such -explains Gabriele Carenini, president of CIA-Agricoltori Italiani Piemonte-. The efforts made so far have NOT been enough. CIA intends to restore the natural condition of wildlife in respect of the activity of agricultural entrepreneurs, who produce food and preserve the territory. We insist on asking the new government to revise the law on the subject, 157/92, shifting attention from the concept of "protection" to that of "wildlife management, also for public safety and road safety". And speaking of road safety in Liguria, in the last 5 years deer have caused at least one accident a week, wild boars even more.
PSA management
And even in these cases the figures are underestimated, given that many do not report the accident. In Piedmont only that in 2021 the average is two accidents a day. A quagmire where it is not clear who has real coordination and decision-making powers. Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Health, Regions, ATC, Alpine districts: many subjects in the field with skills that remain fragmented. A commissioner has been appointed but in fact without the effective power to operate. If the figure of the Commissioner remains like this, it is NOT useless. “It is a question of defining the priorities which for Cia are the protection of the territory and of the agricultural enterprise -underlines Daniela Ferrando, provincial president of Cia Alessandria-. The strategies adopted so far have tried to reconcile the different needs (environmental, agricultural, fauna), without giving real support to any. The management of the PSA concerns the economy of a vast induced, which is paying the consequences of a year of bureaucracy and rebounds of skills. Too many organs on many levels are intervening, everyone is bouncing responsibilities, creating delay: we can NOT wait any longer ". From 2018 to 2021, refund applications increased by 40%. But the available resources have remained the same. Result: most farmers give up asking for reimbursement of damages which Cia Liguria estimates at around 5 million a year (just think of the destruction of dry-stone walls), Cia Piemonte estimates at around 10 million. “In Liguria last autumn we collected over 6000 signatures on the street to change the regional law, guaranteeing fair reimbursements and more protection for the work of farmers -recalls Federica Crotti, provincial president of Cia Liguria di Levante-. But NO steps forward have been taken to give concrete solutions and with swine fever the situation has worsened further. In the Red Zone, on the one hand, farms and agritourism businesses continue to bear the consequences of the limits imposed on travel, including tourism, in the area, on the other they see their local products constantly massacred by wild boars that remain inside the fence that has been created today".
CIA requests
To "get out of the quagmire", Cia Liguria and Cia Piemonte ask:
– Immediate refunds for farmers and certainty as to when the suspended breeding activities can be resumed
– New resources to cover the damages suffered by farmers and the charges for abatement plans
– Certainty on the number and timing of killings inside and outside the Red Zone (including any incentive systems)
– Definitive clarification of the Commissioner's powers
– Revision of national law 157/92 – Adoption of the “Umbria model” which liberalized the use of cages. A system that obliges those who adopt them to report their presence as well as the capture of the wild boar. And that has demonstrated an excellent success rate. (Source CIA)