FERAL HOG
HEALTH
AND DISEASES
DON'T KISS THE PIG
Feral swine can be infected with at least 18 viral diseases, 10 bacterial diseases, and 37 parasites that can affect livestock. Diseases of most concern to the US livestock industry are pseudorabies, leptospirosis, swine brucellosis, bovine tuberculosis, and vesicular stomatitis.
Several of these diseases have been eradicated from commercial livestock, but a potential reservoir of reinfection still resides in feral swine populations. In addition, feral swine are susceptible to several foreign animal diseases, such as foot-and-mouth disease virus, which devastated the livestock industries of the United Kingdom in 2001.
- SWINE BRUCELLOSIS
- PSEUDORABIES
- TULAREMIA
- SALMONELLOSIS
- INTESTINAL BACTERIA
- VIRUSES
- PARASITES
DISEASE OF THE
DOMESTIC SWINE
(Potential diseases contracted by Feral Hogs)
KINGS OF THE FOREST
Feral hogs (also called wild hog; Sus scrofa) are preyed on by several natural (that is, nonhuman) species of carnivores and omnivores in the United States and humans. However few of these predators reside in Texas, so aside from human hunting, this allows the population to grow exponentially. 3 Bobcats and coyotes will occasionally feed on feral piglets or weakened animals but they’re no match for an animal that can grow to three times their size.
NO NATURAL
THREATS
TO FERAL HOGS
