The government asks the Tour to change the route and avoid Collserola due to the swine fever

BarcelonaAfrican swine fever (ASF) continues to spread – this Thursday 13 new positives have been confirmed, bringing the total to 297 cases – and there are already 19 municipalities with restrictions on access to the Collserola Natural Park. Faced with this situation, sources from the Generalitat confirm to el ARA that they have asked the organization of the Tour de France to consider a change of route in the second stage of the competition – at the beginning of July –, as it would have to pass through an area currently affected by safety and prevention measures against the infectious disease.

However, a definitive report from the technicians of the Department of Agriculture will still be needed and the final decision "will be made jointly" with the organization of the Tour. According to the same sources, this change is requested "out of responsibility and rigor" in the management of the outbreak that has been affecting Catalonia since last November. Furthermore, the executive emphasizes that its main goal is for the entire Tour route to have public presence and that "the citizen celebration around cycling be favored".

In this regard, the Generalitat argues that the request to modify the race route makes complete sense and, moreover, has a recent precedent: last year a section of the route in France had to be changed due to the outbreak of contagious nodular dermatosis that affected French territory. On the other hand, the same government sources emphasize that, since the beginning of the outbreak, which affects only wild boars, the Government has implemented various containment measures, based mainly on reducing the wild boar population throughout the country, especially in the affected area, and with restrictions on access to the natural environment.

Controlling wild boars with hunting

In fact, this very Thursday the Minister of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Food, Óscar Ordeig, announced that the start of the wild boar hunting season in Catalonia will be brought forward to June and will last until March, instead of from September to March as it has been until now. The objective is to reinforce the control of the populations of this species throughout the territory, minimize damage to crops, reduce traffic accidents and strengthen prevention to avoid the spread of the virus. According to the ministry, with this new calendar, the way to control wild boar hunting will be "more continuous and flexible" and will allow the capture pressure to be adapted to the real needs of each area.