Manitoba Wild Pig Numbers Much Larger than Anticipated

The Coordinator of the Manitoba Invasive Swine Eradication Project reports the scope of province's wild pig population appears to be much larger than had been first anticipated.

Earlier this year Manitoba Pork, in partnership with the Government of Canada and the Province of Manitoba and in collaboration with Manitoba’s agricultural sector, launched the Squeal on Pigs campaign, a program designed to inform the public about wild pigs in Manitoba, the damage they cause and what to watch for and to provide a mechanism to report sightings.

Dr. Wayne Lees, the Coordinator of the Manitoba Invasive Swine Eradication Project, says wild pigs can do a lot of environmental damage, they ruin crops and pasture and they harbour parasites and disease that put domestic livestock at risk.

Clip-Dr. Wayne Lees-Manitoba Invasive Swine Eradication Project:

It's very difficult to get a really accurate estimation of numbers but, what I can tell you is that the scope of the issue is much bigger than was first anticipated.

When we launched this program back in January of this year, much of the information was developed through sightings around the Spruce Woods area.
But, since we've launched our campaign, we've found reports of sightings much further north and much further east so the scope the geographical impact I think is much broader than what we first anticipated.

It's an issue that I think we probably underestimated to begin with, until we got the word out and people started to report sightings to us.

To learn more about wild pig populations in Manitoba or to report sightings, Dr. Lees encourages anyone interested to check out the website at squealonpigsmb.org or to call the toll-free number at 1-833-SPOT-PIG.