Swine fever alert, a new outbreak breaks out.The commissioner:“The most devastating emergency ever”

Other cases have been found in Piedmont, as well as in Liguria and Emilia Romagna.The words of the government emergency delegate, Giovanni Filippini

By Simone D'Ambrosio and Piero Bonito Oliva

GENOA – Again a new outbreak of African swine fever found in a pig farm in Piedmont, in the municipality of Novara, which is added to the four already found previously.The total number of confirmed cases in Piedmont thus rises to 667 positive cases, including wild boars and pig farms. Four new positive cases in Liguria, all on wild boars found in the metropolitan city of Genoa.In Liguria, infected findings rise, therefore, at 1.022, for a total with Piedmont reaching 1,689 since the beginning of the emergency.

 THE COMMISSIONER:HISTORICAL EMERGENCY FOR OUR COUNTRY

“One of the most important and devastating emergencies, as far as the pig sector is concerned, which probably our Italy has always lived." This is the definition of the African swine fever epidemic offered by the extraordinary commissioner Giovanni Filippini, called to implement the enforcement actions recently decided by the Government.The virus is affecting mainly in Lombardy and Piedmont, but also in Emilia Romagna.A situation defined by Coldiretti "alarming", with the request not only to make the interventions immediately operational but also to allocate compensation for the companies involved.

“THE VIRUS DOES NOT INFECT HUMANS”

Interviewed by SkyTg24, Filippini reassured citizens:“We need to reassure consumers: the virus does not infect humans, it only affects domestic and wild pigs.No infection can be transmitted to us, either to us or to other animal species. We are certainly facing a major epidemic wave, there are 24 outbreaks affected at the moment.The objective of the commissioner structure is to block the circulation of the virus and protect the territories located in restriction zones, protecting the rest of the country.We are talking about areas that have a significant number of farms. We must prevent the virus from spreading, and I thank the farmers for the sacrifices they are making. We are working to reduce the time of this emergency to a minimum, the Government is looking for solutions for the great issue of compensation:we are adopting maximum caution and determination, also at European level, because there are other EU countries such as Germany and Poland in the same condition as us."