The Italian Government has announced it is sending in troops across the country to hunt wild boar in order to protect its pig industry from African swine fever (ASF).
The mission, reportedly spearheaded by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, is aiming to curb Italy’s wild boar population by as much as 80% over the next five years, according to the Daily Express.
The military deployment, comprising 177 soldiers, was approved by the cabinet as part of a comprehensive strategy to safeguard Italian agriculture and culinary heritage, it is reported. This initiative also includes measures to address other agricultural threats, such as the invasion of non-native blue crabs jeopardising the clam industry.
There are an estimated 1 million to 1.5 million wild boars roaming Italy and there is concern that, as carriers of the ASF virus, they pose a significant threat to Italy’s renowned £7 billion prosciutto and sausage industry, centred in cities like Parma.
Italy has recorded a number of outbreaks of ASF, in both wild boar and domestic pigs, in different parts of the country in recent years, which has had a significant impact on a sector employing 50,000 people.
Italy culled about 34,000 domestic pigs in the northern Lombardy region last September in a bid to control the disease, while outbreaks have been recorded in domestic pigs and wild boar in Lazio, Rome. Several countries have imposed restrictions on Italian pork imports, with Canada being the latest addition to the list.
Wild boar are also considered to be a public nuisance, causing havoc in urban areas and are estimated to have caused about €120mn of damage in rural areas from 2015 to 2021. They are also blamed for causing numerous car accidents.
Italy’s Agriculture Minister, Francesco Lollobrigida, highlighted the ASF threat. “Swine fever threatens production chains, not only pig farms, and raises the spectre of thousands and thousands of pigs being slaughtered,” he said. “We are intervening firmly . . . to counter a health problem that can become an economic and social problem.”
Davide Calderone, director of Assica, an association of meat and cured products manufacturers, welcomed the move to bring in the military. “There is a big problem here that puts a big supply chain at risk, and it’s right to use all means to contain and eradicate it,” he said.
While wild boars were nearly extinct in Italy by the late 19th century, their reintroduction in the 1950s has led to a population surge, exacerbated by stricter hunting regulations.
Other European nations have taken similar actions – France deployed soldiers to its border with Belgium in 2019 to prevent infected wild boars from entering its territory.