PROJECTS are underway to improve the management of feral pigs.
Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS) has been working with the Animal Plant Health Agency (APHA) on two schemes that will improve the population management and act as an early-warning system for disease.
Scotland has localised populations of feral pigs in Dumfries and Galloway, along with Lochaber and Ross-shire, with rough estimates pitching the national feral pig population at the low thousands level.
And FLS rangers had to cull four feral pigs in the Dumfries and Borders area this year, since April.
Now a feral pig density survey is being carried out by APHA’s National Wildlife Management Centre. It will gather data that, once analysed, will early next year provide a better supported density estimate for the wild pig population.
In addition, nine FLS wildlife rangers, including five covering the south of Scotland, have been trained to take samples from naturally deceased pigs, as well as animals killed in road traffic accidents, that can be tested for African Swine Fever.
Although ASF has never been identified in the UK, it has been spreading in Europe in recent years. As such, there is thought to be a ‘medium’ risk of its arrival in the UK.
Grant Carson, FLS, south region, said: “We have a duty to monitor the health of these animals and act accordingly.
“We want to do what we can to help and welcome the collaborative working with APHA in the hope that we can establish a system of early indication of infectious diseases arriving in the UK.”
