Swine fever alert, wild boar hunting: “In Lombardy you can also shoot from vehicles”

President Fontana: "The measure intends to facilitate the fight against animals, with fewer bureaucratic constraints"

ROME – Hard fist from Lombardy against wild boars and swine fever. The President of the Region Attilio Fontana has signed a new ordinance to “maximize the depopulation activities of wild boars, the main vectors of African Swine Fever in farmed pigs and responsible for extensive damage to agriculture. This provision – comments Fontana – confirms all the measures already in place, but intends to facilitate the fight against wild boars with fewer bureaucratic, procedural and economic resource management constraints”.

HITTING AT A DISTANCE FROM CARS

Among the curiosities “shooting will also be permitted from a vehicle (for example from the bed of a pickup). Operators will also be able to make use of night vision goggles and any light source that can facilitate the activity”. In protected areas, such as parks and nature reserves, the principle of substitutive power is introduced by the Lombardy Region if the managing body is not able to adopt the plan check. The regional hunting areas and districts will be able to make use of the economic resources not used for wild boar control and management activities, encouraging the creation of structures suitable for the delivery and storage of carcasses on site.

GOAL TO KILL THE HIGHEST NUMBER OF ANIMALS

 In ‘restriction zone I’, wild boar hunting is permitted andmust aim to kill as many animals as possible. Another novelty concerns the consumption of wild boar meat killed in Restriction Zone II. Until now, all carcasses had to be destroyed, now it will be possible to authorize private domestic use of the slaughtered animals for self-consumption, provided that they pass through facilities approved by the ATS Veterinary Service. “The President’s new Ordinance – concludes the Councilor for Agriculture, Food Sovereignty and Forestry, Alessandro Beduschi – is a further response to the need to control this invasive species, to protect the livestock heritage represented by pig farms. Today meat coming from our farms are the safest and most controlled in the world”.