Development of a Novel Feral Hog Toxicant

Feral hogs, European wild hogs, Russian wild hogs, wild boars, razorbacks, rooters, or hybrids of these are all names for the same species, Sus scrofa. Feral hog populations are spreading across the United States with little resistance from the private and public sector, causing considerable damage in their wake. We are suggesting control by a means not currently used in the United States, but has been shown and analyzed elsewhere to be the most cost-effective means of control-baiting with a lethal toxicant. Although feral hogs are protected as a game species in some states, their damage is well-known by those who are in direct contact with them: farmers, ranchers, federal and state wildlife managers, forest managers, city and county municipalities, and other private organizations and citizens. Damage has occurred in agriculture and silviculture and feral hogs represent a means of disease transmission to livestock. Physical damage includes rooting of pastures, forests, vineyards; consumption of crops (milo, corn, wheat, rice, peanuts, and potatoes, etc.); land erosion; and preying upon calves, lambs, and kids. More recently, as the populations increase at an alarming rate, concern has shifted to disease transmission. Feral hogs harbor diseases and parasites that can be transferred to livestock including: foot and mouth disease, pseudorabies, cholera, trichinosis, African swine fever, brucellosis, leptospirosis, salmonellosis, anthrax, ticks, fleas, lice, and various flukes and worms. Many of these diseases could be used in bioterrorism attacks and greatly threaten the livestock industry as a whole. Upon live-capture, tests will be initiated to determine a viable bait formulation that can be tested in the field and in the future be available to consumers as a market bait. The bait will add another tool and technology to a growing problem by supplying the public and private sectors with a cost-effective solution.