Invasive feral hogs threaten to spread livestock disease

Agencies work to track down source, number of hogs

By CAROL RYAN DUMAS
Capital Press

The discovery of feral hogs in the Bruneau Valley could bear serious implications for cattle in the area.

"It's going to be an issue," said Tom McDonnell, executive vice president of the Idaho Cattle Association. "I had no idea we had feral hogs this far north."

Feral hogs can carry diseases like pseudorabies and swine brucellosis, he said.

Idaho State Department of Agriculture Brian Oakey said the department has been talking with wildlife officials for years concerning rerports of feral hogs in the state. Proof came in February when one was shot and photographed in the Bruneau area.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife then set up traps and trail cameras, but summer and fall are difficult times to track wild hogs because there's no snow on the ground, he said

"Now, the winter, is really our opportunity to track them down and do something about it," he said. "Thankfully so far, there are not very many; they haven't established a huge population yet."

In his communications with state and federal agencies, McDonnell said it is believed that hound hunters in the Bruneau Valley imported the Eurasian feral hogs from California, bred them to domestic hogs and released several trailer loads of the offspring in the area last year.

"We're putting together a plan we can go to the governor with and show the agencies are working together," said Idaho State Veterinarian Bill Barton.USDA-APHIS and Idaho Fish and Game are also involved.

The agencies' top priorities are to determine the validity of reports, the extent of the problem and to put together a management plan to handle the issue, he said.

Charges could be filed in the incident, Oakey said.

"From our perspective, disease is a major concern, as well as crop damage, damage to riparian areas" and wildlife habitat, he said. "These are really invasive critters."

State and federal laws govern disease control from swine brucellosis and pseudorabies in all classes and types of swine, according to USDA-APHIS. Relocating wild pigs without negative blood tests for those diseases violates the law.

Pseudorabies is a fatal disease in other farm animals, such as cattle, sheep and goats. Because the U.S. commercial swine herd is free of the disease, reintroduction by feral pigs would be economically devastating.

Swine brucellosis can also be transmitted to commercial pigs, causing abortion in sows and infertility in boars. Cattle can also become infected if they come in close contact with infected wild pigs.

That infection wouldn't cause any health problems in cattle and wouldn't cause them to abort, but it can cause a false positive in testing for bovine brucellosis, Barton said.

Transmission of other diseases, such as tuberculosis, is also possible.

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