Texas Hunting Leases

AUSTIN, Texas — The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department reminds hunters and trappers there is no indication of a human-animal disease relationship with swine flu and to continue to use common sense when handling feral hogs.

While there is no known threat of contracting swine flu from feral hogs, they do carry other potential hazards.

Due to the danger of contracting swine brucellosis, the Texas Animal Health Commission urges hunters and trappers to always wear a mask or bandana and gloves when handling feral swine during processing. Trappers or any producers who have pigs that are ill with respiratory infections should contact their veterinarian. Trappers or hunters that become ill should seek medical attention and inform their doctors they have been around pigs.

Safeguards for Hunters

Wear gloves when dressing out hogs and dispose of gloves properly.
No eating/drinking/smoking while doing so.
Wear eye protection if there is risk of eye splashed with blood/other fluids.
Wear coveralls over clothes or promptly change into fresh clothes after dressing animals.
Wash hands and equipment thoroughly with hot, soapy water.
Practice good handling/storage procedures with the meat.
Properly cook the meat.
Information about Swine Flu

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security:

People cannot get swine flu from eating pork or pork products. Most influenza viruses, including the swine flu virus, are not spread by food.
Eating properly handled and cooked pork products is safe.
No food safety issues have been identified, related to the flu.
Preliminary investigations have determined that none of the people infected with the flu had contact with hogs.
The virus is spreading by human-to-human transmission.
The CDC recommends the following measures to prevent the transmission of flu:

Cover your nose and mouth with a tissue when you cough or sneeze.
Throw the tissue in the trash after you use it.
Wash your hands frequently and use alcohol-based sanitizers.
Try not touch surfaces that may be contaminated with the flu virus.
Avoid close contact with people who are sick.
Try to stay in good general health.
Get plenty of sleep, be physically active, manage your stress, drink plenty of fluids, and eat nutritious food.
Detailed information and updates on the flu outbreak may be obtained at:

Texas Department of State Health Services http://www.dshs.state.tx.us/

If you own swine, consider the following practices to enhance the biosecurity on your farm to prevent the disease from being transmitted to your herd:

Workers should shower and change into farm-specific clothes and shoes before entering swine facilities.
Establish, implement and enforce strict sick leave policies for workers presenting influenza-like symptoms.
Recommend that workers with symptoms be seen by a medical provider immediately.
Restrict the entry of people into your facility to only workers and essential service personnel.
Prevent international visitors from entering your facilities.
Ensure adequate ventilation in facilities to minimize re-circulation of air inside animal housing facilities.
Vaccinate pigs against the influenza virus. Vaccination of pigs can reduce the levels of virus shed by infected animals
Contact your swine veterinarian if swine exhibit flu-like or respiratory illness, especially if the onset or presentation of the illness is unusual.
Notify your Texas Animal Health Commission area office or the Austin headquarters at 800-550-8242, after you have contacted your veterinarian.

The Texas Animal Health Commission is ready to assist with on-farm investigations, if pigs are present where a known human case has occurred, and to assist with epidemiological investigations with any human cases that may have links to swine in Texas.

For nearly a year, a team of commercial swine and show pig producers, slaughter plant operators, veterinarians, hunters, hog trappers and wildlife biologists have wrestled with rule ideas that would prevent captured wild hogs from creating more chaos, while still giving hunters an opportunity to bag a boar trophy worth bragging rites. In mid-May, draft regulations were presented to commissioners for the Texas Animal Health Commission (TAHC), the state’s livestock and poultry health regulatory agency. Public comment on the proposed rules, to be published in the Texas Register June 6, will be accepted by the TAHC through July 6.  TAHC commissioners will consider the rules for adoption at their next meeting on July 29 in Austin. “The 80th legislature, in the TAHC’s Sunset Bill, provided for the TAHC to regulate feral swine, which are regarded as free-ranging livestock. The TAHC regulations are to be limited to disease control purposes, including holding facilities, sale, exhibition, hunting or movement,” said Dr. Dee Ellis, Texas’ assistant state veterinarian and TAHC advisor to the feral swine working group. “If these proposed rules are adopted, they will supersede TAHC’s current feral swine regulations that aren’t comprehensive. We know we can’t get rid of feral swine, but we can find ways to deal with the animals so that it benefits all sectors of the industry.”  Dr. Ellis said the proposed regulations give trappers greater latitude for holding and moving trapped swine. Approved holding facilities and authorized hunting preserves would be sanctioned and inspected by the TAHC, and operators or owners would be required to keep records on the animals for at least five years. Applications for operating the holding facilities or hunting preserves will be available from the TAHC, if the regulations are adopted.

Since January 2006, the swine form of Brucellosis has been detected in 26 cattle in 19 herds.  Although the swine infection in cattle does not affect Texas’ hard-won ‘free’ status for cattle Brucellosis, it does cause positive test results when cattle are tested prior to sale. The bacteria must be “grown out” in the laboratory to differentiate between swine Brucellosis and cattle Brucellosis infection. In the meantime, cattle in the consignment or herd must be held up, and additional tests may be needed to ensure there is no cattle Brucellosis infection in the herd.  Feral swine also can have a health impact on noncommercial swine, which may be housed in facilities that are more likely to have feral swine contact than commercial swine facilities. Of the 41 noncommercial swine herds quarantined for swine Brucellosis infection since January 2003, 29 either had definite or possible contact with wild hogs.  “ ‘Contact with feral swine’ can be as simple as a wild sow or boar either being allowed  in, breaking into swine pens, or making contact through a fence,” noted Dr. Ellis. “Related contacts” can include an activity such as purchasing piglets from a producer who allows feral swine into his or her pens. In this case, a buyer could be purchasing piglets that have been exposed to disease carried by feral swine.

Dr. Ellis advised domestic swine owners to keep feral swine out of their pens. When purchasing replacement swine by private treaty, ask if the pigs have been exposed to feral swine. If possible, keep the animals isolated until tested for swine Brucellosis and pseudorabies. At livestock markets selling sexually intact swine six months of age or older, these tests are required, and blood samples are collected from the animals by TAHC personnel.  “Commercial swine herds are operated with great attention to biosecurity, and in Texas, these herds currently are swine Brucellosis and pseudorabies-free,” said Dr. Ellis. But each time we detect infection in a noncommercial herd, it puts a hardship on producers, because we must trace animal movement, test herds in a widespread area, and handle infected herds appropriately. Swine brucellosis also poses a significant public health threat to those handling or inadvertently producing infected animals. By adopting regulations that make it easier for trappers to remove feral swine from an area, and place boars and barrows only in a hunting facility, we encourage legal regulated movements of the animals and have less chance of disease transmission from these wild hogs. These proposed regulations can benefit swine producers, cattlemen, trappers and hunters, too.”