Farmers in the US may soon have a new weapon in their battle against crop-destroying wild boars - bacon.

Sodium nitrite, which is a preservative used to cure bacon, is being tested by scientists at the Department of Agriculture (USDA) to see whether it could be used as a poison to deter the hogs, which cost the US about $1.5 billion a year - including $800 million in farm damage.

Mississippi farmer Vance Taylor currently hires a hunter and sometimes heaps corn away from his fields to distract the animals - which he says cost him 40 to 60 acres of corn and soybeans annually. The USDA said the tests are a top priority in a new £11.7 million programme to control boars.

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