Hogs can also spread leptospirosis by contaminating ponds and water holes with their urine as part of their wallowing behavior. Leptospirosis is a bacterial livestock disease that settles in the kidneys and causes abortion of immature pigs, still births and weak pigs at full term. Best classed as omnivores, feral hogs eat about anything they find, including sheep and goats. They are frequently attracted to birthing areas and most often take lambs or kids. They consume these newborn animals so completely that there often is little evidence that birthing and predation have occurred.
Hogs are efficient predators and have an acute sense of smell.
They will eat anything they can catch including reptiles, amphibians, fawns and bird eggs. Besides the direct mortality, hogs compete with native wildlife for food items. They consume roots, berries, fruits, acorns and other nuts with such efficiency that native species may be left short. A large population of feral hogs distributed widely throughout the Ozarks where turkey reproduction and survival depends heavily on the nut crop, would do serious damage to Missouri's turkey flock. Although swine brucellosis does not infect wildlife, pseudorabies can fatally infect wild mammals like raccoons, skunks, foxes, opossums and small rodents.