May 17, 2008, 9:08AM
Scientist hopes to bring Pill to wild pigs plaguing Texas


By MICHAEL GRACZYK
Associated Press

GILMER — Broad areas of grazing land at Pete Gipson's farm bear plow-like scars. But it's no out-of-control mechanical device that's left disjointed ruts and holes amid long grass ripped from the earth.

He and other ranchers and farmers in Texas and the South are waging an uphill battle against herds of voracious feral hogs. The beasts, up to 3 feet tall and 400 pounds, devour feed intended for livestock and tear up pastures at his 300-acre Red Cap Farms in their incessant search for food.

"See how rough it is?" a frustrated Gipson said as his pickup bounced across the once-smooth pasture.

They show little respect for traditional barriers such as barbed wire fencing, which merely acts as backscratchers for their hairy leathery hides.

"They got in that yard a couple weeks ago and cultivated it," Gipson, 67, said, nodding to an area outside his shop. "I smoothed it out and I'll be damned if they didn't come back the next night and cultivate it again.

"Nothing's safe," he said.

And the population of Texas wild pigs — now topping 2 million — is exploding thanks to high reproductive rates and few natural predators.

The Texas AgriLife Extension Service estimates the hogs cause $50 million in damage each year.

But the answer may be coming from a lab at Texas A&M University, where a team of researchers is testing an oral contraceptive for the hogs and other pests. It may even become applicable for pets like cats and dogs.

Duane Kraemer, a professor of veterinary physiology and pharmacology who heads the team at Texas A&M, said ranchers and farmers who hear about his research want to know more, "but development of an oral contraceptive for an animal that people eat and is to be released into the environment is a complex issue, no question about it."

The contraceptive, called a phosphodiesterase 3 inhibitor and in development for about a year and a half, is now in a capsule form and has been fed to captive pigs at the university's research facility.

"It does appear to be effective," Kraemer said, in preventing the females' eggs from maturing.

"The animals can continue to cycle and breed," Kraemer said. "Their behaviors are the same, except they don't get pregnant."

The hogs are descendants of animals introduced more than 300 years ago by Spanish explorers, domestic hogs that have escaped over the years and survivors of Russian boars brought to Texas in the 1930s as exotic hunting game that escaped becoming a trophy.

After generations of crossbreeding in the wild, the hogs have evolved into fierce survivors who generally travel in herds known as sounds.

The hogs have keen senses of smell and hearing and sharp continuously growing tusks — two on top and two on the bottom — all the makings of imposing physical specimens that see a calf as a prospective meal.

Gipson said his son-in-law recently was inspecting some land on foot when he was confronted by several of the animals, which normally leave the shelter of creek bottoms to do their foraging after dark. Outweighed and outnumbered, Gipson said his son-in-law climbed a tree to safety until they left.

"You might shoot one, but you'd have the rest of them on you," he said. "You better know what you're doing."

There is no closed season on hunting the pigs, and in Texas all you need is a regular hunting license. But Gipson said many landowners are reluctant to allow hunters on their property at night.

And a shotgun is of debatable value when trying to bring down a big hog.

"Just cleans the dirt off them," Gipson's farmhand, Jake Williams, said.

Earlier this month, the Texas Department of Agriculture announced it had awarded the extension service $1 million to provide technical help to landowners under seige from the beasts.

"They eat most anything," Kraemer said. "One of the reasons there's concern is they eat eggs of birds that nest in the ground, little deer if they can catch them, sheep and goats. And, of course, they dig for grubs and worms and roots and in the process of doing so, they tear up crops, pastures and make such a mess you can hardly drive on these pastures. It's just terrible."

He estimates it could be three to five years before the Pill for pigs is readily available. The next step in the research is to get some experience outside the lab, where the test pigs have gobbled up the drug mixed with Oreo cookies.

Clearly, some other delivery system for the drug other than cookies will be required in the field. Already, he said he's got offers from "quite a few people" eager to participate in the testing on their land.

Among hurdles yet to be overcome are how often the drug will be dispensed, how to get it only to the animals that need to be controlled and assurances that long-term enviromental damage won't result from any drugs not consumed or left behind in animal waste.

"It's got to be effective, it's got to be specific, it's got to be acceptable to meat consumed by humans ... and it's got to be environmentally safe," Kraemer said.

"It's a complex situation."

For people like Gipson, the solution can't some soon enough.

"I'll be ready," he said. "I'll try anything."


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My favorite pig pills come in weights of 140, 150 and 320 grains and have a high lead content...

Seriously, though, I wouldn't hold out much hope. After all, fire ant research has been going on for 30+ years, and we've been "on the brink..." on numerous occasions and have yet to see any significant results.

In the meantime, I'll maintain my "shoot on sight" philosophy with the hogs. I used to enjoy hunting them; now, it's little more than typical ADC activity.

This experiment was tried about 20+ years ago on Coyotes. I worked great and then they stopped. The result was that all those healthy females had record litters of healthy pups, and the race was on. I think the only real method of keeping hogs in check is Active, consistent, persistent, and permanent hunting/killing pressure.

With that said I guess we should get used to having hogs around for a long time.

Alan

I'll be glad to come help anytime.

quote:

I'll be glad to come help anytime.

How big are your hands ? The new eco-safe contraceptive is a suppository that must be delivered manually.

They have an apparatus for the boars too, the 'Condom-kini', which is kind of like a pouched hog thong.

One question I've always had is:

If the pigs cause so much trouble, why doesn't anybody in TX let you hunt them for free?

I see lots of lists for hunts in TX for pigs and it seems they all want a couple hundred bucks a day to hunt them. If they were tearing my place up, I'd advertise anyplace I could to get people to shoot the things.

I'd be happy to drive to TX and shoot a few hogs, but I'm not going to shell out a lot of money to do it. I can hunt them for free all over Florida and Alabama. If they want to charge for shooting the things, then, from the way I see it, the problem obviously isn't that bad.

Mac

I have never shot, nor eaten wild pig. Are they good to eat? If so it sounds like a potential solution for some hunger issues. I would bet that if hunters were allowed to hunt them for free then give some or all of the meat to "hunters for the hungry" and a make small donation for processing the rest of the meat.

Mac,
I am not an expert but I think a lot of it is because people are willing to pay the money. I have lived in Texas since 1986 and paid to hog hunt one time. Just had to kill a hog after I moved here. Since then I have killed a bunch, all free or either they were on the land I was hunting. You should see the price of some hunting leases here in Texas. I have a friend that up until last year when he retired from hunting he and his wife paid 6500 each to hunt on a big lease in South Texas.

MAC wrote:

quote:

If the pigs cause so much trouble, why doesn't anybody in TX let you hunt them for free?

MAC-Actually, you can hunt them for free over much of the state. Sure, some outfits advertise hog hunting, but that's whay they are in the business for.

I help out folks I know by keeping their hogs thinned out. They call me when the hogs are problematic, and I do my part to help out. I do not charge and neither do they, but I've been given homemade molasses, corn, honey, watermelons, etc., just for helping out.

Just because you see hunts advertised doesn't mean the entire state is like that.

It's just like coyotes: Get to know the landowners, respect their property and you can forge a mutually-beneficial relationship that allows you the enjoyment of hunting and gets rid of their nuisance (to a degree, that is, as hogs are here to stay).

Also, I'm sure you can understand why no one advertises "free hog hunts." For one, that would be advertising money out of their pockets, and then they'd be opening up their family's property to virtually every Tom, Dick & Harry that owned a gun. Heck, that would be like opening day of deer season in PA!!!

Many of the farmers I know allow, encourage, folks to hunt for free. Folks they know that is. You don't want the hunters doing as much or more damage than the hogs do. They are also not so much interested in the hogs being hunted but in having them killed or harried enough to move on quickly.

Alan

quote:

Many of the farmers I know allow, encourage, folks to hunt for free. Folks they know that is. You don't want the hunters doing as much or more damage than the hogs do. They are also not so much interested in the hogs being hunted but in having them killed or harried enough to move on quickly.

Alan,
My son and I would be happy to be of assistance anytime.