Swine fever, over 50,000 pigs already culled in Italy

'There are currently 18 outbreaks of swine fever in Lombardy, five in Piedmont and one in Emilia Romagna'. The numbers come directly from the extraordinary commissioner for swine fever, Giovanni Filippini, and certify a situation that is becoming increasingly dramatic on farms in northern Italy. Over 50,000 pigs have already been slaughtered in our country, in an attempt to slow down the spread of this disease, which is harmless to humans, but deadly for domestic and wild pigs, i.e. wild boars.

There is not a day now when a new outbreak is not discovered. And when a sick pig is found on a farm, the law requires all the animals to be slaughtered. Last spring, the Piacenza area, cradle of many breeding farms and of important production of PDO cured meats, was particularly affected. Now, in the eye of the storm, it is above all Lombardy: first Pavia, then Lodi. "On Friday, we discovered a positive pig in our Lodi farm in Marudo and next week we will be forced to slaughter 1,500 animals,' says Alberto Cavagnini, one of the many farmers affected, who adds to the damage the concern for his other stables, those in the Brescia area: 'In Lombardy, swine fever is now close to Crema, Mantua and Brescia; some farms in Cremona have already ended up in Surveillance Zone 1, the first level of the alert. If in fact the ascertained outbreaks are 24, the farms affected by the restrictions are hundreds: 'In Italy,' says Cavagnini, 'we are now talking about over 22 thousand square metres involved. And in Lombardy, where 50% of all national pig production is raised, the concern is very high: if swine fever spreads, it will be a massacre.

"It is obvious that we are asking for a huge sacrifice from the farmers affected in the areas by the infection, but our aim is to bring the situation back to normal as soon as possible," Commissioner Filippini said yesterday. The reference is to his order of last Thursday, which in all three restriction zones prohibits the movement of any pigs, except to reach the few slaughterhouses equipped to slaughter pigs from areas at risk. This decision did not please the farmers: 'For the animals that I will have to slaughter,' explains Cavagnini, who is also vice-president of Coldiretti Brescia, 'I will be compensated. But to date no compensation is provided for those who suffer indirect damage. For example, whoever manages a breeding pig farm within a restricted area cannot deliver piglets today. While those who are forced to fatten their pigs too much because they cannot move them, face depreciation. For farmers, the direct damage is only one tenth of the indirect damage, yet the latter is not reimbursed'. This is why Coldiretti has asked the extraordinary commissioner to extend the compensation: "We must take into consideration the issue of the farm stoppage, which will affect farms that cannot even repopulate," said its president, Ettore Prandini. "We need a stop to mortgages and contributions for the farms affected and, lastly, there must be monitoring of the pig prices paid to breeders to avoid large-scale speculation.

To complicate the situation, the veterinarians of Lombardy, the region with the most outbreaks, have also put themselves on the line. 'The work,' writes the regional veterinary doctors' federation, 'is becoming more and more burdensome, for the health controls in the farms and for the extinction of the outbreaks. Let the additional effort be recognised, or there will be a state of agitation'.