Minister Schouten is taking extra measures to reduce the risk of an outbreak of African Swine Fever in the Netherlands. She does this by temporarily allowing the hunting of wild boars (the restricted movement hunt), she writes in a brief to the House of Representatives.
With this form of hunting, the minister is meeting the wishes of the provinces. According to the Expert Group on Animal Diseases, the risk of African swine fever in the Netherlands can be reduced by reducing the number of wild boars. The provinces have indicated to the minister that they have too few effective methods at their disposal to be able to achieve this.
Limited Motion Hunt
The limited movement hunt means that a group of up to 6 people with a maximum of 3 dogs on a leash, quietly drives the boars towards the hunters.
At the request of the provinces, an extension of the exemption for silencers is also being considered. The use of a silencer when shooting wild boars requires an exemption, which is currently only available to hunters employed by large groundskeepers. In order to reduce the number of wild boars, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality, it is desirable that other hunters involved in reducing the wild boar population also receive an exemption.
Precautionary actions
The minister's measures are preventive, African swine fever has not been identified in the Netherlands. The virus is contagious, in September the disease appeared in Belgium and in Eastern and Southern Europe. Since then, the Netherlands has taken various measures. For example, the means of transport used for the transport of pigs to countries where African swine fever occurs in pig farms are additionally cleaned and disinfected when they return to the Netherlands.
The shot wild boars are also randomly tested for African swine fever. Information boards about African swine fever have been placed in parking lots along highways and near nature reserves. The signs call for no food leftovers to be left in nature. Agreements have been made with Rijkswaterstaat about cleaning the garbage cans. The bins are 'wild boar' resistant and are emptied regularly.
France
The Netherlands is not the only country taking preventive measures. This week also made France known to place a fence on the border with Belgium. Access to forests in the border area is also prohibited in order to minimize the chance of the African Swine Fever spreading.
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