The Catalan government proposes to halve the wild boar population in Catalonia

BarcelonaThe Catalan Minister of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries, and Food, Òscar Ordeig, stated this Wednesday that the Catalan government intends to halve the wild boar population in Catalonia. To this end, Ordeig announced the creation of the Catalan Wild Boar Roundtable, an organization that will bring together public administrations, hunting associations, and scientists specializing in game wildlife with the aim of more closely monitoring the number of these mammals and their distribution across the region. The overpopulation of wild boar in Catalonia has returned to the public debate following the discovery of 15 dead specimens infected with the African swine fever (ASF) virus. Despite the cases of infected wild boar, Ordeig reiterated that, for the moment, no positive cases have been detected in domestic pigs on the 55 livestock farms located in the 91 municipalities within the area considered affected by ASF. "For the moment, the virus has not entered any farms or any commercial circuit," he declared. "What is our objective? To reduce the wild boar population in Catalonia by 50% in the coming years," Ordeig explained before appearing before the Parliament's Agriculture Committee, where he outlined the Catalan government's actions to curb the outbreak of African swine fever to the parliamentary groups. The minister estimated the number of wild boar in Catalonia at 125,000 "in winter"—that is, before the breeding season—which could reach around 180,000 at peak population. To achieve this objective, Ordeig announced the creation of the Catalan Wild Boar Roundtable, a "governance body" that will include representatives from various public administrations, game scientists, the primary sector, and hunting associations, among others. This committee will be responsible for controlling the wild boar population throughout Catalonia.

The committee will be "similar to the one in Collserola," the minister added. In this regard, since the outbreak of African swine fever two weeks ago, Ordeig has praised the work carried out by the Collserola Wild Boar Committee, created in 2013. In these two years, through roundups and other wildlife control measures—aside from the effects of the drought, which also impacted the animals' reproduction— The density of wild boars in the area has been reduced by 50%.The population density has dropped from approximately 17 to 8.2 wild boars per square kilometer. Furthermore, according to the government, incidents caused by wild boars (accidents, attacks, damage, etc.) have also fallen by 70% in the municipalities encompassing the Collserola Natural Park. According to Ordeig, the spread of African swine fever (ASF) could have been much worse if measures had not been taken to reduce the wild boar population in Collserola, where the current outbreak originated. Meanwhile, the Spanish Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food met this Wednesday with representatives of the regional governments to coordinate and monitor the epidemiological surveillance and biosecurity measures for wildlife being implemented to prevent the spread of ASF. The ministry also appointed six experts to its advisory committee on African swine fever, which will meet for the first time this Friday.

Origin of the outbreak

Ordeig has maintained that it is still too early to determine the origin of the African swine fever (ASF) outbreak in Collserola. For now, the committee of experts appointed by the Catalan government to investigate its origin will publish its first report on the matter next week. Currently, the committee members are examining whether the facilities and protocols of the Animal Health Research Center (CRESA-IRTA), located a few kilometers from where the first two wild boar infected with the virus were found, could be the source of the disease. According to analyses by the Ministry's laboratories, the variant of the virus detected in the 15 wild boar infected with ASF in Collserola corresponds to the one used in laboratories and is different from the variants found in the African swine fever outbreaks currently occurring in other European Union countries, suggesting a possible accidental release of the virus.