New monitoring for disease risk among feral pigs

Scotland's feral pigs are being monitored for a disease that has been spreading through mainland Europe.

African swine fever (ASF) does not affect humans but can be fatal to pigs, and there are concerns it could potentially arrive in UK through non-commercial imported meat.

Scotland is thought to have a few thousand feral pigs and because they are free roaming they cannot be given the same health checks as domestic pigs.

Wildlife rangers are among public sector workers who have been trained to take samples from dead pigs to be tested for the disease.

Wild boar are a native species to Scotland, but were hunted to extinction about 700 years ago.

Over about the last 10 years, populations of free-roaming pigs have become established in Dumfries and Galloway and the Highlands.

Scotland's nature agency NatureScot refers to these animals as feral pigs, and said they include hybrids - a mix of boar and domestic pigs following interbreeding.

The populations include animals that have escaped from farms or illegally released into the wild.

Nine Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS) rangers have been trained by Animal Plant Health Agency (APHA) to take samples from pigs found dead of natural causes, killed on roads or shot in culls.

Some staff at Transport Scotland and NatureScot have received the training.

FLS is also working with APHA in a survey of feral pigs in Portclair Forest near Fort Augustus.

The forest is in the Great Glen, an area of the Highlands where the pigs are found.

Since April, FLS rangers have culled 46 feral pigs. The locations were:

• Two in north east Scotland
• 21 in the Highlands
• 23 in Dumfries and Galloway/Scottish Borders

Grant Carson, of 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."

NatureScot wildlife management manager Alastair MacGugan added: "Controlling feral pigs is essential to help reduce disease risks.

"NatureScot has published a series of best practice guidance to enable land managers to undertake control and we encourage them to be vigilant for any signs of disease."