Connecting the Dots.. Submarine Questions of the Week - 2-18-2010

Background...

Carrying disease, eating "pretty much anything" and uprooting lawns, crops and golf courses, the pigs are a serious concern for wildlife officials in the 36 states with established populations, said Joseph Corn of the Southern Cooperative Wildlife Disease Study at the University of Georgia.

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Current News...

February 18, 2010 - WSJ - Next Seasonal-Flu Vaccine to Include H1N1 Protection

The World Health Organization’s influenza experts have finished a four-day meeting and decided that protection against H1N1 swine flu should be included in the next regular flu-season vaccine.

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February 14, 2010 - The Beaufort Gazette - Feral pigs go hog wild in South Carolina, worrying naturalists Lethal removal would help keep the numbers down, but it won't control the population, said Jack Mayer, a feral-swine expert at the Savannah River National Laboratory in Aiken . You'd have to kill 70 percent every year for nine years to keep the population under control. That's a tough order. Game hunting now only accounts for 20 to 50 percent of the population. South Carolina has 90,000 to 280,000 wild hogs, according to Jack Mayer

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"We don't have a good handle on the actual population," Mayer said. "We say that there are 2 to 6 million wild hogs nationally.

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Location of wild hogs by state (five largest state populations - estimates)

1. Texas ... 233 of 254 counties ... 1,000,000-3,000,000

2. Florida ... All 67 counties ... 300,000-1,000,000

3. Georgia ... 137 of 159 counties ... 200,000-600,000

4. California ... 56 out of 58 counties ... 200,000-400,000

5. Alabama ... All 67 counties in the state ... 90,000-300,000

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Submarine Questions of the Week (Answers Monday)

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1) Which submarine name brings feral swine to mind?

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2) Which submarine was affectionately called the hog?

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Submarines are always silent and strange.