Manitobans with a smartphone have a new way to raise the red flag if they spot wild pigs.
Sightings reported through the Farm Health Guardian app will now feed into the province’s Squeal on Pigs campaign, an initiative launched earlier this year under the auspices of the Manitoba Invasive Swine Eradication Project.
Why it matters: The Prairies’ growing wild pig problem has sparked farmer concern over its potential as a hog disease reservoir.
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Dr. Wayne Lees, co-ordinator of the eradication program, said data from the app will add to reports that Squeal on Pigs already collects through phone tips or the campaign’s website.
“We’ve created another channel so that, if people on those farms see wild pigs in the vicinity, we’ve just made it one step easier for them to report that to us,” he said.
The app itself should be familiar to many pork producers.
Rob Hannam, CEO of Farm Health Guardian, estimated about half of Manitoba pig farms use his company’s services for things like biosecurity tracking and data collection.
“The people that it’s most convenient for would be the people who are already working in the swine sector,” he said. “Many of them are users of Farm Health Guardian and they already have the app on their phone. For those swine sector workers, whether it’s managers or farm workers, there’s already lots of users from Manitoba on our system and those people now have an easy way with a tool that they already use for work.”
The Ontario-based Farm Health Guardian has built its company name around digital farm biosecurity and herd health monitoring systems.
Only customers can access the traffic monitoring, animal movement reporting or other functions of the app, but Hannam says the app’s wildlife reporting function is available to anyone, customer or not.
The Farm Health Guardian app itself is free to download, he noted. Once within the app, anyone can report either wild swine or wild birds, the latter being a nod to poultry sector concerns over avian influenza.
Only wild pig reports go to Squeal on Pigs.
There have been no formal discussions about reporting wild bird data to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency or provincial veterinary authorities, Hannam said, but the tool is ready should provinces want to use it.
Squeal on Pigs
Squeal on Pigs was launched in May, echoing similar programs in Alberta, Montana, Washington and Idaho. The educational and data collection initiative sets out a centralized reporting hub for wild pig sightings, which can then be acted upon. It also has information about the invasive species, their signs and impacts.
Since spring, Lees estimated several hundred reports have come in. There was an initial rush following the campaign’s launch and subsequent media attention, but reports tapered off in summer.
“Not all of those are wild pigs,” he said. “Sometimes people will see a pig in a pasture and it’s being contained.”
He said most sightings have been in the known wild pig hot spot around Spruce Woods Provincial Park.
In 2021, the Canadian Wild Pig Research Project, spearheaded by a team from the University of Saskatchewan, pegged both RM of Glenboro-South Cypress and RM of Victoria as regions with “high” wild pig occurrence (reserved for municipalities with 50 occurrences or more).
This year, the project reported that, of 153 occurrences reported in April and May, most were still around Spruce Woods Provincial Park, although the animals’ range was increasing.
“What surprised me a little bit has been the other areas around the province where we’ve had reports of pigs,” Lees said, noting sporadic reports from southeastern Manitoba and to the north.
There have also been control efforts, Lees said. Most of them are centralized around Spruce Woods Provincial Park, although areas south of Winnipeg have also seen active control.
“What normally happens when we get a report is we make contact with the person who provided the report to gather more information, and then we’ll try to contact the landowner in the area to get their take on whether they’ve seen wild pigs,” Lees said.
“The next step is we’ll get permission with the landowner, perhaps set up some trail cameras, set up a small baiting station to see if we can attract pigs, and once we know that pigs are in the area and will come to a particular site, then we’ll engage in a trapping operation.”
The Manitoba Invasive Swine Eradication Project has trapped as many as 100 wild pigs in the last year or so, according to Lees.
Squeal on Pigs is planning another media push this fall in hopes of getting reports from producers who are out on the land for harvest and from hunters when the season starts.
