Wild pigs cause $1.5 million in damage in the U.S. according to 2013 USDA estimates. Jack Mayer is currently working on a project for the agency to estimate overall wild pig numbers. He places the U.S. wild pig population at 6.3 million, with a possible range of 4 million to 11 million.
Source: Pork Network, November 30, 2016.
The cost of wild pig damage to the agriculture industry is staggeringly high, but Mayer warns the impact could be far greater. When a rogue group of hunters loads up a trailer of wild pigs for clandestine transport, the risks go well beyond damage to crop rows. “If we had a foreign animal disease outbreak that got into wild pig populations and then into our livestock, the cost could potentially reach into the hundreds of billions of dollars,” he says.
INSIGHTS: The wild pig number estimated is comparable to the U.S. sow population. We received this video from a subscriber showing pig damage in the Houston suburbs. Texas A&M Agrilife Extension estimates damage from wild pigs nears $52 million a year to agriculture in that state alone.