France to cull wild boar population at the Belgian border
France is to cull wild boar population near the Belgian border after the neighbouring country has reported two cases of African swine fever on Jan. 9, 2019, at about 1 km from the border. "The confirmation [of the cases] leaves our country more exposed than ever to this major risk for pig farming. We are now at a maximum risk level", said the French agriculture ministry in a statement.
France would create a boar-free zone spanning several km its side of the border by culling all wild boar in the coming weeks and erecting a perimeter fence in the next few days. The authorities in Belgium’s French-speaking region of Wallonia have also stepped up surveillance measures since last week, extending a restriction zone on its side of the French border, according to Reuters.
A similar measure was proposed in Poland, where authorities want to cull 210,000 wild boars, but the idea is contested by scientist and hunters.
In Poland, ENetWild website collected more than 1,000 signature of experts against the government proposal to depopulate wild boar in the country.
"The strategy currently implemented in Poland, based on a drastic reduction of the wild boar population throughout the country, is in contradiction with modern methods of disease control in wild animal populations and modern requirements of nature protection,", argue those against the measure.
From January 12 to the end of February this year hunters are to conduct massive, coordinated hunting of wild boars in the vast majority of the country’s territory. Up to 210,000 will be shot, and the Ministry of the Environment demands a maximum reduction in the population size of this species.
"The massive hunting of boar in will not ensure the purpose for which it is to serve, i.e. to stop the expansion of ASF virus in Poland. On the contrary – both the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) guidelines and national practice indicate that massive culling of wild boar will contribute to the spread of the virus. This is due to (1) the increasing range of movement of frightened animals that infect other individuals, (2) contaminating the environment with blood from infected wild boars, which may be a source of new infections, and (3) more frequent contact with the blood and remains of infected wild boars by hunters, without the possibility of effective decontamination in hunting conditions. Also, the increased mobility of hunters in the context of massive shooting may lead to virus transmission over long distances.
This is confirmed by the statistics, according to which, despite conducting intensive sanitary shooting in 2015-2017, when almost 1 million boars were slaughtered in Poland, the number of cases of ASF infection in the population increased successively. In 2015, only 44 cases were recorded, in 2017 there were already 678. The virus was not only stopped by the massive hunting of boar, but it had perfect conditions for spreading. In 2018, there were already 3,300 cases of ASF in wild boars,", it is said in an open letter signed by several scientists from Poland and the Czech Republic.
At the same time, the European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety Vytenis Andriukaitis has asked for a long-term management strategy of wild boar populations tailored to the particular situation of individual Member States in order to control and eradicate African swine fever.
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