The Coordinator of Squeal on Pigs Manitoba reports the success of efforts to trap and eliminate wild pigs from the landscape has been going up.
Squeal on Pigs Manitoba, a partnership involving Manitoba Pork and the federal and provincial governments charged with locating and eliminating wild pigs, has released its “2025 Year in Review.”
Squeal on Pigs Manitoba Coordinator Dr. Wayne Lees says the effort got started in 2022 and every year the level of collaboration with the public has increased and more an more pigs have been removed.
We continue to get really good collaboration with the public on reporting sightings of wild pigs. That’s one of the first ways that we learn where wild pigs are in the environment so that’s a really important part. They’ve reported pigs through our web site which is www.squealonpigsmb.org or through our toll-free number, which is 1-833-SPOT-PIG. Once we get an indication from the public then we’ll go out and do surveys of the land owners to see if they have either spotted wild pigs or signs of wild pigs. Once that happens, we establish a baiting site and we work with the land owners to trap the pigs and remove them so it’s a win win situation.
Our success has been going up. This last year we’ve trapped 206 wild pigs. So, we’ve removed that number from the population. When we remove those pigs, we also take samples for African Swine Fever so this is a big part of our surveillance to make sure that we’re proving to the world that we don’t have that disease.
~ Dr. Wayne Lees, Squeal on Pigs Manitoba
Dr. Lees notes the squealonpigsmb.org web site is an excellent resource which provides maps of where wild pigs are located and outlines what to look for and how to report wild pigs.
