It might seem intuitive, but California hunters are being warned not to eat wild pigs with neon blue flesh. The unusual color isn't nature's new palette but a sign the animals may have gorged on rodent poison, according to state wildlife officials. The issue turned up in Monterey County when Dan Burton, who runs Urban Trapping Wildlife Control, opened up a pig and was shocked to find blue flesh, the Los Angeles Times reports. "I'm not talking about a little blue," says Burton, who has trapped hundreds of wild pigs. "I'm talking about neon blue, blueberry blue."
The culprit, authorities say, is likely the anticoagulant rodenticide diphacinone—a poison dyed blue to mark its danger and commonly used by farmers to keep rodents in check. Animals that eat the bait, or feed on others that have, can wind up with the poison lingering in their tissues. For humans or predators who consume the tainted meat, that spells a risk of what's called "secondary exposure."
Lethargy is among the early symptoms for those who ingest enough diphacinone, and scientific studies show that cooking the meat does little to neutralize the toxin. Burton—who normally donates meat from pigs he has trapped to low-income families—says he observed the animals breaking into squirrel bait stations. Testing revealed they had been exposed to the poison over a long period.
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The state warns that not all exposed animals will show the telltale blue. A 2018 study found that almost 10% of wild pigs and more than 80% of bears in residential or agricultural areas had some rodenticide residue. The state banned diphacinone for most uses last year, but agricultural operations were granted an exemption, SFGate reports.
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