Canadian super pigs

[freefall]

I was thinking they'd probably be mostly eaten by other pigs.

 

[sgt_zim]

"Probably" and "mostly" but not exclusively. There are vultures, coyotes, dogs, cats, bobcats, crows, etc.

In the end, they decided the risk to other wildlife as well as domesticated animals was too great.

 

[freefall]

Boys in Wuhan are probably working on a Super Swine Flu as we sit here.

 

[John Wasmuth]

Boys in Wuhan are probably working on a Super Swine Flu as we sit here.

Wouldn’t doubt it.

 

[Hunter4752001]

Hoggone is a concentrated sodium nitrate poison which is specific to pigs. Although it's early days, current info suggests that there is a low risk of secondary poisoning to non target species.

https://www.dcceew.gov.au/environment/invasive-species/publications/testing-feral-pig-toxicant

 

[Sika98k]

Don't wish for such things, they might come true.

In the first year there are 15 pigs, then 50, then 150 and then 300 up to 500.
That's the moment when hunting pigs is getting really hard work to avoid the damage they definitely will create on all fields and all meadows within their reach...

The propagation rate here in Austria is approximately between 150% and 300% per year... that's not fun anymore...

Don't get me wrong, I love hunting pigs in snow or in shiny nights... but it's hard work to kill 100 to 150 pieces each year, including nights with -15 degrees Celsius because of the perfect moon light

African Swine Fever hasn’t hit Austria yet then has it ?

 

[sgt_zim]

Hoggone is a concentrated sodium nitrate poison which is specific to pigs. Although it's early days, current info suggests that there is a low risk of secondary poisoning to non target species.

https://www.dcceew.gov.au/environment/invasive-species/publications/testing-feral-pig-toxicant

There have been a few in-the-wild biological/agricultural efforts which have been wildly successful and had little or no fallout.

The one that comes to mind was the eradication of screwworm flies. They're a terrific livestock pest, and one of only a handful (maybe the only one) of maggots that feed on living flesh. Entomologists and other biologists from the USDA, TAMU, Tx Dept of Agriculture, and maybe a few others, experimented in the late 40s and early 50s with the radiologic sterilization of screwworm fly males, then released them into the wild in South Texas. The females can only breed once, then they die (usually after laying eggs on livestock hosts). They successfully bred with the sterile males, but no offspring came of it, of course. Screwworm flies were eradicated in the course of a couple years as I recall.

It's probably the single greatest agricultural victory in US history. But that sort of thing is the exception, and not the rule.

We had another program here in Texas a few years ago where baits cast out that had been infused with rabies vaccine. It took a bit longer than the screwworm thing did, but rabies is exceedingly rare in coyotes and foxes these days in Texas.

We also wiped out malarial mosquitoes here close to a century ago. P. falciparum was endemic along the gulf coast of the US, so was yellow fever. We wiped those out with DDT.

There are others, but our track record of eliminating, or at least abating, pests without other significant consequences isn't good.

 

[FlowHamed18]

African Swine Fever hasn’t hit Austria yet then has it ?

Not yet, but that's a matter of time...
The question is when, not if it will happen...

 

[PerH]

They move quick and on areas people dont think its possible " that pigs could move in or at".

They recently collared a wild hog here ,that will be noted later wher it goes.

But it 20 yesrs now since first bosr in modern history was felled outside a pig farmers den over here. That was with a m98 in 9,3x64 and 4x Zeiss Jena scope. 140 kg that boar weight was .

 

[Neil Molendyk]

In defence of the farmers in Alberta that tried the Russian boar venture, believe it or not there were people entering his property at night and cutting the fence to let the hogs out so that they could shoot them. Then they went feral. Initially the farmer would offer wild pig roasts at company customer appreciation functions and he had a lucrative business. He had buried the containment frost fence 30" deep to prevent the hogs from rooting their way out but others had to get greedy (and stupid) and cut the fences. You just can't fix stupid. But I think that our American neighbours are getting the better part of the deal. They get feral hogs that they can hunt, we get a continual flow of illegal refugees coming into Canada through the bogus border crossing at Roxham Road between New York state and Quebec.

 

[freefall]

In defence of the farmers in Alberta that tried the Russian boar venture, believe it or not there were people entering his property at night and cutting the fence to let the hogs out so that they could shoot them. Then they went feral. Initially the farmer would offer wild pig roasts at company customer appreciation functions and he had a lucrative business. He had buried the containment frost fence 30" deep to prevent the hogs from rooting their way out but others had to get greedy (and stupid) and cut the fences. You just can't fix stupid. But I think that our American neighbours are getting the better part of the deal. They get feral hogs that they can hunt, we get a continual flow of illegal refugees coming into Canada through the bogus border crossing at Roxham Road between New York state and Quebec.

Oi, tell us about the illegal immigrants!