On Dec. 1, 2025, amendments were made to the Pest and Nuisance Control Regulations. New restrictions have been placed on keeping wild boar in captivity and hunting them in the wild.

WHY IT MATTERS: Wild boar at large are a problem across Alberta, but some producers operate wild boar farms in the province.

Wild boar are considered a pest in all circumstances. It is now illegal to keep, import, purchase, obtain, export or sell wild boar. Disposing or transporting wild boar or wild boar hybrids without a permit is also illegal. No new wild boar farms will be permitted in Alberta.

Wild boar are an invasive species, and a provincially regulated agricultural pest in Alberta. They are a Eurasian wild pig that was introduced to the province. Wild boar can also be hybrids created by the mating of wild boar with domestic pigs.

Wild boar were brought to the Prairies in the late 20th century to be raised as livestock. However, many escaped and began establishing feral populations. Wild boar sightings have been common around Mayerthorpe and in the Peace Country. There are currently 12 wild boar farms in Alberta.

Environmental risks and disease threats

The changes have been made due to the dangers posed by existing wild boar populations and risks associated with more escaping from captivity.

The animals can damage crops, property, pastures and the environment, and can be dangerous for both people and animals. They can cause serious damage to land by ripping it up through a process called rooting.

Wild boar can be a serious risk for the introduction and spread of disease, including African swine fever and foot and mouth disease. They go to wetlands to cool off and can contaminate water with various diseases. The animals can cause financial issues for the pork industry, the larger livestock industry and trade deals.

Landowners are required to control or destroy pests and prevent them from establishing themselves on the land.

Hunting restrictions and compensation programs

The only people who can now hunt wild boar are landowners or land occupants who hunt on their own land. Any person who kills a wild boar must report the date, location and number of boar killed to the province as soon as possible.

The province has provided options for wild boar owners to keep their animals under stricter conditions or get compensation from the government to exit the industry. The province will pay $590 per boar, along with a per-linear-foot compensation for fences as part of the Wild Boar exit program.

The compensation program is expected to cost about $2.6 million, with $3 million allotted for wild boar management in this year’s provincial budget.

The animals are active at night and roam through densely forested habitat, so it is hard to do aerial surveys, know how many are active in the province and where they are located. They also have large litters and reproduce quickly.

People who spot wild boar should try to safely take a picture, note the location and fill in the online reporting form.

More information on wild boar can be found at Alberta Invasive Species Council “Squeal on Pigs!”.

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The first 15 are already out. From tariff tensions to invasive wild pigs to weather, here’s a taste of what farmers wanted to read most over the last year:

No. 25 — Port of Churchill searches for year-round trade: In November, KAP hosted Arctic Gateway Group’s CEO to talk future plans for Manitoba’s northern port. Part of the big expansion planned is a goal to keeping the ice open, and trade flowing, all year long.

No. 24 — Weather school: It’s all about the clouds: Do you know your cumulus from your nimbostratus? This piece from way back in 2020 re-emerged on our most-read list for 2025.

No.23 — Fishing the deep water of Manitoba: Want fishing success farther from shore? Our outdoors columnist Tim Sopuck ran readers down some tips and tricks for catching deep water fish in Manitoba.

No. 22 — Manitoba’s wild pigs not headed for population boom, expert says: The co-ordinator for Manitoba’s Squeal on Pigs program says our cold climate situation isn’t comparable to U.S.

No. 21 — We’ve seen trade wars before, but this time is different: Throwing back all the way to January for this one. This early 2025 editorial looked down the barrel of changing U.S. trade policy and what it could mean for Canadian agriculture.

Nov. 20 — Riverside Hutterite Colony gets top honours: It was a western Manitoba sweep at this year’s Royal Manitoba Winter Fair Pork Quality Competition back in spring.

Other highlights so far include beekeepers battling for survival, more trade and tariff stories and Manitoba’s first bovine tuberculosis case in years.

Want to see the full list? Check out our top stories landing page in the top-left corner of our website. Keep checking back until Jan. 31 as we unveil our top 10.

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Developed by Invasives Canada, Animal Health Canada and the Invasive Wild Pig Leadership Group, the website, Wild Pigs Canada, was announced on Aug. 20.

“Animal Health Canada is proud to be a collaborator on the new Wild Pigs Canada website that shares information to support the prevention, management and removal of invasive wild pigs from the Canadian website,” said Dr. Leigh Rosengren, industry co-chair on Animal Health Canada’s board of directors in an Aug. 20 news release.

The website represents a team effort across sectors, said Rebecca Lord, executive director of Invasives Canada.

“Wild Pigs Canada is the result of the strong and meaningful co-ordination across sectors and regions, developed through our partnership with Animal Health Canada and the Invasive Wild Pig Leadership Group, and informed by our ongoing work with international partners in the U.S. and Mexico,” Lord said in the release.

Farmers, hunters, hikers and the general public are encouraged to use the website for keeping up to date with information about wild pigs in Canada and to know what to do if one is sighted.

Wild pigs can be destructive to natural habitats and crops and may be a vector for disease.

“Remember, people on the land and out in nature are our first line of defense against invasive species like wild pigs,” said Matt DeMille, executive director of the Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters in the release.

To learn more or report a sighting, visit WildPigs.ca.

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On Aug. 3, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada announced $944,340 in funding for Manitoba’s hog farm group. Funds were provided through AAFC’s African Swine Fever Industry Preparedness Program and were slotted for three initiatives: Squeal on Pigs, increased communication with small-scale pork producers and the development of an ASF response plan, should a local case of the virus be found.

The funding “will help protect animal health and ensure the sector remains resilient and competitive internationally,” federal Agriculture and Agri-Food Minister Lawrence MacAulay said in a release, noting the economic and psychological toll that a disease like ASF would have on the industry.

“The detection of African swine fever in Canada would be catastrophic for both the Manitoba and Canadian hog sectors and would result in not only a prolonged closure of international borders to pork, but a significant financial impact to our province and country,” the Manitoba Pork Council also said in a release.

Although the disease is not a food safety threat, Canada has watched the devastating impact ASF has had in pork industries in other parts of the world. In particular, outbreaks in China starting in 2018 reportedly wiped out a third of that country’s hog herd. The disease, which has a reputation for its mortality in pigs, was later found in other Asian counties in the region.

Europe has had its own struggles with the disease, while the U.S. and Canada (still ASF-free) were dismayed when it was found in the Dominican Republic last year.

Between 2021 and July 20, 2023, the World Organization for Animal Health reported ASF in 49 countries across five global regions, accounting for 951,000 cases in domestic pigs and 28,000 detected cases in wild swine. That includes nine countries that saw the disease for the first time, and 10 countries where ASF found its way into previously unimpacted regions.

Wild swine have also been a reservoir for ASF in various nations, so there is concern on the Prairies where invasive wild pig populations are a problem.

In Manitoba, the wild swine problem has sparked pilot control programs, as well as the Squeal on Pigs campaign that encourages the public to report wild pig sightings so they can be investigated and addressed.

“African swine fever poses a tremendous risk to our province’s hog sector, and we need to do everything we can to ensure that we are prepared in the event that horrible day comes upon us,” said Manitoba Pork Council chair Rick Préjet.

“We want to commend the federal government for not only stepping up with funding to support producers and our sector, but for their continued engagement on preparatory work with our producers and our staff to ensure that we are best prepared for an outbreak.”

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The survey intro notes that wild pigs can transmit diseases to a herd and “because pathogens can be transmitted in many ways, it is crucial to understand how wild pigs interact with livestock and how often, and what production practices may influence this.” 

The short survey also aims to document practices to manage wild pigs on farms. The survey is part of a $970,000 research project led by University of Calgary Veterinary Medicine professor Dr. Matthieu Pruvot.

The overall aim is to “mitigate the risks of the expanding population of wild pigs” and “maintain disease-free status requirements for live animal and meat product exports.”

The survey can be found at www.tinyurl.com/yjktuj9w.

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“Wild pigs are the worst invasive large mammal on the planet,” said Ryan Brook, a USask associate professor of animal sciences and the country’s leading expert on the feral animals.

“Over the last six years, we’ve seen this pretty dramatic spread of pigs, and an increase in their range and so there’s a lot of concern.”

And that concern has escalated because the feral animals can spread African swine fever, even to domestic pigs. The deadly disease, which is endemic in Africa, decimated half of China’s pig herd (the world’s largest) after arriving there in 2018. It has since spread to Europe, roiling Germany’s pork sector after swine fever was found in wild boars there last year.

“We know that wild pigs can be a reservoir and a vector for African swine fever and they can spread it to other wild pigs and to domestic pigs,” said Brook, director of the Canadian Wild Pig Research Project. “We know from other experts that if African swine fever arrived in Canada, it would be quite catastrophic for the swine industry.”

The feral hogs found on the Canadian Prairies are basically “super pigs,” he said. They are descendants of wild boars that were originally imported by a few farms and then escaped, crossbreeding with domestic pigs.

“You get a longer animal, you get a larger animal, you get a larger litter size, and more frequent litters — all of these things that have been bred into domestic pigs,” said Brook. “That was good for production, but means these animals were even more effective at surviving in the wild with a bigger litter.”

There are typically six young per litter, and sows have two or more litters a year.

“Wild pigs can have babies through all seasons and are continuously squirting out babies onto the landscape,” said Brook. “They have amazing reproductive capacity. They are very mobile and have much larger ranges than our native ungulates that we’ve studied, like deer, elk and moose.”

In Alberta, the primary hot spots are west and northwest of Edmonton and in the Lloydminster area, but there have been reported sightings over most of the province from the Peace to the U.S. border.

Controversial bounty

Last month, the province launched the Wild Boar Control Program, which it describes as “a co-ordinated approach to eliminating the threat of invasive wild boar.”

But along with increased surveillance and including wild boar damage under provincial crop insurance coverage, the program also features a bounty of $75 (per pair of ears) for trappers and hunters. In the case of trapping, the program wants trappers to capture an entire sounder (the name given to a herd of wild pigs).

But the program also offers the same $75 bounty to hunters under a one-year pilot program. Trapping an entire sounder is the recommended control method — it is done by regularly placing food in a pen and then closing a remote-controlled gate once an entire group is present.

However, shooting individual animals is counterproductive because it causes others in a sounder to scatter and create new groups, said Brook.

“This crazy notion of applying a bounty is a major step backwards,” he said. “There’s no scientific analysis to support a bounty program for hunting.

“My recommendation has been — and continues to be — to put a total ban on sport harvest and remove bounties and focus on the trapping efforts the province has talked about.”

Three municipalities (the municipal districts of Bonnyville and Peace along with Stettler County) are participating in the pilot for hunter bounties (which runs until March 31, 2023), according to the Alberta government’s website.

However, feral pigs are hard to find at the best of times.

“They are very intelligent, and they will become nocturnal when they are under any type of pressure, like when people try to shoot at them or chase them,” said Brook.

Major study funded

But the problem is also getting more attention from researchers.

In March, Dr. Mathieu Pruvot was awarded nearly $1 million for a four-year project that will increase monitoring of wild pigs, examine their interactions with livestock (both pigs and cattle) and provide a better handle on the pathogens they carry (and transmit).

“Wild pigs have been a problem for a long time, but they are starting to reproduce more and more, and so we’re starting to see them in places like the national park network,” said Pruvot, an assistant professor in the University of Calgary’s faculty of veterinary medicine.

“Elk Island Park was the first national park where wild pigs were detected. That brings concern from multiple stakeholders.”

Alberta Pork, Alberta Beef Producers, the provincial Ag Ministry, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and the Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute are all participating in the pro­ject. Results Driven Agriculture Research is providing $432,000 of the $973,000 in funding.

“About a third of the rural municipalities in Alberta have had wild pig sightings — that’s 24 rural municipalities,” said Pruvot. “In Saskatchewan, up to 80 per cent of municipalities have wild pigs.”

Their ability to transmit infectious diseases will be a focus of the project.

“We know these wild pigs are able to carry a huge variety of pathogens, and so I’m interested in what this means as a risk for livestock production — both cattle producers and domestic pig producers — in terms of a biosecurity risk,” he said.

“Once we know where they are located and where we can find them, we want to look at more small-scale interactions between species — when the pigs are hanging out at ranches or pig farms, how close they get, what affects them and how do they interact with livestock.”

The researchers will start building baseline information on pathogens present in wild pigs.

“The focus will be on Alberta, but there is some tie with Saskatchewan, particularly with Ryan Brook, who has been documenting lots of information on the distribution of wild pigs,” said Pruvot.

Report sightings

The province is asking members of the public to report sightings of wild pigs or signs of their presence. A government website has a link to a form for reporting a sighting as well as a link to a web page with photos and description of signs such as crop damage, wallowing and hoof prints.

The Alberta Invasive Species Council also encourages people to report sightings calling 310-Farm, emailing AF.wildboar@gov.ab.ca or by calling your local municipality.

As well, the Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute has a very large monitoring program that uses trail cameras across Alberta. There are also ongoing programs that detect the DNA of wild pigs in water.

Info on the Wild Boar Control Program for trappers, hunters, and those suffering crop damage is available. That web page has a link to the expanded Wildlife Damage Compensation Program run by the provincial crop insurer, Agriculture Financial Services Corporation.

“Producers wishing to participate in the program are not required to have AFSC insurance to qualify for a claim,” the insurer’s website states. “All costs for this program are paid by the federal and provincial governments; producers pay no premium or administration cost except for the appraisal fee. A non-refundable appraisal fee of $25 per inspection type is required for each section of land or portion thereof on which the damage has occurred.”

Producers have to contact the Ag Ministry’s wild boar specialist and “will be provided with mitigation options.”

“Unlike other wildlife damage, producers are not allowed to hunt, or allow others access to hunt wild boars on their property,” the website states.

The Canadian Wild Pig Research Project has a map of wild pig sightings on its Facebook page. On the pinned Facebook post at the top, download the map of Alberta. Then use a free Google Earth app (on a phone, laptop or desktop). Once installed, you can see where sightings of wild pigs have been reported.

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“We know globally from a lot of research and monitoring that wild pigs can be very serious reservoirs of disease and hold the disease,” said Ryan Brook, an animal sciences professor at the University of Saskatchewan and expert on wild pigs.

“But also they can spread the disease either by directly contacting animals, but also indirectly through shared feed.”

And even though most commercial pig herds are entirely kept indoors, the threat of disease spread is still there, he said.

“Wild pigs and domestic pigs can interbreed and so wild pigs are attracted to sow barns,” said Brook. “Wild pigs are attracted to the smell of pig manure… and we know that these diseases can be spread through that kind of contact. We really have to look at disease and I think that’s something that should be a priority.”

• IN PHOTOS: Wild pigs a growing threat

Places such as South Korea and parts of the U.S. have already seen issues with porcine epidemic diarrhea (PED) in wild populations, he noted.

Brook has spent the last 12 years trying to track Canada’s wild pig population and range, and his research has shown an exponentially growing problem on the Prairies, particularly in Manitoba and Saskatchewan.

However, there have been numerous confirmed sightings in Alberta, including a band across the north-central region (from the Saskatchewan border to Hinton) as well as parts of the Peace and areas around Red Deer and Calgary. This fall, it was confirmed they had invaded Elk Island national park.

Wild pigs can be highly destructive, tearing up fields with their rooting and damaging waterways. (The animals, which can weigh as much as 250 pounds, need to wallow in order to cool themselves as they have no sweat glands.)

‘Coming right onto farms’

Right now, Manitoba is battling another outbreak of PED and has not gone a year without new cases since it was first detected in 2014.

Should it gain a foothold in the wild pig population, the fight against PED would become significantly more complicated.

In Europe, wild boar have become a vector for African swine fever (ASF). Thousands of wild boar have been found positive for ASF in Poland and now Germany. The first confirmation of an infected wild boar came in September 2020 and since then, well over 2,000 wild animals had been found ASF positive with four east German pig farms reporting infections.

While wild pigs are notoriously elusive, Brook’s team has been gathering data on wild pig occurrences — such as tracks, rooting, trail camera images, and sightings — as well as collaring wild pigs and tracking their movements through GPS, in an effort to get some ballpark idea of population density and range.

That research has found ample evidence of overlap between wild pig range and domestic hog production.

“In some cases, these collared pigs are coming right onto farms,” said Brook, who is advocating for testing of wild populations.

However, there is little point in testing without a strategy to go with it, he added.

“I would not advocate running out and testing a bunch of samples until there are plans,” he said. “How do we respond if something is found?”

Hunting doesn’t work as it scatters the animals that aren’t killed, resulting in more groups (called sounders) being formed. Instead, the entire sounder must be captured — a laborious process that requires setting up a corral, baiting them with feed, waiting for the group to become accustomed to the trap, and then closing the gate remotely (by operators using webcams) when an entire sounder is present.

But a wild pig strategy must look beyond eradication, and start turning to tools like zoning, said Brook. For example, major pork-producing regions would be a high-value area to protect.

“We know the pigs are spreading,” he said. “We know that they interact with farms and it’s just a matter, I think, of really thinking hard about what are our options around getting ahead of this.

“It’s always cheaper and much more effective to be proactive and in front of this than trying to play catch-up after.”

If you spot wild boar or evidence of their presence (such as tracks, damage from rooting/wallowing or boar hair caught on barbed wire), you should report it by emailing af.wildboar@gov.ab.ca or calling 310-3276 (FARM). If possible take a photo.

The Alberta Invasive Species Council has also launched a Squeal on Pigs program with more information and resources. It can be found at abinvasives.ca/squeal-on-pigs.

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To that end, the province is making funding available to farmers who actively breed and raise wild boar to “shift to other forms of production such as heritage breeds of swine, other livestock or crop production.”

“Our government is taking action to phase out the production of Eurasian wild boar,” provincial Natural Resources Minister Greg Rickford said in a release Oct. 19.

“Preventing the spread of new invasive species such as wild pigs is another critical step to safeguard the swine industry from the ASF, and protect the broader health of our communities, economy and natural environment.”

“Farm escapes of Eurasian wild boar amplify the population of wild pigs, which have already caused widespread problems in Canada’s Prairie provinces and many American states,” the province said.

Apart from damage wild pigs are known to cause in crops and other settings, other countries’ experience has also shown wild pigs on the move pose a significant risk for potentially transmitting swine fever to commercial pork operations, the province added.

The province will now fund “detection and removal efforts” and also regulate wild pigs under the provincial Invasive Species Act.

Specifically, the province will ban the “import, possession, transport, propagation, lease, trade, buying and sale of Eurasian wild boar and their hybrids” effective Jan. 1, 2022.

To help the province’s wild boar farmers toward a “faster transition,” those who own wild boar as of Oct. 19 — and who agree to stop raising wild boar within six months — will be eligible for support.

Information on a transition program intake for wild boar producers is to be made available on the Agricorp website “in the coming weeks,” the province said.

Eligible farmers will get $200 per animal to “eliminate their herd while also transitioning to other forms of production.”

The province’s announcement also included plans for a new targeted funding intake starting Nov. 5 under the federal/provincial Canadian Agricultural Partnership for Ontario pork producers, processors and other agribusinesses.

That funding will go to support “training, education and planning” along with “supply and infrastructure investments and modifications needed to strengthen swine-related operations, support industry businesses, and protect the herds and livelihoods of Ontario pork producers.”

CAP funding will also be allocated under the Partnership for an education outreach and awareness campaign for “smallholder” farms — those that market fewer than 1,000 hogs or 50 sows per year.

That campaign will focus on “increasing small hog producers’ awareness of the risks of (swine fever) and the need for strong biosecurity and emergency preparedness measures.”

Once the CAP intake information is posted, applicants will be able to submit forms on a first-come, first-served basis until Dec. 3, and can apply for reimbursement of 50 per cent of costs, up to $40,000 per applicant.

“In the wake of growing concerns since African swine fever has been detected in the Caribbean, this funding will support new measures that protect the prosperity and resiliency of the entire sector,” federal Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau said in the province’s release. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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Anyone who sees the wild pigs or comes across damage they have caused is urged to either call 310-FARM, email AF.wildboar@gov.ab.ca, or use the EDDMaps app (Early Detection and Distribution Mapping System).

Wild boars are listed under the Agricultural Pests Act, which requires landowners to prevent them from becoming established on their property. However, hunting doesn’t work at it tends to scatter a sounder (group) of wild pigs.

Wild boars can start breeding as young as five months and have litters of up to six piglets.

In addition to learning how to identify tracks and droppings, rural landowners should watch for hair on barbed wire and signs of digging/rooting.

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