WESTMINSTER, Md., April 14 (UPI) -- Humane society officials in Maryland plan to start trapping wild animals in an attempt to contain a dangerous parasite on a farm.
The Humane Society of Carroll County will coordinating its efforts with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, to trap wildlife around the 112-acre farm where the potentially deadly parasite has been found, The Baltimore Sun reported Saturday.
"We are only interested in wild animals, and those will be in limited numbers," Executive Director Carolyn Ratliff said. "We will be sampling the perimeter of the farm and have permission from those property owners to do so.
"If wild animals have this disease, there is a real possibility it could be re-introduced to pigs back at the farm," she said.
The farm has been quarantined ever since one of its pigs tested positive for trichinosis.
While the initial trapping effort will only focus on a portion of the area wildlife, the newspaper said the containment effort could grow significantly in scope if the parasite is found to have spread outside the farm's borders.
