Farmscape for September 20, 2021

The USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is taking action to reign in feral swine populations.
To address concerns related to feral pigs USDA-APHIS has implemented a National Feral Swine Program.
That program was discussed as part of "Feral Swine Friday," the fifth in a series of five ASF Action Week webinars hosted by USDA-APHIS.
Dr. Vienna Brown, a biologist with the National Feral Swine Damage Management Program, says swine were first brought to the U.S. by explorers in the 15 hundreds and feral swine populations have expanded since then and are believed to number well over six million in 35 states and three territories.

Clip-Dr. Vienna Brown-USDA-APHIS:
In terms of damage to agriculture there is almost not a crop they will not damage, whether that be from direct predation or consuming the crop or from trampling, wallowing, just damaging that crop to the point beyond repair.
They also do a ton of damage to private property, public property, golf courses, cemeteries and older archeological sites that that they tend to do a lot of rooting and wallowing and can be very destructive to property.
They also cause tremendous damage to natural resources.
They often root and wallow in riparian areas which are often really important for diversity on the landscape.
They predate on eggs of ground nesting birds, they will often eat fawns or calves or lambs out on the landscape, sea turtles and threaten endangered salamanders, lizards and other species.
They also often out compete some of our native fauna so they can be incredibly destructive to our natural resources and then of course the risk that they pose to both humans and other animals.
Some of that is actual physical risk but a lot of that is disease transmission related.
Whether that be public health pathogens or the risk of foreign animal disease introduction, feral swine are a hugely problematic and risky species.

Dr. Brown says in states where feral swine populations are large and widely distributed APHIS is working to supress populations and manage damage and, in states where populations are low or emerging, the goal is to eliminate them.
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Bruce Cochrane.

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