Pigs are not actually native to the United States. The spread of the animals causes a lot of damage. Now there is a particularly big problem.
Fears of a Canadian pig species spreading are growing in North America. The so-called “super pigs” are considered “incredibly intelligent” and difficult to control, writes “The Guardian”. The animals survive in cold climates by boring through the snow. They are about to spread further in the north of the continent.
The super pig, created by farmers in the 1980s, is a cross between domestic and wild pigs, says the report, is larger and produces more meat. Its size also enables it to survive the cold in western Canada, which can drop to -50 degrees.
Wild boar cause billions of dollars in damage in the United States
Its proliferation only exacerbates the problems the US is currently facing with a plague of swine. The animals are not native there, but the approximately 6 million wild boars have caused damage worth an estimated 1.5 billion US dollars (about 1.4 billion euros) in recent years.
The pigs are a food competition for native animal species, kill young fawns, for example, and endanger turkeys and quail as nest robbers, explains Michael Marlow from the US Department of Agriculture “The Guardian”. In addition, pigs are able to transmit viruses to humans and, for example, to produce new types of flu viruses that can be transmitted to humans.