SAN DIEGO, Calif. — As a new tool to help stop the spread of feral pigs, the USDA’s National Feral Swine Damage Management Program has started unleashing detector dogs in specific fields to track the presence of the invasive and destructive wild hogs.

 

“It’s hard to prove that an animal isn’t in an area,” explained Dale Nolte, head of the National Feral Swine Damage Management Team, an arm of the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service’s Wildlife Services (WS) program.

“The detector dogs give us that confidence so we can say they are gone and focus on other areas that are still experiencing damage.”

In 2013, the WS first used detector dogs to successfully sniff out the scat, or droppings, of invasive nutria on Maryland’s Lower Eastern Shore as part of the Chesapeake Bay Nutria Eradication Program (CBNEP), a multifaceted effort to rid the area of the damaging animal.

Using these same training techniques, the dog handlers from the Nutria program were able to cross-train the canines to locate and detect feral swine scat, where WS field staff from across the country sent in samples of scat so the dogs could be trained to detect it.

According to Marnie Pepper, a certified biologist and WS project leader for the Chesapeake Bay Nutria Eradication Project/Nutria Detector Dog Program, the team recently flew to the San Diego area – which was once heavily populated with the rogue swine – to test the detector dogs.

Pepper and Nolte said they believed feral swine were eradicated in the area, but needed the dogs’ help to prove the animal’s absence.

 

“The dogs did not have any confirmed detections,” Pepper said. “One dog, Keeva, did respond and that sample was collected. But the DNA was so compromised that they could not come back with a clear yes or no about the identity of the animal.”

Between 1990 and 2013, feral hog numbers exploded from an estimated 2 million across 20 states to 6 million in 38 states, according to the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation (CSF).

“The range of this damaging species extends from the Southeast United States, through the Midwest, to parts of the West Coast and is expected to continue to spread,” the CSF said.

As descendents of released or escaped domestic pigs, feral swine have taken  hold in North America. Since they arehighly adaptable, lack natural predators and have been translocated to new areas by people, their range has expanded over the last few decades. 

 

Moreover, depending on the location and type of damage, feral swine damage management operations vary. In fact, with more than an estimated 6 million feral swine in at least 35 states, these wild boars inflict about $1.5 billion in crop and property damage each year.

According to the USDA, feral swine are a risk to human and domestic animal health, harm threatened and endangered species, hurt native wildlife and natural resources, uproot crops, damage yards, ruin golf courses, threaten water quality and are generally considered the worst invasive species on Earth.

In addition, the USDA said a group of feral swine can overturn acres of land in a single night, rooting with their snouts and tusks, scavenging anything they can find, including salamanders, insects, frogs and the eggs of ground nesting birds, reptiles and amphibians.

According to the Iowa State University Forestry Extension Office, feral hogs also spread diseases like pseudorabies and swine brucellosis to wildlife, domestic livestock and family pets.

“It is not transferable to humans,” the office stated. “Swine brucellosis is an infectious bacterial reproductive disease, which can cause abortion, lowered conception rates and other reproductive problems (in animals).”

In April 2014, the USDA kicked off a national effort to reduce the devastating  damage caused by feral swine. The $20 million program aims to help states dealwith a rapidly expanding population of invasive wild swine.

Last October, federal and state workers in Indiana started its plan to eradicate feral pigs from the state, which had an estimated 500 wild pigs at the time. Steve Backs, Indiana Department of Natural Resources wildlife research biologist, told the Bloomington Herald Times that wild pigs have been in Indiana for the past 25 years.

Under the 2014 farm bill, Indiana received $20 million in federal funding for a five-year effort to help combat the increasing population of wild pigs across the country. “The Indiana Department of Natural Resources has no interest in promoting wild pigs as a recreation resource (for hunting), (and) instead views them as a threat to existing recreational opportunities,” he said.

Currently, the USDA is working across the country to assess, control and prevent feral swine damage. Although dogs are just one of the many tools the USDA is using to stop feral swine, it is urging those who see feral swine or their damage on property to contact the department for assistance.

To learn more about feral swine, call 866-4-USDA-WS or read about them on the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service website at www.aphis.usda.gov