I have hunted wild hog quite a bit. I have killed 14 of them and been with my buddies when they killed 25 or 30 more.
Wild hog is the best meat I ever have eaten. If I had a shot at a 120 pound wild sow I would let an 8 pointer walk, and never think twice about it.
Wild hog tastes great and had half of the fat of domestic pork.
DO NOT shoot a big boar. My buddy killed a 450 pound monster and the meat was not edible. The meat stunk.
I did kill a 120 pound boar once and the meat was pretty good, but not as good as a sow.
"•Leptospirosis
•Brucellosis
•E. coli
•Salmonellosis
•Toxoplasmosis
•Rabies
•Swine Influenza viruses
•Trichinosis
•Giardiasis
•Cryptosporidiosis"
This list of diseases that can supposedly be transmitted from the hog to humans is a bunch of bs.
E. coli? That is found in the intestines of any animal, including deer and humans. If you get crap from the intestines onto the meat it will make you sick. NO KIDDING.
Trichinosis? This is only found in domestic hogs that feed on garbage.
Swine flu? That is utter bs, give me a break.
I helped clean over 40 wild hogs and we never wore gloves, we cleaned 'em just like we did deer, never hosed one down. Sure their hide is dirty, muddy, but I wasn't going to eat the hide.
The scare stories on this thread are amusing to me as an experienced hog hunter.
I have to disagree with you, Simon.
As a former Wildlife Specialist trained in this very subject, I can tell you that the information is compiled by years of study, field necropsy, and actual data.
This isn't a "scare story" as you put it, but merely a warning of the possible threats to disease and parasites wild hogs are proven to carry, and how to avoid getting said disease and parasites when near or handling wild hogs.
As with anything else, just take from it what you will. Or not...
http://noble.org/ag/wildlife/feralhogs/disease/
