Millions of hunters across the country love hog hunting for both food and sport. Though feral hogs provide excellent table fare, there have been concerns with hog diseases — both those wild boar can contract and suffer from as well as those diseases that they can carry and not suffer from. And the concern is not just limited to the processing of hogs for the freezer, but also by wildlife professionals and ranchers that realize hogs can serve as a vector between wild and domestic animal populations.
Research in Central Texas has found that feral hog populations can carry tularemia and brucellosis. However, one thing about this latest study is that the researchers were primarily looking for antibodies in hogs that fight against tularemia. Finding antibodies only means that the wild hogs have been exposed to the bacteria or virus, though they may not have ever been sick. The researchers did isolate the bacteria tularemia from samples obtained from a few pigs, but the exact meaning of this find is still unclear. Hog hunting is big in Central Texas, but I don’t think hunters should get scared out of the woods.
For example, some wildlife agencies collect coyotes for rabies surveillance. They will collect blood serum from these animals and test them for plague. Plague, however, is actually a rodent disease, but if a coyote eats a plague-infected rodent, then the coyote develops antibodies, even though they do not get sick from it. As a result, coyotes can be used as an indicator species for the purpose of plague surveillance.
Following this line of thinking, feral hogs may simply be an indicator species for tularemia. Wildlife professionals already know that tularemia is very widespread in nature across the state of Texas, but the question then boils down to whether or not feral hogs could infect human with the disease, either by carcass processing or consumption.
But I don’t think hunters have too much to worry about at least when it comes to tularemia. We know that rabbits are widely infected with tularemia, but very few hunters actually become infected. I suspect that many of the diseases that feral hogs carry are quite similar. If hog hunters use discretion when cleaning and processing hogs, and avoid gross negligence, then I don’t think there is much to worry about when it comes to hog hunting. Simply wear gloves and long-sleeved shirts and avoid exposing open wounds to hogs and you should be good to go.
Hunters can avoid possible tularemia in feral pigs by the same means as avoiding brucellosis – wear long plastic gloves when dressing the carcass and cook the meat well. Personally I would be a lot more concerned about swine brucellosis than swine tularemia.