The agricultural sector protests against the lack of wildlife control with a tractor demonstration on the Eix Transversal: "They are leading us to ruin"

BarcelonaUnió de Pagesos has called for a new protest by the agricultural sector on the C-25 highway (Eje ​​Transversal) this Monday morning. Under the slogan We collapsed the Transversal AxisThe tractor protest was scheduled to depart from Lleida and Mollerussa towards Cervera, and also from towns such as L'Ametlla de Casserres (Berguedà), Santa Llogaia de Álguema (Alt Empordà), Ripoll (Ripollès), Mollet del Vallès (Vallès Oriental), and France towards Gurb. According to the Catalan Traffic Service, the slow-moving tractors caused traffic jams on the C-14 and N-II highways, and also on the C-25 in Vilobí d'Onyar towards Vic. The mobilization, which began at 9 a.m., brought farmers to the streets to demand, above all, "control of overpopulations of game animals" and a "review" of the Livestock Health Service. The march, which brought together around 150 tractors, also had the support of the agricultural organizations Revolta Pagesa, Asaja, and the Plataforma Pagesos o Conejos (Farmers or Rabbits Platform). Carol Aixut, head of Environment at Unió de Pagesos (Farmers' Union), explained that the protest was due to "the lack of consensus between the local population and the management of game animals," and criticized the government's management to date as "nonexistent." "They are driving us to ruin, with avian flu, nodular dermatosis, African swine fever, and bluetongue, which are diseases brought by game animals" and have affected farm livestock, she added, in statements reported by ACN. Aixut also pointed out that the overpopulation of wild species is also affecting crops, as the animals are "eating the trees and cereals."

Along the same lines, Pere Roqué, president of Asaja, has asked political institutions to draft a hunting law that is "clear" and allows for a "balance" between wildlife and agricultural and livestock activities. Roqué argued that the regulations should include the possibility of "hunting more" by authorizing "more permits, more night vision devices, and more hunting hours and days," in order to reduce the number of wild animals, such as wild boar, which are suffering from overpopulation in many Catalan regions. The Minister of Agriculture, Òscar Ordeig, expressed "utmost respect and empathy" for the tractor protests and admitted that the management of game animals is an area where "action should have been taken a long time ago." He also maintained that "results" will not come "overnight." "We must reach a turning point, yes. We will, yes," he responded.

On the other hand, Ordeig is confident that the sequencing of the African swine fever (ASF) strain detected in wild boars in Collserola will be completed this week and that the results will serve to "definitively rule out" the theory that the virus originated in one of the laboratories at the Research Center. In an interview on Catalunya Ràdio, Ordeig maintained that sequencing is a "laborious process" and pledged to announce the results as soon as they are available.

What sequencing will allow is the identification of the genetic mutations behind the virus detected in Catalonia; it's like a kind of ID card that makes it unique and allows it to be compared with other circulating strains. This will make it possible to determine if the strain found in the dead wild boars matches any of those used for experimentation at the center. A European laboratory, the Ministry, and the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB) are participating in this stage of the investigation.

The regional minister also spoke about the other disease that has put Catalan farmers on alert in recent weeks: nodular dermatosisHe assured that the first payments of aid related to this outbreak, one of the issues the sector is demanding, will be made this week, and the rest "at the beginning of next year." "It would have been impossible to do it any faster," he asserted.