Implementations of Regulation 853/2004/EC on wild game in the Region Emilia Romagna (Italy) in the period 2006-2012. A growth opportunity for hunters and official authorities in the interest of food safety and protection of the wildlife resource.

In the last 50 years many agricultural areas in the Apennines of Emilia Romagna (RER) have been abandoned and reoccupied by spontaneous vegetation, doubling the forest area and extending the bushy areas. This has encouraged the recent reappearance of wild ungulates, after a lapse of a few centuries. At the beginning of reoccupation, only 1.640 wild boars have been hunted in 1989, while in 2011, 37.697 wild ungulates, of which 20.949 were wild boars, and 15.419 were roe deer, 931 fallow deer, 7 mouflons and 391 red deer. At the end of the 80s the RER had foreseen the substantial changes in wildlife framework and introduced for hunters the obligation to attend specific official courses in order to manage censuses and implement hunting methods approved for the new situation (selective hunting methods required for cervids and bovids). In this paper the following topic were take in account: Wild game, Regulation 853/2004/EC and training of hunters in hygiene and health Wild game and bad practices of handling and storage Wild game and good practices of handling and storage