Wild hogs rooting up trouble; Texas Tech researchers find tularemia
A strain of infectious tularemia has been discovered in a surprising large number of Texas wild hogs, Texas Tech researchers said today, and they're warning hunters and ranchers to use caution when handling wild game. Tularemia is a bacterium, not a virus, that produces an illness commonly known as "rabbit fever."
During the past year a Lubbock-based scientific team tested about 130 of the aggressive, prolific, razor-toothed animals from near Waco, Temple and the small ranching community of Crosbyton in West Texas. Half of the Crosby County feral hogs and 15 percent of the central Texas wild pigs in Bell and Coryell counties showed evidence of current or past infection.
"This is a huge number of infected animals," said Steve Presley, a zoonotic disease researcher at Texas Tech's Institute of Environmental and Human Health. The research team found high levels of antibodies in the powerfully built wild hogs that show they have been infected with the bacterium Francisella tularensis and that some were actively infected.
Sounding a warning, Brad Dabbert, an associate professor with Tech's Department of Natural Resources Management, noted that if you're handling, cleaning or eating wild game "" particularly hogs, deer or rabbits "" wear rubber gloves and eye protection when dressing wild game. "The bacteria can enter any sort of small cut," he said.
Rabbit fever, or tularemia, usually is transmitted to humans by ticks and by handling animal carcasses. Most human infections become apparent after three to five days, and signs include fever, lethargy, anorexia and signs of septicemia, a life-threatening condition in which bacteria multiply in the blood and produce toxic materials.
In the past decade Texas has been going hog wild. The Lone Star State is grappling with the nation's largest population of feral pigs "" ornery hordes of hogs that can destroy farmland and wildlife habitats, attack pets and domestic animals, and spread diseases.
Texas wildlife experts estimate the current feral pig population at between 1.5 million to 2 million. Wide at the shoulders and narrow at the hips, feral hogs can weigh up to 400 pounds.
Approximately 126 human cases of tularemia are reported each year in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. From 2000 to 2008, only eight cases of tularemia were reported in Texas.
Written by Norman Martin
Reporting by John Davis
CONTACT: Brad Dabbert, associate professor, Department of Natural Resources Management, Texas Tech University at (806) 742-2842 or brad.dabbert@ttu.edu
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