Checks on African swine fever are also taking place in San Marino
New control measures for the management of the feral pig population, movement and import bans, the obligation to report in the event of a carcass being found and above all a profound update of the biosecurity criteria for breeding. This is San Marino’s response – in particular from the territory of the Secretaries of State for Health and Territory – to the advance of African swine fever in Italian. In the last month alone, over 117 new cases have been registered in Piedmont, Liguria and Lazio.
A diffusion that has fully armed the Italian organizations of Confagricoltura and Ente producers of game (Eps), urging the Government, the Regions and the Municipalities to urgently take any useful initiative to affect the state of suffering of farms and private institutions. Quick political responses that have not been long in missing: of this nature, also the ordinance issued by the Secretary of State for Health Roberto Ciavatta, drawn up together with the technicians of the Secretariat of State for the Territory and the Environment. In particular, in order to reduce the risk of contagion and the transmission of ASF in farms, in the domestic and wild, the following measures will be applied throughout the San Marino national area:
- the pig population management plan will have to be updated by the Wildlife Observatory on a quarterly basis, with the first deadline on 31 May 2022;
- the prohibition of the movement of wild pigs caught, other than that aimed at slaughtering, but also of the movement of inbound pigs for the purpose of fattening without the authorization from the Veterinary Service of the UOS Veterinary Health and Food Hygiene and the prohibition of movement in exit of the reared pigs except for slaughtering purposes which must take place only within the San Marino territory at the Public Slaughterhouse, as well as the prohibition on imports from infected areas, defined with a special list published by the Veterinary Service of the UOS Veterinary Health and Food Hygiene, pork or wild boar meat products;
- obligation to dispose of food waste, of any type, in suitable and closed containers, do not administer them for any reason to domestic pigs or wild boars and do not leave them in areas that are easily accessible to them except as provided for in the indications for the management of wet waste in the collection and the obligation to promptly inform the Veterinary Service of the discovery of a wild boar carcass.
Furthermore, minimum biosecurity criteria for pig breeding come from the ordinance, including the prohibition of feeding the animal kitchen waste, catering, food waste, avoiding any contact with wild boar carcasses (including carcass or hunting) or adopt appropriate hygienic-sanitary measures on the farm such as appropriate disinfection, change of clothing and footwear in and out of the stabling room or the obligation to request veterinary control from the Veterinary Service of the UOS Veterinary Health and Food Hygiene in each slaughter at home .
Finally, there are the measures of greater attention during wild boar hunting activities in the form of authorized selection or in the form of a shot and hunted. The measures will see their application until 31 December 2022.