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Should Sweden foot the bill for radioactive wild boar?

TT/The Local
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Should Sweden foot the bill for radioactive wild boar?
File photo: Michael Probst/TT

The Swedish Food Agency wants the state to provide funding for tests of radioactivity in wild boar.

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The agency has called in a broad proposal for the state to cover the cost of analyses due to high radioactivity in wild boar in some areas, SVT Gävleborg reports.

Wild boar in areas including Uppsala and the Gävleborg and Västmanland counties can still have high levels of radioactivity as a result of fallout from the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster.

The animal can absorb radioactivity from roots in the ground and some individuals contain high levels, according to the report.

Boar with high levels of radioactivity must be destroyed. The Swedish Food Agency has also asked for the government to cover costs for this.

Sweden already wants to increase shooting of wild boars, in order to control the population size. The wild animal can cause damage or risk to agriculture, homes and traffic.

The Food Agency estimates that around 400 million kronor per year can be saved by implementing its plan to reduce the number of wild boar.

“If all (our) proposals were launched with government subsidies, there would a benefit for society if you compare the costs we currently have in agriculture and traffic,” says Arja Helena Kautto, project manager at the Swedish Food Agency, told SVT.

READ ALSO: Record radiation levels found in Swedish wild boar

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