Polish official asks for wild boar depopulation
Isolate the farms and depopulate the wild boar herds to a level that is safe, recommends the Polish Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Jan Krzysztof Ardanowski.
Poland is fighting against ASF since 2014 and the number of outbreaks is increasing to lately, despite the efforts made to contain the virus.
500 veterinary and action inspectors are missing in the field and the number of outbreaks reported this year has already reached 108, more than half all 212 detected in four years since the disease was first detected in the country.
Now the minister insists that only a depopulation of wild boar herds will give the authorities a chance to intervene to stop the spreading of the virus and he is appealing to hunters to engage more in this "war against illness", reports Portal Spozywczy magazine.
In his opinion, although the National Hunting Party and the Hunting District of the Polish Hunting Association understand the seriousness of the situation, shooting in individual hunting grounds is carried out in a "sluggish and absolutely inadequate" manner.
"The state once gave the Polish Hunting Union great privileges. It was the exclusive right to hunt animals, the right to use farmer fields, not only in the sense of organizing hunting and walking in private property but also hunting for game that feeds on these fields.
Since the state gave privileges, in the situation of the war we have at the moment, because it is a war with illness, also hunters have duties and they must understand this", said the minister.
According to the data presented by minister Ardanowski, the growth rate in the wild boar population is at 300%. "The destruction of wild boars is a condition for not keeping the disease in nature", asked the minister, mentioning that the depopulation will not threaten the existence of this species.
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