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Thermal drones and environmental DNA testing are showing promise in strengthening Manitoba’s fight against invasive, destructive and disease-carrying wild pigs.
Squeal on Pigs, a public awareness campaign aiming to stop the spread of the invasive Eurasian wild boar and cross-bred pigs across the province, says eradication is within reach. It warns the invasive animal poses major risks, including spreading African swine fever, and wreaking havoc on agricultural land and ecosystems.
“We’ve got a real chance of being able to get rid of them, if we’re persistent,” said Wayne Lees, Squeal on Pigs program co-ordinator.
The program is organized by Manitoba Pork and gets funding from the federal and Manitoba governments.
The group logged 240 confirmed wild pigs spotted provincewide last year, as removal efforts increased.
Wild pig population control has been an ongoing issue since the 1980s, but Lees believes two key technologies — thermal imaging drones and environmental DNA testing of water samples — are pushing the province closer to being free of wild pigs.
He highlighted Alberta’s rat control program as a proven model that shows years of sustained, targeted efforts can eradicate an invasive species from a province.
Wayne Lees, Squeal on Pigs program co-ordinator, says the program logged 240 confirmed wild pigs provincewide last year. (Chelsea Kemp/CBC)
Strides in technology are making it easier to track the pests. Thermal drones allow teams to survey dense and inaccessible terrain more easily, while DNA testing helps hone in on potential groups of the animals.
“We’re making progress.… If we’re diligent and maintain our efforts, we will be able to eradicate them from Manitoba,” Lees said.
“Maybe in a decade we won’t need to talk about this anymore.”
Spruce Woods Provincial Park, about 140 kilometres west of Winnipeg, remains a major hot spot and a key target for eradication.
“It’s an island of bush land surrounded by agriculture,” Lees said. “The wild pigs can go in there and hide out, and then they’ve got a feed source.”
African swine fever
The primary disease threat posed by the animals is African swine fever, which is highly contagious and fatal to both commercial and wild pigs, Lees said.
The disease, which poses no threat to humans, is currently not in Canada.
Lee warns that if the disease ever takes hold in wild populations, it could spread to commercial herds, devastating Manitoba’s hog industry.
Manitoba developed a response plan to cull and dispose of hundreds of thousands of pigs if an outbreak should occur.
Cassidy Klima, executive director of Animal Health Canada, said Manitoba is leading the charge when it comes to eradicating the invasive species. The national organization brings together industry and governments to prepare for and manage foreign animal disease outbreaks.
If African swine fever spreads to Canada, wild pigs could severely jeopardize food security and pork production, Klima said.
Cassidy Klima, executive director of Animal Health Canada, is optimistic about getting rid of wild pigs. (Chelsea Kemp/CBC)
She pointed to recent outbreaks in Europe damaging pork industry exports as an example, including an outbreak in Finland that the Canadian Food Inspection Agency reported in August.
“If African swine fever gets into our commercial herds, it can really decimate our food, our pork sector,” Klima said.
“If we don’t safeguard against that, no one else will.”
The wild pigs originated from commercial wild boar farming in the 1980s. Klima said that in many cases, farms would shut down and release the animals into the wild.
Provincial regulation now prohibits wild boar farming to prevent further population expansion. A 2025 regulatory change under the Wildlife Act and the Exotic Wildlife Regulation banned importing or possessing the animals.
For now, Klima said she’s optimistic for the future.
“Eradication is a true potential in Canada,” she said. “We have a national strategy. We have a lot of people invested in seeing this through.”
A group of wild pigs can leave a trail of destruction. (Submitted by Ryan Brook)
But declining population density presents challenges, making remaining groups of wild pigs harder to find, Klima said. That makes public awareness critical.
While the nocturnal wild pigs are rarely spotted directly, their environmental impact is stark, she said. A group of the animals, called a sounder, can leave trails of destruction across farms and pastures while devastating native ecosystems.
“They’re not native to Canada.… they don’t really fit into the environment,” Klima said. “They just create a lot of damage.”
Eradication efforts focus on capturing and euthanizing entire groups to stop population growth, Lees said. Sounders usually include mature breeding females and their offspring.
Manitoba’s harsh weather climate also helps slow reproduction rates compared with warmer southern regions such as Texas, he said.
Squeal on Pigs says that with diligence and persistence, invasive wild pigs can be eradicated in Manitoba. Thermal imaging drones and environmental DNA testing of water samples are making a difference, program co-ordinator Wayne Lees says.
