The event, organized as part of the LIFE Pluto Project, brought together the 12 conductors of the Anti-Poison Dog Units (UCAs) that CUFA activated thanks to the LIFE Antidote, Pluto, Medwolf, WolfAlps and Microlupo projects. It also saw the participation of the staff who supports the conductors of the UCAs of the LIFE Pluto Project in inspections, aimed at searching for poisoned baits and remains.
The working week was divided into several sessions. First of all, the results of the inspections carried out by the UCAs and technical issues related to their activation and management have been analysed.
Then three LIFE projects were illustrated, in which the Anti-Poison Dog Units will be involved to contribute to the conservation of biodiversity. These are, namely the LIFE Wolfalps EU project, which aims to promote the protection of the wolf in the Alps, the LIFE Egyptian vulture project, which develops actions to improve the conservation status of the Egyptian vulture (a small vulture that suffers from a real extinction danger in Italy), and the LIFE Milvus project, which aims at the reintroduction of the red kite in the Aspromonte National Park.
CUFA staff was presented in detail about the structure and contents of the National Portal of malicious poisoning of animals, commissioned by the Ministry of Health and realized by the National Reference Centre for Veterinary Forensic Medicine of the Zooprophylactic Institute of Lazio and Tuscany. The Portal, recently activated, will be a very important tool for fighting against the phenomenon of poisoning and will be useful for UCAs, thus able to access, in real time, detailed information about poisoning and therefore improve the effectiveness of inspections and investigations.
During the working week, the conductors had the opportunity to discuss aspects related to the training of dogs for the poison search, also in relation to anti-poaching activities as well as poison research.
An important part of the event consisted in the planning and implementation of preventive inspections within some hunting venues in the province of Grosseto.
Lastly, CUFA staff was able to visit the CERM Centro Rapaci Minacciati (Centre for Threatened Birds of prey), a facility where the Egyptian vulture is preserved ex-situ, obtaining young birds of prey that are released in southern Italy as part of the LIFE Egyptian vulture project.