Urgent intervention plan
There are 570 "assistants" in the numerical control of wild boars trained and authorized by the Sicilian region, through courses promoted by the Rural Development Department. These are professional figures to be employed in wildlife containment activities, especially to prevent cases of "African swine fever", as part of the urgent intervention plan developed by the regional administration as per the provisions of the national commissioner.
Qualification courses
After the notice published by the department with which the interested Sicilian hunters were selected, the qualification courses were completed in each province of the island. The theoretical part was managed and coordinated by the Experimental Zooprophylactic Institute of Sicily “A. Mirri” and was offered remotely to all participants. Finally, the shooting instructors of the Forestry Corps led the practical activities on safety regulations and rifle shooting in the ranges involved in the project. «With these courses – underlines the councilor for Agriculture and Rural Development, Luca Sammartino – we have offered Sicilian hunters an important opportunity for retraining, in order to have available qualified professionals capable of supporting agricultural entrepreneurs both in preventing epidemics among animals and in counteracting the damage caused by wild boars in areas where there is an overpopulation of this wild species".
Specific skills
«The Forestry Corps of the Sicilian Region – adds the councilor for Territory and the Environment, Elena Pagana – has made the specific skills of its staff available to guarantee, in what concerns its own areas, adequate training to respond to the territories where there is an excessive presence of feral pigs and the problem is particularly felt." This is the breakdown by province of the qualified assistants: 67 in Agrigento, 64 in Caltanissetta, 49 in Catania, 25 in Enna, 98 in Messina, 110 in Palermo, 20 in Ragusa, 29 in Syracuse, 108 in Trapani (source: Sicilian Region) .