Belgium: 'More wild boar hunting'

René Collin, the Minister of Agriculture in Wallonia, proposes to increase the hunting of wild boars in Wallonia. In the areas where African swine fever has been diagnosed, he even wants all wild boars to be killed.

"We want to reduce the wild boar population in Wallonia by 2% in 50 years. For areas where African swine fever has not been found, the goal is to shoot 30% more boars," Collin said at a meeting on Tuesday, November 27.

The pig farmers are concerned that the virus could spread to their farms. However, there are as yet no known outbreaks on pig farms. With Collin's proposal, the Walloon government wants to reduce the risk of spreading.

Negative effect?
Not everyone is in favor of the proposal. According to Klaus Depner, an expert in epidemics, killing the animals does little to stop the spread of African swine fever. The virus can remain in a dead swine for months and even then it can still be transmitted. Depner claims that it creates more problems than solutions.

Tim Roetman

Tim Roetman has been working as a junior editor at livestock farming since November 2018 Boerenbusiness† He mainly writes about (price) developments in the pig and dairy market.

t.roetman@boerenbusiness. Nl

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