More than 20 feral pigs culled across south of Scotland since April

A feral pig
-Credit: (Image: Reach Publishing Services Limited)


More than 20 feral pigs have been culled across the south of Scotland since April.

Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS) and the Animal Plant Health Agency (APHA) have been working together on two schemes aimed at improving the management of feral pig populations and providing an early-warning system for disease.

And since April, 46 feral pigs have been culled by FLS rangers across Scotland, with 19 in Galloway and a further four in the Dumfries and borders region.

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Five FLS rangers across the south of Scotland have been trained by APHA to test pigs which either died naturally or were killed for African swine fever – which has never been identified in the UK but has been spreading in Europe, with a “medium” risk of it arriving on these shores.

Ranger Grant Carson 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.”

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Dumfries and Galloway is one of three areas in Scotland believed to be home to feral pigs, with estimates putting the national population in the low thousands.

The new surveillance programme will gather data that, once analysed, will early next year provide a better supported density estimate for the wild pig population.