Farmscape for April 16, 2024

The Coordinator of Squeal on Pigs Manitoba is confident the province's feral pig population will ultimately be eliminated.
The Squeal on Pigs campaign was launched in Manitoba in 2022 to inform the public about the damage caused by wild pigs and what to watch for and to provide a mechanism to report sightings.
Squeal on Pigs Manitoba Coordinator Dr. Wayne Lees told those on hand last week for Manitoba Pork's 2024 annual general meeting the risks posed by wild pigs fall into three categories.

Quote-Dr. Wayne Lees-Squeal on Pigs Manitoba:
They affect animal health and those risks are mainly due to their ability to transmit diseases.
There's an environmental risk and then finally there's a human safety risk because these animals can be quite aggressive and if they are cornered they can pose a risk to human safety.
Probably the most well know populations of wild pigs are in the southern U.S.
In those southern states wild pigs are really out of control and their populations are estimated to be in the millions and they cause a lot of damage down there.
Our situation in Canada is a bit different.
The Eurasian wild boar, that were brought into this country in the 1980s and 1990s have escaped or were released and now have established breeding populations, usually in the agricultural or the semi agricultural areas of the province.
Our pigs tend to survive the winter much better.
These wild pigs in Canada are adapted to cold climate conditions and so our strategies have to be different.
They tend to travel in smaller groups in this country, they tend to travel around more and they tend to be more elusive, they're harder to find than pigs in the U.S.

Dr. Lees says the goal of the Squeal on Pigs campaign is to eliminate feral pigs from the landscape and, although he acknowledges that will take time, he is confident that goal will be achieved.
To report a wild pig sighting visit squealonpigsmb.org or call 1 833-SPOTPIG.
For more visit Farmscape.Ca.
Bruce Cochrane.

       *Farmscape is produced on behalf of North America’s pork producers