In opening remarks, chair Rick Préjet said 2025 had been marked by “uncertainty, successes and optimism,” while highlighting the importance of export markets.

Those themes carried through panel discussions led by general manager Cam Dahl, who said Manitoba is particularly exposed because of its dependence on export markets.

“Trade really has become a key focus for Manitoba Pork,” he said, noting about 90 per cent of Manitoba production is exported either as live animals or pork products.

The discussion also swirled around tariffs and the increasingly protectionist tone of global trade. Canadian Pork Council executive director Steven Heckbert noted voluntary country-of-origin labelling (vCOOL) was introduced by Democrats, adding that both major U.S. parties have been moving in the same direction.

“We’re fighting a headwind of increased protectionism,” he said.

Trade concerns were also explored in a one-on-one discussion with Manitoba’s senior representative to the U.S., Richard Madan, who said that despite the rhetoric, there is still broad bipartisan support for smooth trade relations in agricultural states.

“Republicans, Democrats and stakeholders all understand the importance of integrated supply chains, and how Canada is part of a strong food supply system,” he said.

Biosecurity concerns also remain front and centre

Biosecurity was the other major focus. Speakers pointed to African swine fever preparedness, ongoing PED control efforts, wild pig eradication and the continued risk posed by senecavirus A. Recent low disease levels in Manitoba were attributed to stronger biosecurity, surveillance and coordination across the sector.

Dahl said protecting the sector depends in part on decisions made at the farm level.

“Don’t ship sick animals,” he said. “It’s not just your farm that you put at risk. It’s the entire Manitoba pork sector.”

The meeting also included discussion of Manitoba Pork’s public outreach and right-to-farm efforts. On the governance side, Margaret Rempel retired as board member at large and was replaced by Harv Toews.

Full coverage of the Manitoba Pork AGM will appear in the next edition of the Manitoba Co-operator.

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“It’s difficult to say for sure, but I don’t think the problem is expanding,” said Wayne Lees, project co-ordinator with the program. “In fact, I think we’re starting to make some significant progress.”

WHY IT MATTERS: Improved surveillance, trapping and landowner co-operation has helped those tasked with curbing Manitoba’s wild pig problem locate and remove the animals, which pose risks to farms and livestock.

The 2025 year-in-review report highlighted ongoing removal efforts, improved surveillance tools and expanded collaboration across the province.

Like other parts of Canada where the invasive species has dug a foothold, wild pigs remain a concern for farmers and rural communities. They damage crops and habitat, contaminate water sources and can spread diseases that threaten livestock, experts warn.

Finding pigs remains biggest challenge

The hardest task is simply locating the animals.

“I think finding the pigs is always our biggest challenge,” Lees said. “Once we know where they are, then we’re pretty good at taking steps to remove them.”

The program has continued to concentrate much of its work around the Spruce Woods area, which is considered Manitoba’s main wild pig hotspot.

“We know that’s where our biggest population of wild pigs reside,” Lees said.

The annual report said Spruce Woods Park and surrounding areas remain the most significant concentration of wild pigs in the province, while a smaller but persistent population exists near northern Lake Manitoba.

As the population declines, however, the work is becoming more difficult, he added.

“As a program matures, of course, then you have to look harder and harder to find the pigs,” Lees said.

The pattern on the ground suggested numbers are falling, according to field operations manager Devon Baete.

“We’re lower,” Baete said. “We get less and less sightings reported.”

He added that the pigs the program is removing now are harder to reach.

“The ones we’re removing are all deep, deep in areas,” he said.

The report noted 240 sightings were recorded in 2025 from public reports, trail cameras and drones. Surveillance increased significantly during the year, and field teams removed 206 pigs, much of that activity occurring during winter months.

Technology plays pivotal role in surveillance

Technology is playing an increasingly important role in tracking the animals. Thermal-imaging drones have become a key surveillance tool because they can locate pigs hiding in bush or thick vegetation.

“They’ve been a real game changer for us, in that they allow us then to scout areas that would be very, very difficult to scout on foot,” Lees said.

Winter conditions make the technology especially effective.

“Right now, (with) snow cover, when it’s frozen and cold everywhere on the ground, you can locate a pig anywhere in the province,” he said.

Trapping and landowner co-operation key

Trapping remains another central part of the program. Large metal corral traps are commonly used near farmland where pigs move between bush and crop land, while net traps are sometimes deployed in remote or forested areas.

“The net traps work excellent,” Baete said. “They’re very good at capturing wild pigs.”

But wildlife safety and local conditions determine which equipment is used, including what other wildlife or livestock are nearby, he said.

Landowner participation remains key to the program. The report noted that each month staff typically speak with about 250 landowners, operate 25 to 30 traps and deploy roughly 100 trail cameras across the province.

Researchers are also testing environmental DNA techniques to detect pigs in remote areas by analyzing water samples for genetic traces left by animals moving through watersheds. The method could help confirm whether pigs are present in areas where sightings are rare.

Preparing for disease threats

Another growing focus is disease preparedness, particularly for African swine fever (ASF), which could have major consequences for Canada’s pork sector.

“One of our goals is to prepare for any kind of an emergency that’s related to foreign animal disease,” Lees said.

If ASF was found in wild pigs, it would close the border just as quickly as finding it in a domestic herd, he added.

The program is also developing an emergency response template that could be used by other provinces.

“Manitoba elected to be the pilot project,” Lees said. “We’ll develop the chapter and then share that template with the other provinces.”

The report said Manitoba is working with national partners to improve mapping of wild pig populations and strengthen co-ordination across provinces as part of a broader Canadian strategy.

Reporting sightings integral

While the program is encouraged by progress, eliminating the animals will take time.

“I think that if we’re persistent, we have a really good opportunity within the next decade, for sure, to get rid of them,” Lees said.

Public reports from farmers and rural residents remain critical to that goal.

“If landowners do know of wild pigs in their area, make sure they get hold of us,” Lees said. “We’ll come out and we’ll work with them and trap the pigs and get rid of them.”

Baete echoed that message.

“Every sighting is important,” he said. “Even if it’s just somebody thinking it’s rooting on the edge of the field.”

To report a wild pig sighting, visit squealonpigsmb.org, or call 1-833-SPOT-PIG.

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The first 15 are already out. From tariff tensions to invasive wild pigs to weather, here’s a taste of what farmers wanted to read most over the last year:

No. 25 — Port of Churchill searches for year-round trade: In November, KAP hosted Arctic Gateway Group’s CEO to talk future plans for Manitoba’s northern port. Part of the big expansion planned is a goal to keeping the ice open, and trade flowing, all year long.

No. 24 — Weather school: It’s all about the clouds: Do you know your cumulus from your nimbostratus? This piece from way back in 2020 re-emerged on our most-read list for 2025.

No.23 — Fishing the deep water of Manitoba: Want fishing success farther from shore? Our outdoors columnist Tim Sopuck ran readers down some tips and tricks for catching deep water fish in Manitoba.

No. 22 — Manitoba’s wild pigs not headed for population boom, expert says: The co-ordinator for Manitoba’s Squeal on Pigs program says our cold climate situation isn’t comparable to U.S.

No. 21 — We’ve seen trade wars before, but this time is different: Throwing back all the way to January for this one. This early 2025 editorial looked down the barrel of changing U.S. trade policy and what it could mean for Canadian agriculture.

Nov. 20 — Riverside Hutterite Colony gets top honours: It was a western Manitoba sweep at this year’s Royal Manitoba Winter Fair Pork Quality Competition back in spring.

Other highlights so far include beekeepers battling for survival, more trade and tariff stories and Manitoba’s first bovine tuberculosis case in years.

Want to see the full list? Check out our top stories landing page in the top-left corner of our website. Keep checking back until Jan. 31 as we unveil our top 10.

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As of Sept. 22, the province’s Exotic Wildlife Regulation moved wild boar from Schedule B, which mandates a permit to possess them, which bans them outright. The change exempts only domestic pigs.

WHY IT MATTERS: Manitoba’s wild pigs have garnered both ecological and agricultural concern, and there has been substantial effort to track, monitor and develop strategies to eradicate the invasive species.

The new regulation prohibits anyone from importing, possessing, harbouring, allowing to escape or releasing wild boar into the wild.

The regulatory shift comes as Manitoba intensifies efforts to eliminate wild pigs before populations become unmanageable, as they have in some U.S. states.

The regulatory change is crucial to protecting the province’s agriculture sector and supporting eradication efforts, said Wayne Lees, the co-ordinator of Squeal on Pigs Manitoba. The program dedicated to reporting and controlling wild pigs.

“It stops the constant resupply of wild boar in the environment,” Lees said. “So, it’s like turning off the tap.”

Farm escapes have been part of the problem when it comes to wild pigs in Canada. A recent national mapping effort noted that Manitoba’s wild pig population is a mix of escaped domestic pigs and Eurasian wild boar, the latter also often blamed on farm escapes after wild boar were introduced to the Prairies as exotic meat livestock in the ’80s.

They’ve since dug footholds in Alberta, Sasktachewan and, in Manitoba, areas like Spruce Woods Provincial Park, and pose significant threats to crop production, native ecosystems through damaging behaviours like rooting and livestock health.

Protecting pork exports

The ban also has important trade implications, Lees said. Control of wild pigs is part of Canada’s international agreements with trading partners such as Japan and others who import Canadian pork.

The reason lies in the invasive species’ threat as a disease reservoir. In parts of the world, such as Europe, the circulation of pathogens like African swine fever in wild populations have severely complicated efforts to keep those deadly diseases out of domestic pork production.

In Canada, that disease link has spurred a meeting of industry, conservation, government and other stakeholders that has underpinned a big part of the anti-wild pig fight.

Wild pig control was one facet of of the Pan-Canadian African Swine Fever Action Plan, eventually playing into the development of a 10-year national strategy document and the Invasive Wild Pig Leadership Group to spearhead it.

Changing wild pig rules

Manitoba’s last wild boar permit wase issued around 2012, according to Lees, but enforcement has been challenging.

“We know that there were still wild boar being raised on farms,” he said. “That’s why this regulation is so important.”

Lees hasn’t encountered opposition to the ban in his conversations with producers and the public.

“I’ve not yet heard one person who wants to see wild boars…loose in Manitoba.”

Hot spots targeted

The regulatory change supports an increasingly sophisticated eradication program that removed 204 pigs through trapping efforts in 2024, up from 127 in 2023. The program now operates 30 traps and 100 trail cameras across the province.

Squeal on Pigs Manitoba has identified what Lees calls “hot spots” where wild boar are living and breeding in the wild, focusing removal efforts on those trouble areas. The program uses corral and net traps to capture entire pig groups (known as sounders) with landowner co-operation. Once caught, pigs are humanely euthanized and composted.

Going high-tech

Technology is proving essential to the effort. Drones equipped with thermal imaging cameras have become one of the most effective tools for locating pigs in areas where they would otherwise be difficult to detect. The program has also partnered with Assiniboine College and BDx Enviro laboratories in Winnipeg to develop environmental DNA testing that can detect pig presence based on genetic material they leave behind in water sources.

Lees drew optimism from Alberta’s success in eliminating Norway rats from that province through persistent effort.

“I think we can do the same thing in Manitoba,” he said. “It won’t be easy, but I think if we’re persistent, it will actually be very successful.”

So far, the program’s collaborative approach with landowners has been key to its success.

“Working with landowners has really been the key to our success, and it’s all voluntary,” Lees said.

He recently returned from Animal Health Canada’s forum in Ottawa where public-private partnerships were a central theme.

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Alberta faces scattered populations that have prompted municipal bans on some farming types. In Manitoba, breeding colonies of wild pigs have cropped up in places like Spruce Woods Provincial Park. Ontario is still in prevention mode to nip any potential populations at the bud.

WHY IT MATTERS: Invasive wild pigs, and efforts to eradicate them, have gained considerable attention in Manitoba. The species is known for both its ecological and agricultural damage, and is notoriously elusive.

Tracking and eliminating wild pig populations has been a years-long effort in places where they’ve dug a foothold, Manitoba included. For the first time though, there’s now been a nationwide study to map where Canada’s wild pigs are, and what different regions are doing to beat them back.

Animal Health Canada recently released the 2023 Canadian Invasive Wild Pig Report (dated to reflect the last year of the report’s three-year data range).

The national mapping initiative provides provinces with improved communication tools that they didn’t have before, said Hannah McKenzie, a wild boar program specialist with Alberta Agriculture and Irrigation and one of the names involved in the project.

“Up until this map, internally, we were using the information, but we didn’t really have a way to communicate it publicly, or to share that and kind of tell the story about what our program is, where we’re active in the province, and what we’re doing.”

The making of a map

It was a joint effort between provincial governments and Animal Health Canada to standardize how they track and document wild pig populations from coast to coast.

Canada already had the Invasive Wild Pig Leadership Group — a group formed as part of the Pan-Canadian African Swine Fever Action Plan and co-ordinated by Animal Health Canada — looking at national strategy against wild pigs.

The national strategy team realized, however, that individual provinces were all tackling monitoring and control in different ways. By joining forces and sharing data collection methods, they hoped a bigger picture would emerge of wild pig distribution across the Canadian landscape.

“It was identified that we wanted to put together a map that really showed the activities of the different programs and our best understanding of what was happening with wild pigs across Canada,” McKenzie said.

Apples to apples

Co-ordination proved complex due to provincial differences in the way information is collected, McKenzie said.

“There’s quite a bit of work. Animal Health Canada was really able to help kind of figure out how we can make all that information talk to each other,” she noted.

The most challenging part came on the back end of standardizing definitions, finding connections between the data, and putting it together in a way that could be used to do the mapping itself, said Michelle Follensbee, a project manager with Animal Health Canada.

The project had to maintain the integrity of the data, but it also had to work to create a unified national picture.

“We had excellent mapping guidance within the group, and we also reached out to other jurisdictions like the U.S. to get ideas about what we were trying to do and how to approach it.”

Details of the report

The newly published report analyzed surveillance data spanning from 2021 to 2023, mapping confirmed wild pig colonies in co-operating provinces, alongside verified observations of free-ranging pigs recorded in 2023. The document also catalogues field intervention operations by provincial agencies and partner organizations throughout 2023. It looked at all types of feral pigs, from runaway farm pigs to Eurasian wild boar and mixed-breed populations.

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“It was fun to work with the provinces and help them bring together the data that they have so that we could represent it in a way that speaks to Canada’s situation,” Follensbee said. “(The provincial programs) each manage their data, and then we roll it up into a file for Canada to do the mapping.”

Five provinces volunteered to supply information, including British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Ontario. These provinces submitted data through their respective wild pig management agencies, with Animal Health Canada facilitating the compilation process.

“Each one of those programs is a separate program. There isn’t an overarching program in Canada, and so they’re all different, but they have the singular goal of wanting to eradicate wild pigs or prevent them from being established,” Follensbee said.

Regional challenges and responses

Those provincial programs face varying challenges based on their region’s conditions. In Alberta, wild boar populations are “patchy” and not spread out across the entire province. The Alberta Wild Boar Control Program uses monitoring, disease surveillance, and co-ordinated trapping to limit their spread, while some municipalities have moved to ban wild boar farming.

Manitoba’s wild pigs include both escaped domestic herds and Eurasian wild boar. There are hot spots with established populations in Spruce Woods, but also around Lake Manitoba. Since 2022, the province has run its Squeal on Pigs Manitoba program, backed by Manitoba Pork and both federal and provincial funding. That initiative combines surveillance, trapping, and public reporting systems to target problem populations.

Saskatchewan has declared feral wild boar a regulated pest and runs its control program through the Saskatchewan Crop Insurance Corporation. Over the past several years, more than 1,000 animals have been removed. A licensing regime now requires inspections and strict containment for wild boar farms, with a moratorium in place on establishing new facilities.

In Ontario, authorities have focused on prevention before wild pigs can take hold. The province banned wild pig hunting, which experts say actually scatters wild pig groups and spreads the problem, and prohibits keeping Eurasian wild boar. It also deploys trail cameras and does public outreach campaigns. To date, Ontario reports no confirmed established populations, though scattered sightings of escaped farm pigs still occur.

British Columbia, meanwhile, does not have established wild pig colonies, but continues to see sporadic reports of escaped domestic pigs. These cases are dealt with under the Wildlife Act, which prohibits releasing pigs into the wild. A provincial working group co-ordinates responses, and licensed hunters are legally permitted to harvest feral pigs when encountered.

“If you’re a landowner, and you just happen to have wild boar kind of established near you, you could be experiencing some severe impacts to their crops, and they may be making decisions about which crops to grow based on how much damage they expect to get,” McKenzie said.

Real risks to agriculture and wildlife

Wild pigs pose a serious threat to ecosystems, crops, human safety and wildlife habitats, according to Dr. Leigh Rosengren, industry co-chair on the Animal Health Canada board of directors.

“They also serve as potential reservoirs for diseases that threaten both wildlife and livestock, with African swine fever and foot and mouth disease being the most pressing concern,” she said in a press release sent out on Sept. 9 by Animal Health Canada.

Collaboration between provinces and organizations is essential to tackle the widespread and growing problem, Rosengren said.

“Addressing this issue requires co-ordinated action. The 2023 Canadian Invasive Pig Wild Report highlights how participating provinces are coming together to track national progress in preventing established wild pig populations, and managing and removing this invasive species from Canada.”

Disease transmission concerns particularly affect pork producers, McKenzie said.

“The disease risk is kind of ever present, and certainly something that folks worry about quite a bit.”

Public can play a vital role

Public participation remains crucial to the initiative’s success, Follensbee believes. That’s why one of the map project’s goals was to provide information to the public about what’s happening when they report wild pig sightings.

It hopes to “increase their awareness and make them aware of the effort that goes in once something has been sighted, that that sighting has been verified as wild pigs, and that steps are taken to remove them from the landscape,” she said.

Past public awareness campaigns appear to be generating results. McKenzie, who began her role in 2022 shortly after Alberta’s Squeal on Pigs campaign launch, said she’s seen increased reporting activity.

“I don’t think that’s related to the increased numbers of wild boar, but just more people being aware and reporting,” she said. “We are starting to get a lot of reports of escaped domestic pigs as well, which I think is really good, because it means people are out there.”

Manitoba’s program has also grown since its start. In 2023, the program got 157 sighting reports, up from 122 in their initial year. Last year, according to an annual report put out by the program, they got 140 reports.

Their presence with the public, meanwhile, has gained traction. Squeal on Pigs Manitoba reported that their website traffic increased 233 per cent year to year in 2024.

Today, their program has trail cameras and traps, thermal drones, and has gained permission to work inside Spruce Woods Provincial Park itself.

Moving forward

The assessment serves broader disease prevention objectives beyond population tracking, Follensbee said, including collating the information, understanding it and making informed decisions with regards to disease prevention and response planning.

Future editions of the map will include updated information as it becomes available. Animal Health Canada plans to release 2024 data before the end of the year, with follow-up publications monitoring shifts in wild pig geographic spread and evaluating containment and eradication program effectiveness.

“This map is on a yearly basis to release 2023 data and will be following up with 2024 data quite quickly,” Follensbee said.

Meanwhile, outreach efforts continue with additional provinces and territories, while researchers studying wild pig populations across Canada are invited to collaborate with regional control authorities to be included in upcoming reports. Citizens encountering wild pigs should notify appropriate provincial management agencies, such as Squeal on Pigs Manitoba.

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Developed by Invasives Canada, Animal Health Canada and the Invasive Wild Pig Leadership Group, the website, Wild Pigs Canada, was announced on Aug. 20.

“Animal Health Canada is proud to be a collaborator on the new Wild Pigs Canada website that shares information to support the prevention, management and removal of invasive wild pigs from the Canadian website,” said Dr. Leigh Rosengren, industry co-chair on Animal Health Canada’s board of directors in an Aug. 20 news release.

The website represents a team effort across sectors, said Rebecca Lord, executive director of Invasives Canada.

“Wild Pigs Canada is the result of the strong and meaningful co-ordination across sectors and regions, developed through our partnership with Animal Health Canada and the Invasive Wild Pig Leadership Group, and informed by our ongoing work with international partners in the U.S. and Mexico,” Lord said in the release.

Farmers, hunters, hikers and the general public are encouraged to use the website for keeping up to date with information about wild pigs in Canada and to know what to do if one is sighted.

Wild pigs can be destructive to natural habitats and crops and may be a vector for disease.

“Remember, people on the land and out in nature are our first line of defense against invasive species like wild pigs,” said Matt DeMille, executive director of the Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters in the release.

To learn more or report a sighting, visit WildPigs.ca.

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That’s according to material presented at the Canadian Wild Pig Summit II held online April 29.

WHY IT MATTERS: Manitoba industry, residents and government have been fighting to beat back invasive wild swine, which are both an ecological and agricultural threat.

Doug Larcombe, a field operations technician with Squeal on Pigs Manitoba, was tasked with leading the on-the-ground work for the test exercise.

The project was a collaboration with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and Manitoba Pork Council.

Larcombe’s work is meant to raise awareness about the wild pig threat and instruct the public on how to recognize and report them. He collaborates with landowners, employing tools like drones, trail cameras, bait, and traps to help eliminate the animals once they’re found.

But finding them is often tricky. The pigs are notoriously elusive. Furthermore, they’re quite mobile. They’ve been known to travel up to 15 kilometres a night, according to from data collected through radio collars.

Simulating wild pigs

The scenario ran from Oct. 15-18 last year. The idea was to simulate a response to a wild pig finding, and then evaluate how effective the current tools, strategies and communication plans were in a real-world rural setting.

“I started with some questions…where do I start? What are the challenges going to be? What do the numbers look like? Communication, strategy, mapping, who’s going to be responsible for each process and next steps?” Larcombe said.

A key component of the project was selecting and analyzing the test site. Larcombe’s team worked in a radius of five to 10 kilometres.

“The area is a mix of urban, cropland, pastureland, bush or swampland,” he said.

That landuse breakdown came with unique aspects, he noted, Land was used heavily, and there were patches of high population density.

“The study in our environment is very different from other potential outbreak areas in our province,” Larcombe said. “The east, moving to the south, has a high population density of people, and would be a difficult area for pigs to hide themselves and their presence.”

In Manitoba, previously noted wild pig hot spots include areas such as Spruce Woods Provincial Park and the surrounding areas —landscapes with more natural cover and not as many people.

Using satellite imagery, interviews and ground scouting, Larcombe was able to evaluate pig habitat and monitor for signs of of the species.

“I tried to ensure I stopped at all the larger farms, and I used the number of grain bins as my measurement. If it was a livestock farm, I always had to keep biosecurity in mind,” he said.

Engaging the community

Door-to-door outreach was a major part of the strategy. Larcombe did interviews at 117 properties over three days and “98 people were interviewed in total … I stopped municipal employees that I saw working in the area. I went into the fields and talked to farmers that were harvesting corn.”

He also popped into office spaces to speak to staff.

Communication was handled carefully. Larcombe never shared that they were actually doing the test. Instead, he mentioned that there were wild pigs to the south of the area, and his team was checking for their presence.

“The right message will turn the community members into our helpers… the community members are who will form our ongoing monitor,” he said.

Larcombe found that business cards were especially effective.

“I had comments like, ‘I’ll put your card on the fridge.’”

Survey results

No signs of rooting or pig sightings were reported during the exercise.

Even in corn fields, a tempting food source for wild pigs, there was no rooting reported by any farmers in the area.

Backyard pigs, a biosecurity factor, given the potential for exposure should pig diseases get into local wild pigs, were also found to be minimal in the study zone.

“One farmer advised that he would sometimes keep backyard pigs, and I did see one pet pig in the area,” Larcombe said.

Dogs, on the other hand, were a real issue during the study. Larcombe got bitten twice.

Drone surveillance was hampered by both environmental and logistical barriers during the study. The team needed a temperature above -10 degrees Celsius (counting windchill) and wind speeds of less than 43 kilometres an hour.

The population density also threw another wrench in the mix. Local residents were wary about rural crime, he said, and he had heard through the grapevine that unexpected drones in the air, which residents worried were being used to scout for thefts, might meet with hostility.

Air traffic added another layer of complication. Planes, helicopters and geese were all things the team needed to be aware of.

Future pig plans

For Larcombe, mapping remains the most important tool for understanding, planning, recording information and sharing knowledge about the wild pig situation.

Clear protocols, rapid development and inter-agency co-operation should all be in place before a real outbreak of wild pigs in an area occurs, Larcombe said. A 17-day system, like the one his team undertook, is simply not fast enough to be effective.

“In a real outbreak, this timeline is unacceptable,” he said. “Delays were caused by harvest, ground search and rescue, call out, time spent planning and trying to understand what was going to be expected.”

Safety, training, fencing and legal frameworks for night shooting all need to be addressed as well, Larcombe said. While the public is interested in doing their part, they should only do so with proper oversight, he added.

“There are lots of people out there that want to volunteer to help with the problem, but it would take a lot of planning to bring them into play,” he noted.

The province is actively working toward the complete removal of wild pigs from the province, Manitoba Agriculture’s website states. The invasive animals threaten both the environment and agriculture by disrupting ecosystems, damaging crops, and increasing the risk of disease transmission to both farm animals and wildlife.

The province plans to continue its work collaborating with landowners, conservation groups, and other stakeholders to remove invasive swine populations, the government website adds.

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The pilot project out of Brandon’s Assiniboine College focuses on environmental DNA, known more commonly as eDNA, genetic traces that an invasive species leaves in their environment. Positive results may be the first warning sign that a species has spread into a region (such as the recent finding of zebra mussels in Manitoba’s Clear Lake) and can help inform control efforts.

WHY IT MATTERS: Manitoba has been fighting to beat back invasive wild pigs and the threat they pose to both local ecosystems and agriculture.

James Hood, researcher with the college’s Russ Edwards School of Agriculture and Environment, is leading the project. Being able to rapidly find wild pigs is essential in control efforts, and eDNA can play a significant role in that, he said.

“It would just be one tool in the suite that people use in detection here. It would augment the other techniques that are being used,” Hood said during the Canadian Wild Pig Summit II held April 29.

The online event was hosted by Animal Health Canada, Squeal on Pigs Manitoba and Manitoba Pork.

Protecting pork from wild pigs

As well as adding a new tool to detect wild pigs, the project is part of an early-stage effort to explore how the method could support disease surveillance in the province’s agricultural sector.

Wild pigs are a problem for livestock health, providing a haven for diseases to hide in. In Europe and Asia, African swine fever in wild pigs has complicated efforts to keep the deadly and economically damaging disease out of pork barns.

African swine fever hasn’t arrived in Canada, although it’s blazed a path through the pork industry in other parts of the world and, in 2021, was found in the Dominican Republic.

If it ever does find a foothold on Canadian soil, wild pigs would be a key wildlife host, Hood noted.

How eDNA monitoring works

Plants and animals continuously shed DNA into the environment. For wild pigs, that might come with the environment’s contact with skin, saliva or other bodily fluid.

“We have some methods that have been developed now that allow us to detect this eDNA, principally from water, or they can also be done from sediment samples,” Hood said.

The result is a relatively low-cost, non-invasive way of finding the animals.

In order to find eDNA, water samples in the lab use a primer, a DNA sequence specific to the type of DNA being targeted (in this case, pig). These sequences bond to DNA present in the environment. Scientists use PCR (polymerase chain reaction, the same technology used in COVID-19 tests), to make copies of the bonded DNA until there is enough present for a positive result.

The technique is highly sensitive and can pick up DNA present even at low levels in the environment.

Each “amplification cycle” doubles the DNA, Hood noted. The lab was able to detect eDNA after 29.75 cycles. The project considered DNA found within 35 cycles to be a positive result.

“The system is extremely sensitive, to the point where the lab is confident that if there were as few as four copies or four strands of DNA present in that sample, we would be able to pick it up,” Hood said.

The technique can’t, however, tell the difference between domestic and wild pigs. That’s where further investigation comes into play.

“We’re not at that point yet, where it’s 100 per cent reliable,” Hood said. “We need to do some repeated sampling in order to be able to have some more confidence that we would have a positive sample, or, just as important, to have some confidence that they’re not in the particular watershed we’re sampling from.”

Nor, he added, is it totally clear how far downstream eDNA can be detected.

Challenges with eDNA

The sensitivity of the system means that its easy to contaminate. Even a small amount of DNA on the researcher’s clothing, in a truck or on an improperly cleaned piece of equipment can result in an error, Hood said. Sanitation is key.

“At the end of each day, we would always do negative control samples to hopefully pick up if we had a problem with our collection technique, it would hopefully then show up,” he added.

Samplers were careful to wear gloves, clean equipment with bleach and then carefully rinse that equipment to ensure samples were both intact and preserved.

Environmental factors also played into how well DNA stays in an environtment. Temperature, sunlight and water turbidity were among those factors. Colder temperatures protect DNA, while exposure to more ultraviolet light degrades it.

“There is some suggestion that eDNA could absorb two sediment particles, which might protect them a little bit and allow them to be detected longer,” Hood said.

Wild pig eDNA test results

Hood hoped his project could fill some of those gaps and offer some insight into appropriate eDNA protocol to identify where the pigs are present and absent.

The team first wanted to confirm that they could discover wild pig eDNA in surface water in Manitoba.

The first step was to get controls and confirm that they did show the expected results. Pig meat was placed in pig-free streams in Riding Mountain National Park for an hour, after which water samples were taken for positive controls. Upstream samples showed no presence of pig DNA. Additional controls were carried out in areas like Spruce Woods Provincial Park, a wild pig hot zone.

Further testing happened at other areas of southwestern Manitoba, including Cypress River.

“We do have some evidence that pigs are in the area from trail cameras in the area, and then also from tracks that we could see adjacent to the sites where we were going to be testing,” Hood said.

Researchers collected 286 samples, 252 of which were non-control. Of those, 58 tested positive for pig DNA, about 23 per cent.

That detection rate wasn’t as high as hoped, Hood said, but it confirmed that pigs could be detected in the environment.

The team’s work used both traditional samples and filter samples, which draw water through a filter paper inside a small cup. The idea is to better capture any particles, including eDNA, for analysis. Filters with four different pore sizes were tested (0.22, 0.45, 1.2, and five micrometers). In each case, water was run through the filter until it clogged, or until 45 litres was collected.

“This is a somewhat labour-intensive and time-intensive process,” Hood noted.

Quicker, traditional grab samples were used as a comparison against the filter method.

All samples then had a buffer solution applied to preserve DNA until samples could arrive at the lab. DNA degrades quickly once samples are taken, Hood noted, and must be preserved promptly using freezing, drying or buffer solutions.

The goal, especially with filter samples, was to collect as much water as possible to detect DNA even at very low concentrations.

“Very interestingly, our grab samples actually had our best success rate, so our simplest and cheapest way seemed to be the one with the most success,” he said.

Of the filter samples, the 0.45-micrometre pore size showed the best success, although different site showed different successes.

Hood also noted that DNA was successfully found in challenging conditions, such as high temperatures and turbidity.

Previous studies suggested DNA would degrade above 7.5 degrees Celsius, but the team found positive results in water as warm as 24 C and in very turbid conditions.

“We found a couple of pig wallows and decided, just for interest, to do a sample there, just to see if the really cloudy water would interfere, and it didn’t seem to,” Hood said.

Positive DNA detections were also made across a range of pH levels. Only one site with slightly more acidic water had no detection, but it’s unclear whether that was due to pH or something else.

Distance DNA detections

At Jackfish Creek in Riding Mountain National Park, pig DNA was detected at various distances downstream after placing pig meat in the water. One day later, DNA was found 1.17 kilometres downstream with all filters, but not with the traditional sample sample. Four days later, detection occurred at the same site via the traditional sample only, and also 6.33 km downstream using the 0.45-micrometre filter and traditional sampling.

At Swanson Creek – Whirlpool River, also in Riding Mountain, DNA was detected 6.9 km downstream two days after placement using the five-micrometre filter. Five days later, DNA was still detectable at the original site via traditional sample and again at 6.9 km using the 1.2-micrometre filter. On day seven, it was detected 16.6 km downstream using the smallest filters (0.22 and 0.45 micrometres).

At Cypress River, samples were collected near a road crossing and a pig crossing point. DNA was detected at the road site on Aug. 7. Two days later, it was found using the five-micrometre filter and traditional sample. On Aug. 22 all filters found DNA, but not the traditional sample and, by Aug. 26, only the smallest filter was returning positive results.

Future of wild pig eDNA testing

One of the things Hood and his team want to evaluate this year is how to identify exactly when the pigs were present, to get a better idea of when the eDNA was introduced into the stream.

“That might give us a little bit a better idea of how long we can detect it,” Hood said.

Filter clogging last year may have prevented the preservative buffer solution from fully penetrating the filter, risking DNA degradation, Hood said.

“So this year, we are going to be pumping a little bit less aggressively. It’s unfortunate, in one sense … because we’re pumping less, if you had an extremely low concentration of DNA in the environment, you might not necessarily pick it up, but we want to make sure that we are able to actually sample anything we collect.”

The team also plans to limit water collection to 10 liters per sample to reduce filter clogging. They’ll also try introducing buffer from both ends of the filter cup to improve preservation and use sterile pre-filtration pads to remove large debris before it reaches the main filters.

Those results will further help determine best practices if eDNA becomes part of Manitoba’s wild pig control efforts.

“Is the higher cost and complexity of the filter samples justified, or do we get just as good results with the grab samples?” Hood asked. “Based on our initial samples, that seems to be what it looks like, but I’m not willing to make that conclusion until we’ve tested it again and dealt with some of our present potential preservation issues here.”

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The spread of wild pigs has spurred various levels of governments, agriculture groups, conservation groups and others to develop a national action plan to beat back the invasive species.

WHY IT MATTERS: Invasive wild pigs are both an ecological and agricultural threat, but getting rid of them has been fraught with challenges.

Indigenous participation should have occurred from the beginning of the national wild pig strategy drafted and completed in early 2023 by Animal Health Canada, argued Gabby Nichols, a programs manager with the Canadian Council on Invasive Species. It shouldn’t have been something that was done after the fact,

Nichols was among the speakers at the Canadian Wild Pig Summit II, hosted online April 29 by Animal Health Canada, Squeal on Pigs Manitoba and Manitoba Pork.

“Indigenous peoples’ rights and their role in stewardship of lands, waters, plants and animals must be affirmed within the strategy and in activities when implementing the strategy,” she said.

Developing a plan for wild pigs

The national plan started as a response to the threat of livestock disease. Wild pigs have been a reservior for pathogens that have spilled over onto farms in other parts of the world.

The African Swine Fever Executive Management Board formed a multi-agency working group in 2021 to co-ordinate a response to wild pig spread, with a special eye on response and prevention of African swine fever. That working group developed the first draft of Canada’s Invasive Wild Pig Strategy, which was finalized as a living document in 2023.

Wild pigs now have a foothold in multiple provinces, particularly Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba. They pose risks to biodiversity, farmland, livestock, and even public safety.

Bringing Indigenous insight

Last year, Nichols’s organization partnered with Shared Value Solutions, an Indigenous-focused consulting firm, to reach out to Indigenous communities that may be impacted by wild pigs or have knowledge to help control strategies. Over 100 Indigenous nations and organizations were contacted. Their input was collected through a combination of surveys, regional webinars targeting British Columbia, the Prairie provinces and Ontario and one-on-one interviews.

Those conversations are helping to shape control efforts under the national strategy’s four main goals, summit attendees heard. Those goals include putting a co-ordinated eradication strategy in place; raising awareness of the problem; co-ordinating regional actions and tracking progress.

Indigenous engagement can’t be one-size-fits-all, Nichols said, looking at what they heard out of the consultations.

“Every nation has distinct rights and trusts and concerns, and when we work with these groups, we really need to be aware that each group is distinct and unique.”

That understanding is critical to foster long-term relationships based on trust, transparency and respect for Indigenous knowledge systems, Nichols added.

“There is a need for continued communication (and) engagement, setting up ongoing one-on-ones with different groups of interest and really making sure to connect with these different groups on their own terms, and providing lots of opportunity to do that outside of the strategy as well,” she said.

They also heard calls to increase Indigenous representation on the leadership group acting as the spearhead of the national strategy. Indigenous communities and groups said it wasn’t enough to be consulted, they want support to take a lead role in some aspects of the strategy’s execution, particularly when it comes to surveillance and trapping.

“There is a need to really support capacity within Indigenous communities and nations to support initiatives such as surveillance and trapping,” Nichols said.

That includes funding, training and access to appropriate technologies or tools for monitoring and eradication, she added.

Education and public outreach were also flagged as areas that need urgent attention.

“There really hasn’t been a ton of information out there getting to those key groups, including the public,” Nichols said, adding it’s also important that the urgency of the issue is known.

Improved reporting tools were another recommendation from Indigenous participants, particularly the need for tools that are accessible for communities with limited internet connectivity. Nichols said participants expressed the need for more flexible and low-barrier ways to share sightings or participate in monitoring programs.

Co-operating against wild pigs

Since wild pigs don’t respect political boundaries, cross-jurisdictional co-ordination essential is essential, Nichols said. Strong partnerships across jurisdictions are needed between nations, provinces, and organizations to ensure an effective response.

The national leadership group, guided by the strategy, will continue to review feedback and revise its implementation plans accordingly, listeners heard. As a living document, it’s meant to be adapted over time as new challenges, information, and partnerships emerge.

For the last couple of years, Squeal on Pigs Manitoba has been working with Swan Lake First Nation, which is located in a hot spot for wild pig sightings, said Wayne Lees, the program’s co-ordinator.

“So, they will let us know if they see wild pigs and we offer them assistance if they want trail cameras or anything else. They control how the program is rolled out on their land, and we’re happy to partner with them,” said Lees.

The Squeal on Pigs program has also worked extensively with Hutterite communities across the province, he said.

“We work with landowners of every type. If they have an issue, we’re happy to work with them.”

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Drones, thermal cameras and AI-assisted image tagging are among the tools transforming how researchers and control programs are tackling Canada’s wild pig problem, attendees heard during the second Canadian Wild Pig Summit April 30.

WHY IT MATTERS: Wild pigs are an ecological and agricultural threat on the Canadian Prairies. Conservation experts cite damage to local ecosystems, while farmers point to crop damage and risk of livestock disease.

Aerial technology has become a vital part of wild pig surveillance and control, said Travis McGee, a research technician with Ontario’s Ministry of Natural Resources. The ministry’s drone fleet currently includes three models from drone company DJI: the Mavic 3, the Matrice 30, and the newly acquired Matrice 350.

“Our Mavic 3 has great optical camera and thermal camera as an all-in-one package and is easily put into a backpack to use in remote applications, whereas our Matrice 30 and our matrices 350 are much larger. They come in really big cases and so they’re not easily brought into the field,” McGee said.

The equipment provides 40 to 50 minutes of flying time and operates in a range of weather conditions, although smaller drones are less suited to wet or windy conditions, he added.

Everyone operating that equipment holds an advanced licence and flight missions are submitted and tracked using a platform called Fly Safe, listeners heard.

All three drones exceed Transport Canada’s 250-gram limit, over which there are more stringent rules for licensing and registration.

Watching wary pigs

The drones’ thermal and regular optical imaging cameras let the wildlife technicians find and watch animals without disturbing them, McGee said.

“We were doing some duck … counts last summer and we were able to spot a one-inch-by-one-inch solar transceiver on the back of a duck from 60 metres in the air.”

Thermal imaging, in particular, has been key for spotting wildlife at night or under cover.

Dense bush, though, can be a challenge at any type of day.

“Thick vegetation can reflect the infrared light in the daytime and block the animal target underneath, so you may not always see the animal because the forest canopy is not allowing you to see that heat signature on the ground,” he noted.

Operation success

McGee cited two southern Ontario wild pig removal operations where the drones were used extensively, in Pickering and Hawkesbury. The Pickering project resulted in the removal of 14 wild boar.

“These aircrafts were instrumental in confirming the number of animals that we were looking for and let us know when we actually had all the pigs in the trap to trip it,” he said.

In Hawkesbury, staff were working with challenging terrain. The cattails and wetlands that dominated the area made aerial support essential for both wild pig detection and safety co-ordination.

“Locating the animals in six-foot high, dense cattails was impossible without an eye in the sky,” McGee said. “The project could not have been completed without the drones.”

The ministry plans to explore additional applications, including animal monitoring, telemetry, mapping, baiting, and possibly darting.

Camera eyes on wild pigs

Another technology-driven project on the other side of the country is working to monitor wild boar near Elk Island National Park in Alberta.

The initiative, led by Hannah McKenzie, a wild boar specialist with Alberta Agriculture, tested how detection rates vary with camera height and also employed a scent lure.

“The Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute (ABMI) has done a lot of work with remote cameras, and they use a camera height of one metre … However, the half metre is more commonly used for wild boar in camera studies in Europe,” McKenzie said.

The project also classified each site by land use and proximity to farms and park boundaries.

The project has yielded just a single detection so far (in November 2024), but researchers say it’s offered valuable insight into logistics, detection strategies and landowner relations.

That one detection yielded a 15-image sequence, McKenzie said, and also verified the value of the scent lure.

“We were able to see that the wild boar did check out the scent lure … and, in fact, the lure seemed quite popular with many species as well,” McKenzie said.

The lure used was a strawberry-scented Vaseline inside PVC tubes staked to the ground. A revised design will suspend the lure above the snow to improve scent dispersal.

“This was really valuable, because the trappers had an opportunity to make some connections in the community, and this really sets them up for success for future trapping efforts,” she said.

While data is still sparse, McKenzie is optimistic that detections will increase as wild boar shift their habitat use with the seasons.

“We believe that the wild boar spends the majority of their time in the park, but they do leave Elk Island to feed in the surrounding agricultural landscape … mainly in the late summer and fall, when the crops are mature,” she said.

She also suggested that the team might explore AI tools to speed up their image review process.

Verifying action plans

Another winter aerial survey in east-central Saskatchewan confirmed suspicions that wild pigs are clustering in wetland habitats and confirmed a hot spot near Tisdale.

“This was essentially an aerial reconnaissance for … east-central Saskatchewan, and also looking at components within the monitoring area to try to come up with a total count,” said Doug Schindler, president and senior scientist with Joro Consultants in Selkirk, Man.

The survey, conducted by helicopter in January 2025 under contract with the Saskatchewan Crop Insurance Corporation, recorded 107 animals in one priority zone alone.

“We had one sounder … and there was a bunch of little piglets that came out. They were less than the size of a toaster,” Schindler said.

Schindler said wild pigs favour dense cattail and willow swamps for both food and cover. “They forage for cattail roots like crazy,” he said.

The animals tend to be highly clustered in winter, not spread across the landscape.

The findings helped fine-tune trapper efforts and supported Saskatchewan’s current strategy. Aerial hunting could be the next step, Schindler said.

“We are qualified for that … we could have probably quite easily taken out a lot. You can get right down on the deck, and you can almost reach out and touch them.”

Schindler hopes to expand the winter survey program and suggested that high-resolution imagery could further improve habitat modeling and planning.

The summit was hosted by Animal Health Canada, Squeal on Pigs and the Manitoba Pork Council.

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