Alien Species: Feral Hogs Wreaking Havoc
Invading Hoards Of Swine Are Taking Over Large Areas Of The Country, Destroying Landscapes, Spreading Disease, and Polluting Waterways
Invading hoards are taking over large areas of the country. These invaders are moving across the country destroying landscapes, spreading disease, and polluting waterways. These invaders are not a foreign force, but feral swine first introduced to this country hundreds of years ago by Spanish conquistadors.
“Feral swine are any pig (Sus scrofa) which is not owned or contained. Some of the first feral swine in the Americas arrived here with the Spanish explorers, later releases and escapes from early settlers increased populations”, stated Jeanine Neskey outreach coordinator for the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) National Feral Swine Damage Management Program. Feral swine are genetically the same as domesticated pigs.
Ms. Neskey works to create outreach materials, articles, video and other media to inform the public of the issues surrounding feral swine and their damage. “Feral swine are a destructive invasive species. They consume or destroy crops, damage natural resources such as wetlands, negatively impact game species, and can transmit many zoonotic diseases”, explained Neskey.
Feral swine have been documented in 38 states, mostly across the south and California. The damage caused in some states can be extensive even driving farmers to give up growing certain crops due to the pressure of feral swine. One state that has been heavily impacted is Texas. “I estimated several years ago, a decade ago, that just the damage to Texas agriculture alone was $52 million a year, with farmers spending an additional $7 million to control them. Those were very conservative figures”, claimed Dr. Billy Higginbotham Texas A&M Professor and Extension Wildlife and Fisheries specialist.
The Texas Extension Service provides educational information to land owners through their extension agent. Individuals having issues with feral swine on their property can contact the Extension Service for assistance with initiating best management practices using legal control methods to reduce and abate damage.
The damages caused by feral swine do not stop at agricultural losses, but extend into many areas including wildlife impacts, environmental impacts, and human safety impacts. “Feral swine can alter the understory growth of forests through their rooting and foraging behaviors. Feral swine are major consumers of mast crops such as acorns, hickory nuts, beech nuts, and tupelo which interferes with seed dispersal and can actually change forest tree species diversity and density”, claimed Neskey. “Feral swine compete with native wildlife for food and displace native species from prime habitat.”
“In Texas, the white-tailed deer hunting industry is a two billion dollar a year industry. We have direct competition certain times of the year between wild pigs and deer”, stated Dr. Higginbotham. “Many times, the space that is occupied by deer is also occupied by feral pigs. You can see behavior changes in the deer around pigs. They do have an avoidance behavior. In some cases, feral pigs prey directly on our native wildlife, particularly small animals, lizards, snakes and frogs. Many small species of wildlife in Texas are affected.”
“Environmentally wild pigs contribute to bacterial loading in our water ways, those types of riparian habitats are frequented by pigs. We also have some sedimentation issues as they root along the creek beds”, stated Dr. Higginbotham.
“Feral swine can negatively impact water quality by wallowing and contaminating water sources with fecal matter and silt. Foraging, rooting, wallowing, and trampling behaviors in wetland areas cause erosion from soil disturbance and vegetation loss can adversely impact water quality”, explained Neskey.
The impact of feral swine expands beyond natural resources to human related impacts. “The impact on humans primarily is due to pig vehicle collisions. It is estimated that there are a couple of fatalities per year based on pig human collisions”, stated Dr. Higginbotham. According to Dr. Higginbotham, the number of fatalities could be easily underestimated as there are several instances of vehicles running off the road late at night that may be caused by wild pigs.
“They lack the eye shine that white tailed deer have. By lacking that eye shine, if you take a dark surface road on a cloudy or no moon night, and you have a dark colored pig on the road, you simply won’t see them in time”, claimed Dr. Higginbotham.
In addition to posing a collision hazard, feral pigs can be carriers of diseases that are transmissible to humans. “Feral swine can transmit many zoonotic diseases such as brucellosis which can infect humans and pseudorabies which can infect and kill dogs as well as many other diseases of high concern for ranchers and livestock farmers”, stated Neskey.
“Every year we have one or two cases of hunters who don’t follow best practices and when field dressing pigs, they introduce fluid from the body cavity to an open wound. With brucellosis, once you have it, you have it”, said Dr. Higginbotham. “We recommend that hunters just use common sense and wear gloves during field dressing operations on a pig they are going to use for meat. They should also wash all of their saws and knives in hot soapy water. Of course, pork is pork, you want to cook it to an internal temperature of at least 165 degrees.”
“USDA APHIS received funding from Congress, beginning in federal fiscal year 2014, to implement a collaborative national feral swine damage management program to minimize damage caused by feral swine for the protection of agriculture and livestock, natural resources, property, and human health and safety”, said Neskey. “The APHIS approach, led by the Wildlife Services program, involves reducing feral swine numbers to minimize damage in states where populations are large and widely distributed and eliminating feral swine in states where populations are low or newly emerging.”
“The Texas Animal Health Commission has regulations on the books that prevent individuals from trapping or catching wild pigs and moving those pigs regardless if you trap them and move them on your own property”, Dr. Higginbotham said. “The only legal control methods currently are trapping, snaring, shooting and the use of specially trained dogs. Those are the four legal control methods. The use of a toxicant came into sharp focus this spring and legislators with the Texas legislative session got involved. As a result of the failed attempt to introduce a toxicant for use on wild pigs, today there is no product that can be used legally to poison wild pigs.”
Neskey offered advice for outdoor enthusiasts to help slow the spread of feral swine, “Outdoor enthusiasts can help by reporting feral swine sightings in areas with lower populations to your local Wildlife Services program. The program has a hotline that will automatically direct individuals to their state office, 1-866-4-USDA-WS. In areas with higher populations, outdoors enthusiasts can help by reporting significant damage from feral swine, and most importantly, do not move feral swine!”
Individuals who encounter feral swine in the wild are encouraged to give them space and if they have dogs, keep them leashed to avoid conflict. There is most likely no way that feral swine will be totally eliminated, but through the efforts of APHIS and Texas A&M University, perhaps they can be controlled and damages minimized.
Jared Langenegger
A graduate of New Mexico State University with B.S. in wildlife and fisheries science, Jared spent 15 years working in fisheries and parks management. He enjoys camping, fishing, hunting, painting, and wood working.
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