The Missouri Feral Hog Elimination Partnership killed 10,495 feral hogs last year in Missouri.
The effort will increase in 2020 as multiple agencies work together to eliminate feral hogs from the state. Partnership members participating in on-the-ground trapping efforts include the U.S. Forest Service and Missouri Department of Conservation.
Feral hogs are invasive, destructive pests that roam wild. They’re aggressive animals known to prey on turkey poults, fawns, freshly seeded fields, fully mature crops and other wildlife. They’re known to carry diseases that can be transmitted to humans, dogs and domestic pigs such as swine brucellosis, pseudorabies and others.
Beginning in 2016, agencies involved in the partnership significantly increased feral swine removal efforts and put in place hunting prohibitions consistent with the Statewide Strategic Plan for Feral Hog Elimination. This has resulted in the total elimination of feral swine from 116 watersheds totaling over 2.7 million acres previously occupied by feral hogs across Missouri.
Efforts on private land are only conducted at the landowner’s request and as a partnership with the landowner. Landowners will receive assistance from agencies, if they desire, to trap and remove the feral hogs.