LOCAL naturalists behind a new wild boar information website have hit back at claims on national TV that the Forest’s animals could spark an outbreak of African Swine Fever (ASF).

Fears that wild boar could play a role in wiping out the UK’s domestic pig population made it to BBC 1’s Countryfile on Sunday – eight months after the Review first highlighted farmers’ concerns.

But founders of The Boaring Truth website (www.theboaringtruth.org), Scott Passmore and Robin Ward, say: “The farming community need to stop pointing the finger at wild animals and start looking at their own bio security.

“African Swine Fever is a dreadful disease, one which we never want to see reach the UK, but if it does it will not have been brought here by wild boar, but by poor hygiene and bio security practise of humans and the import market.

“The simple answer is to install a double layered secure fence which stops wild boar ever meeting domestic pigs, or even getting close to the enclosure.

“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.”

They claimed that more culling more would only push the wild boar population further afield, and like the badger cull, was “not the answer.”

“Bio security and strict monitoring of the farming industry is the answer,” said Scott, who also called on people to stop feeding boar.

“This exposes them to any infected food products that may sneak into the UK and habituates them and encourages them to seek out residential areas for a free meal,” he added. “They have enough food in the wild to survive on their own.”

With hundreds of thousands of pigs already infected in Belgium, Wye Valley pig farmer Richard Vaughan told BBC’s Countryfile that swine fever could wipe out his rare breed herd in days.

The Symonds Yat-based farmer called for “pre-emptive” action to control Forest boar, with breeders calling for a 75 per cent reduction in numbers – put at 1,635 animals in the latest survey revealed in last week’s Review.

ASF can be spread on clothing, vehicles and through infected meat, with strict import controls designed to ensure that no live pigs, wild boar or infected meats make it into the UK.

Mr Vaughan said he had half the entire British population of “very rare” Middlewhite pigs at Huntsham Court Farm, and if his herd was hit by ASF, “England would lose half of the entire genetic pool of this wonderful and rare pig.”

Asked how destructive ASF was, he said: “Within ten days, 100 per cent dead. It is a very rapid killer. There is no prevention, no cure, nothing. If it gets in, you have disaster.

“We are constantly being invaded by them (wild boar). The feral pigs we have got which were dumped in the Forest of Dean ten years ago… the numbers have exploded. It is not a case of eliminating them, it is a question of sensible management.

“It has got to happen before. It has got to be pre-emptive.”

Zoe Davies, head of the National Pig Association, told the programme: “We would like the Government to review the Feral Boar Action Plan that it released in 2008 which is now horribly out of date.

“It lists ASF in there as ‘negligible risk’ which has clearly changed. The culling at the moment is just not enough.”

The UK’s pig export market would “disappear overnight” in the event of an outbreak, she added.

“That’s worth just over £400m to the UK industry. It took us five years to get our export market back up after foot and mouth disease.”

But the Government says it has no plans to update its ‘Feral Boar Action Plan’ which allows land owners such as the Forestry Commission in the Forest to keep the population down to just 400 animals.

And Dave Slater, of Friends of the Boar, told Countryfile: “We don’t need a more intensive cull than is already happening.

“You put up better fences. You put electric fencing around, both at the bottom of the fence and high on the fence. That keeps the wild boar out and the domestic pigs in – and never the twain shall meet.”