Question reference: S6W-25426
- Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
- Date lodged: 9 February 2024
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Current status: Answered by Jim Fairlie on 29 February 2024
Question
To ask the Scottish Government what its assessment is of the occupied range of feral pigs in Scotland, and the extent of any damage being caused by the pigs.
Answer
NatureScot commissioned the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) to prepare a non-native species risk assessment as part of their feasibility study into options for controlling feral pigs in Scotland.
APHA completed the risk assessment in 2015 and was published in 2022 in NatureScot Research Report 876 - Preliminary assessment completed in 2015 of the feasibility of maintaining, limiting or eradicating feral pigs in Scotland | NatureScot Massei G. & Ward A. 2022.
Following a peer-review of the risk assessment by the Scottish Government Centre of Expertise on Animal Disease Outbreaks (EPIC), NatureScot updated and published the report ‘Updated non-native species risk assessment of feral pigs in Scotland. NatureScot Research Report 1288’. A copy of the report, which includes information on the distribution and potential impacts of feral pigs in Scotland, can be found on NatureScot’s website at NatureScot Research Report 1288 - Updated non-native species risk assessment of feral pigs in Scotland | NatureScot .