Wildlife officials said multiple wild pigs in central California were exposed to pesticide bait that caused their tissue to turn blue earlier this year.
In March, a wildlife trapper reported blue muscle or fat discovered in wild pigs in the Monterey County area, about a two-and-a-half-hour drive south of San Francisco, according to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.
The CDFW's Wildlife Health Lab later found a rodenticide bait, known as anticoagulant rodenticide diphacinone, in the stomach and liver of one of the pigs. The pigs were exposed to the blue-dyed diphacinon by either consuming the bait themselves or eating other animals that ingested it, CDFW explained.
It's unclear how many pigs were exposed, but CDFW Information Officer Krysten Kellum told USA TODAY there were multiple and that the health lab only received one sample. Kellum added that the department has not seen any more reports of similar exposure in wild pigs since then.
Between 2021 and 2021, CDFW documented rodenticide exposure in 19 out of 30 tested black bears in California, one out of one tested wild pig and zero out of two tested black-tailed deer, Kellum said.
