“Almost two years after the first cases of infection of swine fever African-PSA, confirmed in numerous wild boars between Piedmont and Liguria, the virus has unfortunately penetrated the pig farms of Lombardy, a region in which the majority of a supply chain is concentrated that represents a true flagship of Made in Italy agri-food, with a value of several billion euros and tens of thousands of workers affected”. The vice-president of the Copagri Giovanni Bernardini speaking at today's meeting on the PSA situation, held at the Ministry of Defence in the presence, among others, of the Defence Ministers Guido Crosetto and Agriculture, Food Sovereignty and Forests Francesco Lollobrigida, during which the contents of the new ordinance of the Extraordinary Commissioner of PSA were illustrated Vincenzo Caputo.
“Given the presence of ASF in some farms in the Pavia area and numerous other suspected cases, which follow the limited infections that occurred in recent months in Campania and Calabria, areas with a low presence of pig farmers, it is essential to raise the level of attention, as provided for in the new ordinance of the Extraordinary Commissioner, implementing all the necessary measures to stop the advance of a resistant and very widespread virus, which although not transmissible to humans, can enter farms in numerous ways, seriously jeopardizing the stability of a sector that is fundamental for the agricultural and economic fabric of the country", added the vice president.
“Given the low effectiveness of the interventions implemented – continued Bernardini – which unfortunately have not been able to contain the contagion despite the great efforts of the breeders in implementing all the indicated biosecurity measures, the priority now is to intervene with greater determination and effectiveness, also with the help of the army, to limit the ASF and contain the wild boar population, which to date, according to the Experimental Zooprophylactic Institute of Piedmont, has over a thousand infected specimens”.
“It is therefore essential to find a significant amount of resources to be used for new biosecurity interventions and to contain wild boars, working at the same time to provide compensation to all farmers who will inevitably be damaged by the epidemic and to be used to suspend mortgages and payments for all affected companies, as well as those located in the containment zones”, suggested the vice-president of Copagri, according to whom “it is important to avoid dangerous and counterproductive media alarmism, working hard to defend pig farming, a sector in which our country is seriously deficient, with a self-sufficiency rate of 62% in quantity, and is in a position where it exports 6 thousand tons compared to 80 thousand tons imported”.
EDITORIAL TEAM
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