State and federal officials are sounding the alarm over Pennsylvania's rapidly growing population of wild hogs, highly aggressive and destructive animals that pose serious threats to farms and wildlife.
A government investigation launched in the fall shows the state might have as many as 3,000 of the tusked beasts -- a number far greater than officials first believed. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has evidence of at least 300 hogs killed by hunters this past winter alone.
What?s being taken [by hunters] is just scratching the surface of what's there,'' said Harris Glass, state director of USDA Wildlife Services.
When USDA and the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture launched their $60,000 wild hog study in November, officials thought they were dealing with perhaps several hundred animals. They have since determined at least five counties -- Bedford, Bradford, Butler, Cambria and Tioga -- have significant breeding populations of hogs.
The state Game Commission has confirmed wild hog sightings in 15 counties since 1993, including Carbon and Schuylkill in 2004. Unconfirmed sightings have been reported from Montgomery and another county.
''I think we're getting close to the point where this thing is going to be an unstoppable train,'' said David R. Griswold, assistant director of the state Agriculture Department's bureau of animal health and diagnostic services. ''Once you get a certain number of breeding adults around -- and they have litters twice a year -- you can see populations increase at quite a rapid rate.''
Wildlife officials are worried because wild hogs cause major habitat damage and compete with native animals for food. They also are known to kill fawns and numerous ground-nesting birds, including wild turkeys and grouse.
Agriculture officials say the hogs can devastate crops and spread disease to the state's nearly 1 million domestic pigs. Pennsylvania is among the top 10 pork-producing states, and the pig industry generates an annual economic impact of nearly $241 million.
The Lehigh Valley and six neighboring counties had 84,700 commercially raised hogs in 2005, the USDA says. Berks is the biggest local producer by far, with 54,100 hogs. Schuylkill was second with 18,600 hogs.
''If they come up to our barns and infect our commercial operations, then our whole state gets quarantined,'' said Tom Sollenberger, president of the Pennsylvania Pork Producers Council. ''Not being able to ship pigs out is a real problem.''
Wild hogs can carry 30 viral and bacterial diseases and 37 parasites that affect people, pets, livestock and wildlife. Among the most worrisome are brucellosis, which can abort pregnancies in domestic pigs, and pseudorabies, which doesn't infect humans but could require commercial pig farmers to euthanize their herds.
''In other states where they have done enough testing to be statistically significant, they are finding up to 30 to 50 percent of the population infected with one or both of those diseases,'' Griswold said.
So far, officials haven't detected any diseases in Pennsylvania hogs, but Griswold noted fewer than a dozen animals have been tested.
Next month, Griswold hopes to convene a meeting of Pennsylvania's feral swine task force, a public-private coalition that includes representatives from the state and federal agriculture departments, the Game Commission and other government, university and private concerns.
''At this point, I am not sure anybody has the ideal answer,'' Griswold said.
Where did they come from?
Wild hogs have inhabited North America since the early 1500s, when they were introduced by Spanish explorers. Additional hogs have been imported ever since for agriculture and hunting.
Today, wild hogs are found in at least 31 other states, from New Hampshire to Hawaii. Texas has 2 million, and Glass said hunters in Florida buy more licenses to hunt hogs than to hunt for deer.
No one knows where and when Pennsylvania's wild hog problem started. But there's a consensus the hogs escaped or were released from one or more of the state's commercial hog-hunting preserves. Authorities have identified such operations in at least 15 counties, though none in the Lehigh Valley. The closest are in Schuylkill and Lancaster.
Glass noted the five counties where feral hogs are known to be reproducing all have at least one hog-hunting preserve. A man in Bradford County told Glass he has removed more than 70 wild hogs from his property in the past three years.
Officials say the number of hog-hunting operations in Pennsylvania could be significantly greater than what they're aware of. That's because hogs are considered domestic animals, not wildlife, and aren't covered by state hunting regulations. Those who want to hunt them can do so anytime without a license.
''We have no jurisdictional authority for feral pigs,'' Game Commission spokesman Jerry Feaser said.
He said hog-hunting operations that also offer hunts for species that require a permit -- such as deer and elk -- are easy to identify. But preserves that offer only hogs can operate with no oversight.
Sollenberger said state regulations require imported pigs to be checked by a veterinarian and certified to be disease-free. However, it is difficult to catch violators.
''There's no one at the border waiting to pull over a livestock truck and checking whether you've got your papers,'' Sollenberger said.
What can be done?
Government officials say immediate action is needed to keep Pennsylvania's wild pig population under control.
''I'd say the clock is ticking,'' Griswold said.
When officials announced their hog surveillance effort in November, they encouraged hunters to kill hogs. Since then, officials have learned hog hunting has become popular in some places and hunters might unwittingly be pushing the hogs into new areas.
Glass said hunting alone won't control the population. That's because hogs can reproduce quickly and are intelligent animals that quickly respond by migrating elsewhere.
''Hunting pressure has already expanded the range of these pigs,'' Griswold said. ''It's expanded them into new areas, and theoretically, it's setting up breeding populations in areas where we didn't have them.''
Kansas, which launched a $125,000 hog control program last year, banned hog hunting after wildlife officials said the sport was pushing the animals off public land onto private property. Kansas officials also said allowing hog hunting encouraged those who enjoy the sport to import their own pigs and release them.
Griswold said Pennsylvania hunters who think having wild hogs is a bonus need to consider their impact on other game species.
''Having a large population of feral swine in an area is not without trade-offs, because they compete with deer, turkeys and grouse,'' Griswold said. ''You better like hunting hogs, because you are going to be hunting fewer of Pennsylvania's other game species in that same area.''
Trapping might work better
Glass said a trapping is more effective. It allows authorities to capture entire families of hogs and collect blood and tissue samples to test for disease.
In Kansas, trapping programs have reduced the wild hog population by 60 percent to 75 percent in some areas within two years. So far, Glass said, trapping in Pennsylvania has been hampered by hunters who shoot hogs in baited areas. Although a few hogs are killed, the rest tend to run away and not come back.
''We don't have any problem with hunters who are out in the woods shooting these things, but please stay out of the areas where we are trying to do baiting and trapping,'' Griswold said. ''Give us a year or two to get this population under control.''
Melody Zullinger, executive director of the Pennsylvania Federation of Sportsmen's Clubs, didn't know hunters might be unintentionally worsening the hog problem. ''We're in full support of doing whatever we can to get rid of them,'' she said.
Besides hunting and trapping, measures used in other states include gunning from helicopters, tracking hogs with hounds and using Judas pigs -- radio-collared animals released and given time to join a group of wild hogs before being tracked.
Griswold noted neither the state Agriculture Department nor USDA has anyone devoted full time to the problem. Funding is limited, and getting more money might be difficult unless testing confirms the presence of diseased hogs.
''If it threatens our livestock industry ? then it takes on a whole other level of importance,'' he said.
