Center, Internet, Wildlife Damage Management
Human–Wildlife Interactions
Visitation to Cottonseed Storage Sites by Feral Swine and Evidence of Gossypol Exposure
Date of this Version
Spring 2010
Document Type
Article
Citation
Human–Wildlife Interactions (Spring 2010) 4(1): article 17
doi: 10.26076/vsj1-7239
Abstract
The increasing popularity of feeding whole cottonseed as a supplement to livestock and wildlife provides additional avenues for feral swine to consume cottonseed, thereby causing damage (e.g., direct losses and fouling of cottonseed) and possibly toxicosis to the animals. This threat would be intensified during periods of resource scarcity (e.g., drought) when other forages are unavailable. The objectives of our study were to describe our visual and telemetry observations of feral swine visitation to whole cottonseed storage sites to estimate the proportion of feral swine consuming whole cottonseed, and to infer toxicosis using erythrocyte osmotic fragility of feral swine collected within 1.5 km of cottonseed storage sites. . . . While reduction in invasive feral swine populations would benefit agriculture and ecosystems, is it unlikely that gossypol contained within whole cottonseed is suitable for field application or will be approved as a feral swine toxicant by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency because of sensitivity and specificity issues.