Swine fever, all the latest news

20 May 20222 years ago babelfish

The updated point on swine fever

The risks of running into new viruses that could infect us "are proportional to the imbalances we create in ecosystems", warned Isabella Pratesi, head of the WWF conservation sector some time ago.

Urban decay is a perfect example of this. Wild boars, whose natural habitat was once the forest, have now been living in the city for years. In Rome, to be precise. But to hope that something will be done we had to wait for the threat of swine fever, traced for the first time at the beginning of the year in Piedmont and on May 5 in the capital.

THE EXTRAORDINARY COMMISSIONER

As Start wrote, African swine fever (Psa) is a viral disease affecting pigs and wild boars. It is highly contagious and often lethal to animals, while it is not transmissible to humans, however, the Ministry of Agricultural, Food and Forestry Policies (Mipaaf) has decided to appoint Angelo Ferrari as extraordinary Commissioner to counter its spread.

Swine fever, the Undersecretary for Health Andrea Costa reassures , "is not dangerous for humans but for an economic sector that has a turnover of over 7 billion".

THE RED AREA

After the first cases reported in January, a surveillance area from Piedmont to Liguria was limited, but the appearance of infected wild boars also in Rome led to the establishment of a red zone two days ago until 31 August.

Compared to that established shortly before by the order of the president of the Lazio Region, Nicola Zingaretti, the "infected area" has been further enlarged, as already hoped for by the European Commission, due to "a new case close to the border", he explained Ferrari.

The limits of the red zone, according to the ordinance issued by the Ministry of Health, are:

to the south: Clodia ring road, Via Cipro, Via di San Tommaso D'Acquino, Via Arturo Labriola, Via Simone Simoni, Via Pietro De Cristofaro, Via Baldo Degli Ubaldi;
to the south-west: Via di Boccea up to the intersection with Via della Storta;
to the West-North-West: Via della Storta, Via Cassia (SS2) up to the intersection with Via Cassia Veientana (SR 2bis);
to the North-East: Via Cassia Veientana (SR 2bis) to the intersection with A90 (Grande Raccordo Anulare – GRA), A90- GRA to the intersection with the Tiber;
to the East-South-East: Tiber.

THE KILLING AND THE POSITION OF ENVIRONMENTALISTS

For Undersecretary Costa, this is "an eradication plan for the African swine fever virus, shared with the Liguria Region and Ispra, which will also provide for the selective killing of some wild boar heads".

But animal rights activists respond that the real problem is waste and not wild boars. In fact, states the International Animal Protection Organization (Oipa), "in Ostia Antica, Axa, Casal Palocco, Infernetto, near the presidential estate of Castelporziano, where a substantial population of wild boars lives, they do not have the problems that are manifesting themselves in North Rome. In fact, the 'door to door' function works in the Municipality of Rome 10 ”.

A POLITICAL QUESTION

For his part, the mayor of Rome, Roberto Gualtieri, attributes the responsibility not only to the dirt but also to the lack of "containment policies in recent years". According to him, in fact, the capital "was" very dirty (but not now?) And assures that "it will be the last year with the wild boars in Rome".

A promise that is very reminiscent of cleaning up Rome before Christmas, Christmas 2021.

If on the one hand, therefore, there are animal rights activists, according to which the decision to cull the animals "also aims to increase its constituency also made up of farmers, breeders, hunters", on the other Coldiretti believes that the threat of swine fever puts a risk "the survival of 29 thousand Italian farms and an entire strategic sector, which generates a turnover of 20 billion euros a year and guarantees employment for about 100 thousand people in the pig sector".

COLDIRETTI'S LETTER TO DRAGHI

For this reason, the president of Coldiretti, Ettore Prandini, and the managing director of Filiera Italia, Luigi Pio Scordamaglia, sent a letter in which they say they are "thrilled" by the decision in Lazio to wait another three weeks to start the selective killing.

"We are already seeing our exports drop, giving a competitive advantage to companies in the sector of third countries and we believe it is inevitable – the senders complain – the allocation of new forms of support in order to guarantee an effective containment strategy and avoid the catastrophe that will lead to costs in excess of 1.4 billion euro only for the compensation for the slaughter of pigs, according to the estimates of the Ministry of Health and Ismea ”.

In fact , the European Commission Implementing Decision 2022/746 provides for Italy to "ensure that the movements of batches of pigs held in the areas listed as an infected area and related products to other Member States and third countries are not authorized" until 31 August 2022.

THE APPEAL OF THE EUROPARLAMENTARIES

Meanwhile, also in Brussels the MEPs Daniela Rondinelli, Tiziana Beghin, Brando Benifei, Salvatore De Meo, Mario Furore, Chiara Gemma, Dino Giarrusso and Sabrina Pignedoli expressed in a letter sent to the Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, Stella Kyriakides, " bewilderment "and" concern "in the face of" the absolute detachment with which the European Commission is following the problem of swine fever in Europe and in Italy in particular ".

The inspectors of the European Commission, according to the senders, “proposed measures that immediately appeared unable to cope with the problem, choosing to build a fence with a perimeter of over 230 km and simultaneously proceed with the killing of wild boars and pigs in the most affected areas. Without taking into account that in the meantime the wild boars would have continued to move ".

An element that, according to the letter, could lead to new outbreaks in Italy, despite the establishment of the red zone.

This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/sanita/peste-suina/ on Thu, 19 May 2022 13:22:47 +0000.