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Scotland’s feral pigs to be monitored for African swine fever

Wild boar are a native species to Scotland, but were hunted to extinction about 700 years ago.

Over about the last 10 years, populations of free-roaming pigs have become established in Dumfries and Galloway and the Highlands.

Scotland’s nature agency NatureScot refers to these animals as feral pigs, and said they include hybrids – a mix of boar and domestic pigs following interbreeding.

The populations include animals that have escaped from farms or illegally released into the wild.

Nine Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS) rangers have been trained by Animal Plant Health Agency (APHA) to take samples from pigs found dead of natural causes, killed on roads or shot in culls.

Some staff at Transport Scotland and NatureScot have received the training.

FLS is also working with APHA in a survey of feral pigs in Portclair Forest near Fort Augustus.

The forest is in the Great Glen, an area of the Highlands where the pigs are found.

Since April, FLS rangers have culled 46 feral pigs. The locations were:


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