Feral hogs can cause thousands of dollars worth of damage to operations, but that is not the only danger researchers are sounding the alarm over: disease is a big concern.
“The primary one being the feral Swine Fever. You know, it’s the big one. We don’t want any of our pigs to get that, obviously. The other issue, of course, is brucellosis. So those are the two biggies that we want to make sure we avoid. Now, we don’t have any of the Swine Fever stuff going on in this area or even in the U.S. really to speak of, nothing that’s significant. Most of that’s overseas right now, but we don’t want it to end up here. And then, of course, brucellosis is a possibility, and we do test the feral hogs that we do destroy. And I think the last number I saw, we’re probably somewhere around the 10% mark is what we’re seeing for pigs that are infected with brucellosis,” said Kevin Crider.
The 2018 Farm Bill actually helped fund damages caused by the pests. $75 million was spent on eradication and control over 18 states. Advocates are calling for the same protections in this year’s Farm Bill.
