Wild boar farming in the United Kingdom

Abstract

The European Wild boar (Sus scrofa scrofa) has not existed in the wild in the UK for 300 years, even then it was confined to estates; it seems that the truely free living animal became extinct in the mediaeval period. Until 12 years ago the Wild boar in the UK was present only in zoos. However since 1981 there has been a steady increase in entrepreneurs establishing Wild boar farms for meat, these have usually been a secondary enterprise toother forms of farming including deer farming. The initial stock for Wild boar farming arose from zoos and was therefore very limited. In September 1989 the British Wild boar Association (BWBA) was founded to promote the commercial development, welfare and understanding of husbanded Wild boar in the UK, involving a system of registration of purebred animals. Guidelines for the welfare of farmed Wild boar have been produced by the Farm Animal Welfare Council in collaboration with BWBA. The guidelines offer advice on general principles of management of farmed Wild boar having regard for their behavioural needs; an essential welfare principle is that Wild boars hould be farmed as extensively as possible. Other sections in the Guidelines are concerned with specific aspects such as handling, introduction of new stock, stocking rates, accomodation, fencing, feed and water, fields laughter and the use of dart guns. During the last six years Wild boar farming has expanded due to imports of pure bred animals from Denmark and Sweden. There are currently about 35 members of BWBA including 25 farmers, about 65% of which have registered herds. Herds size ranges from less than 5 animals to over 60. The diet consists of commercial pig food plus vegetable supplements and usually one litter averaging 5 young is produced per sow per year,overall this leads to the production of around 1500 purebred carcasses a year for the exclusive meat market in the UK. There is considerable scope for research not yet undertaken to optimize husbandry methods, production and meat quality and to explore the potential of Wild boar in breeding programmes with domestic pigs to produce specialist pork products.