Still a few wrinkles to work out...

Wildlife Services Develops a New Toxin for Feral Swine

Feral swine are one of the most difficult invasive species to eradicate in North America. The pigs (Sus scrofa), first introduced from Europe, are intelligent enough to avoid many traps and can change their behavior to be more evasive and nomadic once they’ve had encounters with hunters.

But researchers from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services are perfecting a poison that’s as basic as bacon for breakfast: salt.

“How it kills the animals is by reducing the ability of the red blood cell to release oxygen to the tissues,” said Kurt VerCauteren, the feral swine project leader for Wildlife Services at the National Wildlife Research Center in Fort Collins, Colo. at a presentation at The Wildlife Society’s ongoing annual conference in Winnipeg.

There are a number of toxicants that can be used to kill feral swine, but as of yet none have been registered in the U.S., he said. Techniques currently focus on trapping, relocating, hazing, contraception, killing and snaring. But, VerCauteren has been working with other researchers to develop a toxicant based on sodium nitrate — a kind of salt that, ironically, is sometimes used to preserve pork.

While safe in small quantities, high enough quantities of sodium nitrate can kill anything.

VerCauteren said that using salt in its basic form is relatively cheap, but the researchers have to implement a more expensive process to keep the pigs from smelling trouble. They microencapsulate the salt so that it’s odorless to the swine, yet will still break down in their digestive systems and kill them.

The toxicant has been very effective so far. While initial tests showed an 85 percent mortality, the researchers have improved their technique to kill up to 95-100 percent of the pigs that consume the toxicant.

VerCauteren said they’ve delivered the toxicant to pigs in tests using peanut butter, though they make it look black and dirty in an attempt to “make it as unattractive to other animals as possible.”

And herein lies one of the other challenges. The researchers are working on improving the delivery design to create devices that only feral swine can access.

This proved particularly difficult with crafty racoons (Procyon lotor) — the bigger ones can push open the lids on bait boxes that weigh up to 28 pounds. “There are photos of racoons pushing [the box] like a weight lifter, with another one on top,” VerCauteren said. As a solution, the researchers made the lid weigh more than 30 pounds — a weight that even the biggest raccoon shouldn’t be able to cope with.

While the toxicant shows some promise, VerCauteren said that it will still take around 18 months for the Environmental Protection Agency to review the product. But, if everything goes well, they could be giving feral pigs an overdose of salt in as little as two years.

Kerr WMA has pens setup to study hog poison. The biologist told me that if they poisoned one pen then none of the hogs in the surrounding pens would eat anything. They're so social that word gets out that they're being poisoned.

The best hog poison is, and always will be, lead.

For the amount of time and money the .gov is spending on this, a bounty would have been cheaper, just as effective and probably safer for the rest of the wildlife.

Hunting does little to control the overall feral hog population. Drop in the bucket.




Bounty systems don't usually work either. It sure doesn't with coyotes.

In many parts of the U.S., those trapping large numbers of hogs usually have an outlet to sell them. Some take them to the local livestock auction. They already have a cash incentive.

The new odorless salt APHIS came up with is interesting, but sounds like it could have lots of collateral damage, and they don't have that figured out yet.

I've discussed this at length with Texas Parks & Wildlife personnel. The problem with sodium nitrate is like the first post stated - it will kill about anything that eats enough of it - including humans. I was told about the bait delivery systems with heavy lids, but when I pointed out that hogs are sloppy eaters and would scatter the bait all over the immediate area for other animals to eat, they sadly agreed with me. They also do not know about the danger of predators eating from the carcasses of poisoned hogs (although this might be a "two-fer" with coyotes?).

If the feds would loosen restrictions on meat processing it would create a much bigger market for feral hogs. An animal to be butchered and sold in the US must be inspected - by a Federal Inspector - before and after butchering. Right now it is effectively illegal to sell the meat of a feral hog in the US, the big market for them is export to countries - including Europe - with less restrictive practices.

Personally, I am against poisoning any animals bigger than field rats.

^^^^^ give people $$$ incentive and access and watch the piggies dissappear. Of course money without a real job will bring all the Meth heads out of the woodwork. New problems to follow.

Oh great toxic salt what could possibly go wrong with that.

this excerpt from the article says lot to me:

VerCauteren said they’ve delivered the toxicant to pigs in tests using peanut butter, though they make it look black and dirty in an attempt to “make it as unattractive to other animals as possible.”


anthropomorphism at it's finest. It's got to be tough going through life with an IQ lower than a pig.

Meth heads gotta eat too.

NWA seems pretty happy.

That's what makes the whole cycle so hard to stop. It really is economics 101 in action.

A bigger market will in turn create a bigger demand. When the folks that are ultimately supplying that market for profit find their supply dwindling what's the next thing they do? They start restocking their inventorys. In this case, it's transporting pigs back into the areas they control, regardless of the legality's in doing so.

Then it's back to square one, or is often case now, pigs showing up in more areas by unnatural population expansions due to illegal restocking efforts by the folks with a monetary interest in the game.

Sad thing is, To many of them probably smile all the way to the voting booth....

I don't think that will happen. I'd bet that it's easier and cheaper to pen-raise pigs and more profitable to supply the domestic market.

But that's just my guess.

what would happen if a hunter shot a poisoned pig and ate him? seems unclear, at this point.

ked

There are legitimate reasons to have meat inspected.

Feral hogs invoke more than a little concern...

http://agrilife.org/texnatwildlife/feral-hogs/feral-hogs-and-disease/

Actually, the "wild boar" market is getting pretty big. It seems that Europe has a taste for it and can no longer get their own.

You wouldn't get a boner for a month!

Feral hogs can be inspected by USDA just like any other hog brought in for slaughter.

It's just the ones shot in the field that can't be inspected and sold.

Look up HogGone or something to that effect. The first guys to use it were the Austrlians and they have a lot of experience with it. They have almost as big a feral hog problem as we do.

From the things I have read the sodium nitrate does not biologically magnify so down stream scavengers shouldn't be a problem. However as always and granted Aus. doesn't have racoons, the EPA etc. have to study it to death before anything can be used.

For all the talk about trying to eradicate feral hogs way to much money is being made on them in places they hunt them that the ranchers really don't want them gone.

You would think so. But that would involve a legitimate business. They take real capital, hard work and planning.
Not near as appealing as all those "free" hogs that much of the state lottery, low rent mentality dreams of.
And around here there are a lot of those.

Ranchers do.

Guys that have a place to sell hunts and lodging to city slickers don't.

In my part of the world hogs do a lot of damage to golf courses, high end real estate,and such to make them a friendly non-game animal. If you could have a dead hog zone thru poison effect then not killing every one would be an option. One local course has a below ground anchored net wire fence around its entire perimeter with snares set in any dig under. They still have a problem because of drainage ways etc. but the cost is just part of their overhead.

Texas will always have hog problems.




Travis

Agreed.

But, it ain't just Texas.

I think Birdwatcher found some references going back to the early 1800's, where people were complaining about too many hogs in East Texas.

They were referencing the women.




Dave

I know damn good and well they were'nt referencing TN then.

It also affirms Texans have been bitching since Texans were invented.





Travis

That's because they starved all the bears out.

I would like to help out by sending some timber wolves.
We have more than we need.

At the local hog buyer a #200 pound hog will bring a $100 bill. There is also a $7.50 bounty going on right now so there is plenty incentive to get rid of them. The only problem is that's easier said than done.

Oh c'mon Barry - NM declared eradication of feral hogs 2 years ago!

I really believe that!

Don't you?

Someone ought to remind the hogs of that!

Actually, I wrote a cooperative eradication plan for feral hogs in the Lincoln Natl. Forest that was adopted by the USFS, and it was on a longer term plan than a couple of years...

Big Ranches here in N.TX are getting together and contracting outfits with Helicopters for Hog Eradication.
The Helicopters have 2 shooters, one with a shotgun and buckshot, and the other shooter using a Class 3 AR auto. TP&W requires a State Permit / License to do so.
You can pay for a ride along and to shoot for the small sum of $800 per hour. Nugent used to come to this area often and pay to shoot.

One problem with using sodium nitrite is that the hogs don't like it because it's so salty they won't eat a lethal dose and are likely to vomit - which other animals will eat. It's also unstable and will degrade if you add syrup or other sweeteners. The biologist at Kerr said they are working on a time release capsule that they hope will let it get further in the hogs system before it makes them sick.

Also, they are working on a feeder with voice recognition so it will only open for hogs.

That local hog buyer will only buy LIVE hogs, not dead ones. Live ones gotta be trapped, or caught by hand with dogs. Can't collect a bounty - which is also not guaranteed, we don't have one in our area - AND sell the hog. $7.50 won't pay for corn (bait) and ammo. Not much incentive there? When there were no stock laws in East Texas (in my youth), running hogs in the woods could produce a profit. When regulations took away that market, there was no incentive to harvest them - thus the overpopulation of East Texas by feral hogs.

Just a note, but I just learned why sodium nitrate isn't being used to poison hogs effectively yet. They won't eat it if they taste it. Scientists are trying to figure out a way to micro-encapsulate it where they can't...FWIW.

Looks like they are starting to get into some cold country.

How fuq did 5 pigs get to North Dakota?

Hunters were the ones who, in the 'eighties, caused the rapid expansion of feral hogs here. They bought and released them, without the Landowner's knowledge, usually, into pastures they had leased for hunting.