A GOVERNMENT Minister has told Parliament new measures are being considered to control wild boar numbers in the Forest, as pig farmers who fear an outbreak of African Swine Fever (ASF) called the current population ‘unsustainable’.

But wildlife supporters say pig breeders are ‘scaremongering’ and any calls for more widespread culling are unwarranted.

With the latest boar survey putting the number in the Forest of Dean at about 2,000, Defra Minister Lord Gardiner told the House of Lords ‘mature consideration’ was being given to controlling the growing population.

Action was also being taken to prevent ASF making its way across the English Channel and infecting feral and domestic pigs, he added.

The National Pig Association (NPA), which represents breeders and wants a crackdown on the feral population, welcomed Lord Gardiner’s comments as reflecting a “growing awareness” of the need to control boar numbers, and said it had been asked by Defra to help update the UK’s Feral Boar Action Plan.

Lord Gardiner told the House of Lords: “Appropriate ministers are (now) required to prohibit movement of live feral pigs and to erect advisory signage alerting the public to the ways in which the disease can inadvertently be spread by people who travel to and from affected areas.

“Mature consideration about how we manage wild boar is needed, not only in relation to adjacent commercial pig production but in general.

“I know there is widespread concern among communities in the Forest of Dean about how best to manage an increasing population of wild boar.”

He said the government was also trying to communicate wider biosecurity messages through newspapers, with a recent ASF outbreak in the Czech Republic linked “to someone dropping a pork product.”

“We have put out a lot on the biosecurity imperative in the newspapers in languages for people from eastern and central Europe, and about not bringing in pork products.”

Last June, the Review was the first newspaper to reveal farmers’ fears that wild boar could spark an ASF outbreak among pigs after thousands had to be put down in Belgium.

The NPA calls the current boar population “way above levels considered to be sustainable”, with the failure to control feral boar “storing up potential problems” for pig farmers and their efforts to keep ASF out of the UK.

They claim wild boar could pick up the disease by eating contaminated imported meat dropped in the Forest.

NPA chief executive Zoe Davies told the group’s Spring Regional meeting last week they had asked the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board, which represents farmers and growers, to set up a feral boar action group to control feral pig numbers.

“Defra has agreed to update its Feral Boar Action Plan and has asked us to help,” she added.

But local naturalists say more culling is not the answer, and will simply push boar further afield.

Founders of The Boaring Truth website (www.theboaringtruth.org), Scott Passmore and Robin Ward, said any ASF outbreak will be down to poor hygiene and bio security by humans and in the import market, and farmers should install a double layered secure fence to stop boar ever meeting domestic pigs.

“That way the wild boar will not contract the disease from the pig industry and cannot be used as a scapegoat for more persecution of UK wildlife.”

In February, they slammed the announcement that two more rangers would be employed to shoot boar.

“Now we can’t help but fear for the safety of visitors, dog walkers, cyclists and locals, with six people walking around a public forest with loaded guns every day,” they said.