Feral pigs run wild

By Cindy Ross

12/10/2009

Hunting season is upon us and the enthusiasts licensed to hunt in a Pennsylvania county where feral hogs have been spotted are extra excited, for the Pennsylvania Game Commission has been given jurisdiction over the animals by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court and has declared an open season on the pigs. It's a story that's repeated in other mid-Atlantic states.

An estimated 3,000 wild pigs are thought to be roaming Pennsylvania woods, either intentionally set free by hunting preserves or broken loose from them. These are "feral pigs," the descendents of domestic pigs, Eurasian wild boars, and European and Asian boars. They are not native "game animals," and the goal is to get rid of them as quickly as possible.

To wipe out the pigs, extensive trapping programs are operating, and hunters now have permission to shoot any and all they see.

Feral pigs are incredibly invasive, and do immense environmental damage. They destroy habitat for turkey, grouse, deer and other critters, by rooting and digging up the soil for food. They will eat nearly anything: tubers, roots, stems, leaves, fruit, bark, and their favorite -- acorns -- competing for mast crops with native wildlife. They also eat bird eggs and trample and kill native birds. They kill both domestic and native animals (even lambs).

True to their nature, they love to wallow and turn every water source into a mud hole. Their rooting impacts small streams, wetlands and riparian areas, destroying habitat and muddying the waters.

When you consider that feral pigs can have two litters a year, each containing an average six piglets, you'll see their populations can explode if they are not eradicated quickly.

There are 25 states across the nation with persistent and possibly permanent feral hog problems. Sixteen new states, including Pennsylvania, have been added to the list where pigs have been introduced. West Virginia, Virginia, and Ohio all have breeding populations. While no breeding population is known in Maryland, feral pigs have been spotted.

Jonathan McKnight, Associate Director for Habitat Conservation for the Maryland Department of Natural Resources Wildlife and Heritage Service, chose feral pigs as this December's species of concern on the Maryland Invasive Species Council's website. He said while Maryland has "no known reproducing population," he cautioned "Time will tell if feral hogs will continue their population expansion into Maryland."

Shooting a feral hog is an effective means of eradication, but if the group that pig is in disperses, "It lets them live to fight and reproduce another day," said Jerry Feaser, Press Secretary for the Pennsylvania Game Commission. Feaser says live trapping is the ticket and several organizations are working to find the funding to do more.

The Pennsylvania Feral Swine Task Force formed to eradicate the pigs. Its members include the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, the Pennsylvania Game Commission, Penn State Ag Industry, Penn State University, Pennsylvania Audubon Society and the Pennsylvania Pork Producers Council.

The Pennsylvania Pork Producers Council is very active, for they have a lot at stake. Feral swine are a significant threat to not just the pork industry but to human health. They are known to carry 18 viral diseases, ten of which can infect people, and ten bacterial diseases, all of which cause disease in humans. So it is "hunter beware" when handling the carcass and processing the meat. Recently, there have been two cases in the South, where hunters contracted Swine Brucellosis while butchering. The Pennsylvania Game Commission wants to collect blood from any feral pigs that are taken to study the disease threat.

Since the introduction of the feral pigs is fairly recent, there is great hope that a permanent population will never become established. As of March 1, 2010, the Pennsylvania Dept of Agriculture has ordered that all male swine in regulated hunting grounds must be castrated, so that in the event that they escape they will not procreate in the wild. The private hunting reserves must also now follow more stringent veterinary testing requirements for disease control.

In Pennsylvania, wild pigs can only be killed as authorized by the Game Code. Those regulations set no bag limit and no regulated season on the pigs, meaning that licensed hunters and farmers protecting their crops can kill an unlimited number, 365 days a year.