Vineyards and olive groves devastated but also pastures and dry stone walls destroyed, entire crops ruined and numerous car accidents caused.
From the Gargano to Salento there is now a succession of sightings of wild boars which, from the countryside areas, are also spreading to the entire population centers of Puglia, causing damage and quite a few inconveniences among the residents.
The list of raids carried out by “uncontrolled” wildlife is long, where wild boars, with a population that has reached 2.3 million specimens on national territory, constitute the greatest danger. According to Coldiretti, the consequence is 200 million euros of damage to Italian agriculture in the last year alone. Puglia, with over 30 million euros and 250 thousand wild boars, is among the regions that have paid the most.
An emergency that led the government to appoint the director of the Zooprophylactic Institute of Umbria and Marche from 2021, Vincenzo Caputo, as extraordinary commissioner for the swine fever emergency. Operational since 25 February 2023, Commissioner Caputo has taken on the tasks of coordinating and monitoring the actions and measures implemented to prevent and contain the spread of African swine fever on the national territory.
Commissioner, what is African swine fever? Does it have consequences for humans?
«African swine fever is not a disease that affects humans and is not transmissible to humans either through direct contact with sick animals or through food of pig origin. It is a viral infection that affects some wild species (wild boars, warthogs) and domestic pigs. It is a highly diffusive disease with a high mortality rate for affected animals. This virus is incapable of stimulating the formation of neutralizing antibodies, a factor which makes the preparation of a vaccine extremely complicated.”
What is the epidemiological situation in Italy and in particular in Puglia and Basilicata?
«In Italy we are very worried about the outbreak in the north of the country between the regions of Emilia Romagna, Lombardy, Piedmont, Liguria and partially Tuscany. Here we are putting in place the countermeasures which, I hope, should soon produce the first results. Both in Puglia and Basilicata an excess number of wild boars has been recorded but, at least in the Apulian territory, no cases of Psa have been reported in either domestic or wild pigs. In order to contain the number of wild boars in the area, the Region has equipped itself with a Priu (Regional plan for urgent interventions), already validated by Ispra and the National Reference Center which implements a depopulation that has been assigned to it by Five-year plan of the Extraordinary Commissioner. In Basilicata, however, some municipalities close to Campania are in restrictive areas (type 1 type 2) because in the Campania region, right on the border with the Lucanian territory, we have had cases of wild boars dying from swine fever”…
