Italy’s iconic prosciutto ham is under serious threat from growing numbers of wild boars infected with swine fever, and the army should be mobilized to eradicate them, producers say.
The number of wild boars infected with African swine fever (ASF) is increasing across Italy and threatens to have a devastating impact on one of the country’s most famous gastronomic products, worth 1.7 billion euros (£1.4 billion) in consumer sales. .
“There is no time to lose,” said Stefano Fanti, director of the Prosciutto Consortium in Parma, the city famous for its cured ham and other meat products.
“We need to step things up – we need to mobilize the army against wild boar, increase funding for biosecurity, traps and fences and have more hunters,” he told La Repubblica newspaper.
“We must be clear: what is happening must be treated as an emergency, otherwise we will not be able to overcome it. People are really worried about swine fever. If it moves from wild boar to our pigs, we will be forced to slaughter thousands of them and this will lead to higher prices for consumers.”
Exports under threat
So far, 150 cases of swine fever have been detected in wild boars in Emilia-Romagna, the northern region where prosciutto is produced.
Special restrictions have been introduced in some regions, meaning producers can no longer export to countries like Canada, which have strict rules on importing food from areas where swine fever has been detected .
“Efforts have been made to contain the wild boar contagion, but they have proven insufficient to solve the problem,” Mr Fanti said.
There are around two million wild boars in Italy, according to the farmers’ organization Coldiretti.
