For the past few decades, residents of the Italian capital of Rome have lived with the wild boars that roam the streets. Recently, these same boars have become a force of disruption: plowing through garbage cans, causing traffic jams, and most devastatingly, spreading African Swine fever.
While humans or pets cannot contract the disease, it spreads rapidly to pigs raised commercially for food. Pigs are vital both to the Italian economy and all over the world. The sector generates around 100,000 jobs and pulls in more than 20 billion in annual revenue in Italy alone. According to the Washington Post’s Stefano Pitrelli, “a government task force … plans to reduce the country’s boar population … by 50 percent, after carcasses infected with African swine fever were found in northwestern Italy.” This was followed by more recent virus cases in Rome.
The wild boar population in Europe has increased almost exponentially to several million in recent decades due to factors like high reproduction rates and little to no predators, disrupting life in many cities such as Rome, Berlin, and Barcelona. Zoologists have said that these boars are hard to contain – predators such as wolves can no longer stop their numbers from growing.
The threat to the Italian pork industry from African swine fever is intense. David Granieri, head of the local chapter of the Coldiretti farmers’ association, said tens of thousands of pigs are at risk around Rome. However, the threat is even more present on the massive pig farms to the north. “Just think of the San Daniele prosciutto and the prosciutto of Parma,” Granieri said, referring to the widely appreciated cured meats. “It would get … serious, very quickly.”
Fear of the virus has even prompted several nations like China and Japan to impose import bans on Italian pork, already causing over $20 million worth of damage.
However, due to opposition from animal rights activists, the Italian government has yet to make any significant decision, despite farmers protesting and holding rallies to urge the government to protect the 20 billion revenues from selling pork and the 8.4 million pigs at risk.
While humans or pets cannot contract the disease, it spreads rapidly to pigs raised commercially for food. Pigs are vital both to the Italian economy and all over the world. The sector generates around 100,000 jobs and pulls in more than 20 billion in annual revenue in Italy alone. According to the Washington Post’s Stefano Pitrelli, “a government task force … plans to reduce the country’s boar population … by 50 percent, after carcasses infected with African swine fever were found in northwestern Italy.” This was followed by more recent virus cases in Rome.
The wild boar population in Europe has increased almost exponentially to several million in recent decades due to factors like high reproduction rates and little to no predators, disrupting life in many cities such as Rome, Berlin, and Barcelona. Zoologists have said that these boars are hard to contain – predators such as wolves can no longer stop their numbers from growing.
The threat to the Italian pork industry from African swine fever is intense. David Granieri, head of the local chapter of the Coldiretti farmers’ association, said tens of thousands of pigs are at risk around Rome. However, the threat is even more present on the massive pig farms to the north. “Just think of the San Daniele prosciutto and the prosciutto of Parma,” Granieri said, referring to the widely appreciated cured meats. “It would get … serious, very quickly.”
Fear of the virus has even prompted several nations like China and Japan to impose import bans on Italian pork, already causing over $20 million worth of damage.
However, due to opposition from animal rights activists, the Italian government has yet to make any significant decision, despite farmers protesting and holding rallies to urge the government to protect the 20 billion revenues from selling pork and the 8.4 million pigs at risk.
