How wild boars are threatening Italy’s prosciutto ham industry
Italy’s iconic prosciutto ham is under grave threat from burgeoning numbers of wild boar infected with swine fever, and the army should be drafted in to eradicate them, producers say.
The number of wild boar infected with African swine fever (ASF) is on the rise across Italy and threatens to have a devastating impact on one of the country’s most celebrated gastronomic products, which is worth 1.7 billion euros (£1.4bn) in consumer sales.
“There’s no time to lose,” said Stefano Fanti, the director of the Prosciutto Consortium of Parma, the city famed for its cured ham and other meat products.
“We need to step things up – we need to bring in the army against the wild boar, to increase funding for biosecurity, traps and fences and to have more hunters,” he told La Repubblica newspaper.
“We need to be clear – what is happening needs to be treated as an emergency, otherwise we won’t manage to overcome it. People are really worried about swine fever. If it passes from wild boar to our pigs, we will be forced to slaughter thousands of them and that will mean that prices for consumers will go up.”
Also: