International cooperation contributes to progress in dealing with feral pigs in Western Canada
By Bruce Cochrane, Farmscape
The Veterinary Counselor with the Canadian Pork Council reports efforts on both sides of the Canada U.S. border to control wild pigs are showing success.
As part of the Transboundary Feral Swine Summit, held last month in Calgary as part of the Pacific NorthWest Economic Region Summit, delegates discussed the damage being done and the risks posed by feral wild pigs and efforts to bring their populations under control.
Dr. Egan Brockhoff, the Veterinary Counselor for the Canadian Pork Council and member of the Swine Innovation Porc Coordinated African Swine Fever Research Working Group, notes there's been a lot of north-south cooperation on the issue.
“As we have been looking at ways to control and eradicate this population, we have looked to our colleagues in the south. They've had many more years of experience with this, they've had some tremendous success stories in eradicating wild pigs from various states so there's a lot of cooperation. They're very interested in making sure we get our wild pig population under control too. They don't want to see wild pigs walking across the border and coming at their economic regions and states from the North,” explained Dr. Egan Brockhoff, Canadian Pork Council.
“In western Canada, we see the provincial governments in the region have all moved into whole sounder trapping programs where they're trying to trap and remove, we've got campaigns on awareness, the Squeal on Pigs Campaign. Perhaps the most notable of the lot gives information to people out in the public on how to report pigs and why we need to report them and so a great deal has been done. It's good to see progress being made. This is exactly what we want to see. We have a long road ahead of us but we are making some first steps and that's encouraging.
Dr. Brockhoff suggests it's important to maintain this momentum, and continue to move forward with control and eradication.
In Saskatchewan, the public can report sightings of feral pigs by calling or texting the toll-free hot line at 1-833-PIG-SPOT or by calling any Saskatchewan Crop Insurance office.
For more visit farmscape.ca.