Today, there are between 6 and 9 million feral hogs running across at least 42 U.S. states and three territories. The cost of the damage they cause is probably about $2.5 billion annually, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
We haven’t been able to find a crop that feral swine won’t eat.” – Stephanie Shwiff, economist with National Wildlife Research Center.
Source: National Geographic, March 26, 2021. Link. What worries Shwiff most, though, is their potential to transmit diseases like African swine fever and rabies to farm animals. If that happens, she says, “the implications for our economy immediately go into the billions of dollars.”