"Exactly one month after my first intervention in the classroom, I reiterated the request for a ministerial inspection on the Blue tongue emergency in Sardinia and today, faced with the manifest inability of the Region and Ats to stem the epidemic, I received reassurances from Undersecretary Andrea Costa: if the prevention and control measures agreed with the regional leaders are not followed, the Ministry of Health will send the inspectors ”.
This was stated by the deputy and member of the Social Affairs and Health Commission, Mara Lapia, who in today's Question time, addressing Undersecretary Costa, retraced the events that are bringing the livestock sector of the island to its knees and denounced the inertia regional leaders also in terms of compensation to Sardinian breeders.
"On September 14th I communicated to Minister Roberto Speranza the need for the Region, in agreement with the Ministry, to take immediate action to counter the spread of the virus, with the hiring of veterinarians for vaccination prophylaxis and with the allocation of refreshments for the entire production sector affected by the disease ”, explained the parliamentarian.
“To date - he continued -, despite the reassurances, not only does the disease continue to spread uncontrollably, so much so that it has also reached Southern Sardinia, but there is no news of the hiring of veterinarians and refreshment points announced at the moment. Without those indemnities, the Region risks giving the final blow to breeders and companies already severely affected by the spread of Blue tongue ”.
Lapia then underlined that, despite what was reported by the regional leaders to the ministry on the availability of 2.5 million euros, to date no funds have been allocated.
The deputy finally recalled how in 2015, thanks to the prophylaxis performed on over 3 million sheep and 100,000 cattle, the immune coverage stood at around 80 percent: "Then there were zero outbreaks, zero deaths among animals, and zero spread of the pathogen. These numbers - he concluded - show how much the Region and Ats Sardegna, with its late prophylaxis action, have created enormous damage. A damage that, even more serious fault, has not yet been restored ".
