Feral pigs eat a variety of items, including fruits, roots, mushrooms, and invertebrates, depending on the season. The major foods in spring are herbage, roots, invertebrates, and vertebrates. Fruit, invertebrates, and herbage are most common in fall and winter diets. Herbage eaten by feral pigs includes water hyssop, pennywort, frog fruit, spadeleaf, onion, and various grasses while important roots used for food include bulrush, cattail, flatsedges, and spikesedges. Fruits and seeds such as grapes, acorns, and cultivated sorghum are important, and animal matter ingested by feral pigs includes earthworms, marsh fly larvae, leopard frogs, snakes, and

nd wallowing. In so doing, they cause thousands of dollars of damage to row and forage crops, vineyards, archeological sites, and forest land, and contribute to soil erosion and stream siltation. When many hogs are present, they can root up large acreages and consume substantial amounts of grain and forage. Mixing of the A1 and A2 horizons occur resulting in a tremendous increase in soil erosion but may also have a positive effect in increasing the rate of decomposition. Studies also show that hog rootings have a negative impact on some nutrients in the soil that allow for maximum cat ion exchange. Other positive effects may include increased quality of seed beds and increased water infiltration.

In addition to habitat destruction, feral hogs also transport diseases between other wildlife animals as well as domestic animals and people. The main 2 serious diseases are swine brucellosis and pseudorabies. Swine brucellosis causes abortions in sows and infertility in boars. Although this disease does not kill pigs outright, it causes loss in reproduction that can decrease profits on pig farms if transmitted. The swine brucellosis organism is transmitted in reproductive discharges, particularly the afterbirth, from the sow and semen from infected boars. In a survey of the GDNR, brucellosis was found in 13.9 percent of 600 hogs captured. By detecting brucellosis from blood tests and removing these animals, the disease can be removed from the herd. This is the only method for removal in wild swine since infected swine are carriers for life. Brucellosis has been detected in 10 states. Other farm animals are rarely threatened, but swine producers can obtain substantia!

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