Al Oeming’s Edmonton-area game farm, shown here in the 1963 film 'Noah of the North,' served as a reservoir for vanishing and even vanished animal species.

Where species conservation was the aim of the game

Practical Research: The Alberta Game Farm was the visionary innovation of a remarkable Canadian

When I moved from Guelph to Edmonton in 1974, I quickly found out Alberta had the world’s biggest and most innovative game farm. It was called the Alberta Game Farm, later called Polar Park, some 25 km west of the city. This farm, situated on 500 hectares (1,236 acres), was truly incredible. The huge open-air […] Read more

File photo of a wild boar crossing a road in Sweden. (Ockra/iStock/Getty Images)

Swine fever detected in Sweden for first time

Recent outbreak in Balkans spurred culls

Stockholm | Reuters — A dead wild boar in Sweden has tested positive for African swine fever, Sweden’s Veterinary Institute said on Wednesday, the first such case in the country. African swine fever is harmless to humans but is highly contagious and deadly in domestic pigs and wild boars. It has spread from Africa to […] Read more


(Scott Bauer photo courtesy ARS/USDA)

Anti-ASF funds designated for Manitoba Pork

Three initiatives will be funded through the federal African swine fever preparedness program

The Manitoba Pork Council’s efforts against African swine fever now have almost $1 million in extra financial padding. On Aug. 3, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada announced $944,340 in funding for Manitoba’s hog farm group. Funds were provided through AAFC’s African Swine Fever Industry Preparedness Program and were slotted for three initiatives: Squeal on Pigs, increased […] Read more



A group of wild boars running in Europe, where the pigs have caused challenges with disease spread. (iStock/Getty Images)

Saskatchewan to license, limit wild boar farming

Moratorium placed on any new farms

Saskatchewan is tightening its rules on wild boar farming, including a moratorium on any new farms, in a renewed bid to keep the province’s feral pig population in check. The provincial ag ministry announced the moratorium Wednesday and said it’s “developing regulations for licensing existing commercial wild boar farms.” Regulations for wild boar and feral […] Read more



A group of wild boars running in Europe, where the pigs have caused challenges with disease spread. (iStock/Getty Images)

Ontario moves to phase out wild boar farming

Province, feds fund swine fever defense plans

Hoping to improve its odds against African swine fever ever getting a toehold in Canada’s hog herds, Ontario plans to regulate Eurasian wild boar as an invasive species starting in the new year. To that end, the province is making funding available to farmers who actively breed and raise wild boar to “shift to other […] Read more

File photo of domestic hogs on a German farm. (FooTToo/iStock/Getty Images)

Germany reports first suspected case of African swine fever

German producers currently exporting pork to China

Berlin | Reuters — Germany’s ministry of food and agriculture said on Wednesday it had a suspected case of African swine fever (ASF) in a wild boar in the eastern state of Brandenburg. The suspected case concerned a wild boar carcass found near the German-Polish border. A sample of the carcass was being taken for […] Read more


Nothing easy about wild boar control

Nothing easy about wild boar control

Hart Attacks: They roam from B.C. to Quebec pretty much doing what they want

I won’t joke about the escalating wild boar problem in Western Canada, because there really doesn’t seem to be anything to joke about. Boy, what a gnarly problem these feral pigs have become across most of Canada and several of the U.S. states. Of all the things farmers have to worry about, who thought wild […] Read more

A large male wild boar — which can top 600 pounds — in a rare daytime photo. The animals tend to be nocturnal.

A boaring threat to our meat production

The growing population of wild boar on the prairies threatens livestock production


People who say they have never seen wild boar should watch the ditches at dusk from Florida to Dawson Creek. I have seen them at both locations and many places in between, and more than once avoided a disastrous collision with a wild boar. Wild boar, wild swine, Sas scrofa, Eurasian wild pig or just […] Read more