A meeting with around 50 buffalo breeders from Caserta, promoted by the extraordinary commissioner for the application of the eradication programme of the brucellosis In Campania, General Luigi Cortellessa, the meeting was held this morning in the presence of the regional councilor for Agriculture Nicola Caputo, the director of the Experimental Zooprophylactic Institute of Southern Italy Antonio Limone, the heads of the regional veterinary departments and the Caserta local health authority and the general director of the Land Reclamation Consortium of the lower Volturno basin, Camillo Mastracchio.

During the meeting, General Cortellessa outlined all the activities implemented to achieve the objectives established by Regional Government Decree No. 104/2022 and to support farmers. These include: biosecurity guidelines and epidemiological investigations, in collaboration with the Caserta Local Health Authority, the IZSM (Institute for the Prevention and Control of Diseases), and the ARPAC (Agricultural and Environmental Protection Agency); the implementation of state prophylaxis and the mandatory vaccination program, which currently involves approximately 4 inoculations of animals aged 6-9 months on over 160 Caserta farms; on-site repopulation inspections of farms subjected to stamping-out; the extraordinary cleaning of public waterworks, with the assistance of, among others, the Volturno Land Reclamation Consortium; The upcoming program for the collection of livestock effluent from infected farms, through safe transportation and delivery to biodigesters, which will subject the waste to special treatments aimed at inactivating pathogens; the streamlining of the bureaucratic process for the payment of culling compensation, overseen by Major Vincenzo Pascarella; a daily support service and itinerant information and training activities on biosecurity and farm management, which, to date, have attracted the participation of 176 farmers during the 15 meetings held at various local health authorities (ASL) in the Caserta area.

Councilor Caputo discussed the upcoming Rural Development Program and the economic support for livestock farmers that the Campania Region, at the express request of President Vincenzo De Luca, has strongly supported to support livestock farms affected by brucellosis. Limone expressed his full willingness to engage with livestock farmers to overcome the brucellosis emergency together. Mastracchio illustrated the ordinary and extraordinary drainage cleanup activities carried out at the request of the Special Commissioner's office.

A statement explains, "Most of the farmers, many of them young, were able to engage directly with all the institutions present, asking numerous questions that were promptly answered by those present. All the proposals put forward by those present will be carefully considered by General Cortellessa, Deputy Commissioner Captain Michele Valentino Chiara, and the entire staff, in a spirit of total sharing and collaboration, to try to resolve, once and for all, the brucellosis problem, which unfortunately has persisted for several decades and has never been definitively resolved."