U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) officials are moving forward with field trails in Texas and Alabama to help determine the effectiveness of sodium nitrite toxic bait for removing feral hog sounders in natural settings.
USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) received an Experimental Use Permit (EUP) from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to conduct the sodium nitrite toxic bait field trials.
“Wildlife Services takes the selection and use of toxic baits for use in wildlife damage management very seriously. The final environmental assessment, FONSI (Finding of No Significant Impact) and EUP are the result of years of collaborative research by WS and multiple private, state, federal and international partners,” WS Deputy Administrator Bill Clay said. “With these in place, we can now begin field trials to help determine the effectiveness of the sodium nitrite toxic bait for removing feral swine sounders in natural settings, as well as any potential impacts to non-target wildlife.”
The agency will work with landowners to identify and target three to nine feral hog sounders, which are social groups that contain both mature and juvenile feral hogs.
Bait delivery systems designed to prevent access by non-target wildlife will be filled with placebo bait placed in the sounder territories and monitored with motion-activated cameras. Following a period of acclimation to confirm feral hog use of baited areas, the placebo bait will be replaced with sodium nitrite toxic bate for two nights.
At least 30 feral hogs and no more than 30 raccoons will be live-captured and radio-collared prior to baiting in order to monitor movements and exposure to bait.
Sodium nitrite is a meat preservative commonly used to cure meat, such as sausage and bacon. When consumed in large amounts over a short period of time, it is toxic to feral hogs.
The mode of death is similar to carbon monoxide poisoning. Once enough bait is eaten, the feral hog gets faint, is rendered unconscious and quickly dies. In most cases, feral hogs die within 2.5 to 3 hours after eating a lethal dose.
Feral hogs are a destructive and invasive species that causes damage and disease threats to crops, public property, native ecosystems, livestock health and human health.
More than 6 million feral hogs are located in at least 35 states across the U.S. Their damages to agricultural crops alone are estimated at $190 million each year.
“Although trapping, aerial operations, and recreational hunting of feral swine have effectively reduced damage in some areas, studies show that at least 70 percent of feral swine must be removed each year in order to prevent population growth,” Clay said. “Should the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency approve the toxic bait for use with feral swine, it could become another tool in the toolbox for integrated feral swine damage management.”
The development of tools and techniques for use in feral hogs damage management supports the National Feral Swine Damage Management Program—a nationally-coordinated effort among federal, state, tribal and local entities to manage feral hogs damage and stop their spread.
A factsheet has more information about the sodium nitrite toxic bait for feral hogs.
History has proven that using poison in an attempt to control any species has unintended consequences. Even though I have a large number of destructive feral hogs inhabiting my farm, I am not in favor of the use of poison to control them.
Never knew of any government project to control animals through poison working out to be good.
Are you stupid? Now we have this poison in the ecosystem. Those carcasses are going to be eaten by scavengers and decomposing organisms that will then be poisoned. It will seep into the ground and the water table. Hell if it doesn’t kill them then it’s likely to enter our system if humans consume it post poisoning. Terrible idea that’s going to hurt everyone long term.
Like often happens, many have opinions and few have facts that support the opinion…..
What about the hogs that will faint and die in creeks, ponds and river beds. Wouldn’t this get into the ecosystems!? Using chemicals is not away to control feral hogs.
The Fact Sheet linked in the above article says most of the Sodium Nitrite is metabolized before and continues to degrade after death. So the ecosystem will have a similar affect as a lot of wild pigs killed by lead, or shot with bullets and left to die/degrade in the environment.
Why does the state of Texas not permit hunters to hunt in the WMA’s with baiting at night with lights just for feral hogs. As a worst case, let us register with the local rangers, Wild Life Offices so they know who where are. We can call and let them know what areas we will be hunting. These hogs are tearing up the forest along the hiking trails and need to be eradicated but they have learned to only move at night because no body is going to bother them.
And what if a cow eats it?
Anything that the government gets into either goes bankrupt or prohibits the public of it’s rights in one way or another.
Just the facts:
Feral hogs start reproducing at 8 months, produce one and one half litters and 6 piglets per litter/ year
All methods of feral hog control reduce the population by approximately 30% per year. At this rate the hog population doubles every 5 years.
Feral hogs cause $52 million dollars in damage a year in Texas.
Feral hogs spread three primary diseases. They are swine brucellosis, tularemia, and pseudorabies. Feral hog fecal contamination is important in the spread of salmonellosis, foot rot, intestinal bacteria, viruses, and parasites.
Sodium nitrite is not a new or untried toxicant . “Investigations into sodium nitrite as a feral pig toxi-cant commenced in Australia in 2005 (Cowled et al. 2008a) and in New Zealand in 2008. Since that time, laboratory and pen trials have confirmed the humane-ness and efficacy of the active ingredient. Toxic field trials of Hog-Gone have subsequently proven it to be very effective in reducing feral pig populations, with the average population reduction being 79%.” Copied from the 2012 WMD proceedings.
There is extensive research on the breakdown of sodium nitrite in the environment and tissue residues in poisoned hogs. “Non-target, threatened and endangered species and human health and safety are the first issues that come to mind when discussing a toxicant. However, sodium nitrite is vastly different from other toxicants in that there is virtually no secondary residues in the tissues of dead pigs after succumbing to an overdose of sodium nitrite. To give you an example of what I mean when I say “virtually no residue” we found average residues in the muscle to be 3.2 mg/kg. By comparison, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration regulates that no more than 200 mg/kg of sodium nitrite can be used in preserved meat products for human consumption.” Copied from the Nebraska chapter of The Wildlife Society.
David Unnerstall DVM