The government is working on a plan to cull wild boar, after several cases of swine fever were detected in Rome. The boar are also increasingly encroaching into residential areas.
Health Undersecretary Andrea Costa said on Friday the government is working on a plan to cull wild boar, after several cases of swine fever were detected in Rome. The animals are also becoming increasingly brazen about their encroachments into residential areas as they forage, especially in the capital.
“The plan for the selective cull of wild board is coming,” Costa told ANSA.
The undersecretary said the plan was being prepared by the health ministry and environmental-protection institute ISPRA. Costa added that a cull would be needed even without the swine-fever problem.
“We have to reduce the number of boar to protect our agriculture and avoid risks for citizens’ safety,” he said. The population density of wild boar in some areas of Italy is five times higher than can be sustained by the ecosystem. Aside from the temporary factor of the swine fever, I remain convinced that, while respecting the sensibility of animal-rights campaigners, this is an emergency that makes it necessary to extend the hunting season from three to five month and allow regions to reset (hunting) quotas”.
What is African Swine Fever?
The swine fever cases in Rome are the first outside the original outbreak area of Liguria and Piedmont.
African swine fever is a highly contagious and deadly viral disease affecting both domestic and wild swine of all ages. It is not, however, a threat to human health. It cannot be transmitted from pigs to humans, nor is it a food safety issue.
African swine fever is found around the world.
The boar issue in Rome
Romans are “hostages to wild boar”, farm group Coldiretti Lazio chief David Granieri said last week. He cited the case of a woman attacked by boar in the Italian capital.
The presence of over 20,000 boar in Rome and its surrounding province, and more than 100,000 in the whole of Lazio, has brought about “an unacceptable and out of control situation,” said Granieri. He cited over two million euros in damage wrought recently.
