Published: MAY 15, 2019
Listen to the full story from Vermont Public Radio.
A lone feral swine shot and killed near Lyndonville in March tested positive for the pseudorabies virus, or PRV. The virus is harmless to humans but can be lethal to domestic pigs, other livestock and pets. And once a pig is infected with PRV, it can continue to spread the virus for the rest of its life.
Shelley Mehlenbacher, an assistant state veterinarian with the Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets, joins Vermont Edition to discuss the pseudorabies virus and the threat PRV poses to domestic livestock.
Mehlenbacher stresses pseudorabies is not related to the rabies virus that affects humans, nor does PRV affect humans. Vermont currently does not have a feral swine population. The virus was eradicated in the state in 1995.
Mehlenbacher discusses ways the state is reaching out to swine owners and monitoring the threat of PRV from this wild pig.
Have you seen signs of feral swine? Click here to contact a game warden.
Broadcast live on Wednesday, May 15, 2019 at noon; rebroadcast at 7 p.m.
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