Aphis initiative: health and human safety. This cooperative agreement between the USDA-aphis-wildlife services national feral swine damage management program and texas a & M university-corpus…

Aphis initiative: health and human safety. This cooperative agreement between the USDA-aphis-wildlife services national feral swine damage management program and texas a & M university-corpus christi (TAMU-CC) is intended to facilitate cooperation between our agencies, to meet specific research/surveillance needs regarding the potential for feral swine (SUS scrofa) to impair coastal water quality and oyster safety and serve as a source of pathogen transmission. Coastal water samples will be collected as well as aggregate oyster samples which will be evaluated for evidence of feral swine fecal contamination and bacteria. Additionally, feral swine dispatched from watersheds adjacent to the coastal waters of interest will be sampled for diseases of public health concern. This work aims to understand the risk of feral swine fecal contamination into coastal waters which support bivalve communities, including oysters. These efforts support both public health and aquaculture. A subaward is planned for this agreement, to TAMU-agrilife extension, in which they will remove feral swine during biologically relevant time periods to ensure that coastal waters can be evaluated before and after removal activities.