Feeding Pigs Meat

[wigster]

Hi Fellow Porksters and Greetings From New Zealand. As an ex Londoner and butcher, I now find myself tucked away on a couple of acres in the sub-tropical north island of New Zealand. I am now fattening my fourth pig and while I understand that giving them meat can cause disease does that mean uncooked meat or should that include the odd bit of leftover meat from meals, or some of that disgusting pork luncheon meat that my kids seem to like better than actual meat. I have never given my pigs raw meat and have actually cooked excess fat from my sheep over a low heat whilst sipping a glass of home made bourbon (its not illegal to distill spirits in NZ) thinking I was actually doing something good for them.

I would appreciate any feedback on this and thanks for reading my contribution

Cheers

Gary (not the slightest bit homesick)

[sausagemaker]

Hi wigster

Firstly welcome to the forum.
About giving pigs meat, you might not know over there but it was this that started the last round of foot & mouth here in the UK since then I believe we are not allowed to feed pig swill anymore, however this was brought about by the swill not being cooked, I think it is to be boiled for some time to ensure any bacteria is killed off.
I am not to sure of the temperature & time but I am sure someone here will know.

Hope this helps
Regards
Sausagemaker

[wigster]

Hi Sausagemaker,

Thanks for your quick reply and help

Cheers

[Kaleb]

Hi Wigster,

In the UK it is thought that waste food that has not been treated properly has been responsible for outbreaks of foot and mouth disease, swine vesicular disease, classical swine fever and other less serious diseases. Swill was supposed to be treated by high temperature pressure-cooking but inevitably cross contamination was hard to control. No kitchen waste is permitted to be fed to pigs in the UK. I use bakery waste but that is only permitted if the bakery does not use any meat products on their premises. We even have regulations on the use of fish-meal on mixed farms because the labs can't distinguish between mammalian and fish protein when the labs do their forensic work after a disease outbreak.

With sheep being so important to the NZ economy I would be amazed if you are allowed to feed waste food to your pigs without some form of control from government. I know that NZ bio-security is good compared to Europe but my guess is that your regulators would see that the risk, even though it is small, must be greatest from home fed pigs. I would check with your local animal health people if I were you, the fines in the uk are so high that it is not worth the risk!

Sorry to be so negative but the bloke who started the F&M outbreak here is not the most popular farmer in the UK!!!

Kaleb

[wigster]

Hi Kaleb

Thanks for the info.....well I could tell you horror stories if this is the case ..like the guy who came round to the butchers that I worked in for all the waste for his pigs and well.......need I say more.

Where I live is at the sub tropical top of the north island which is mostly rural with plots ranging from a couple of acres to a couple of thousand hectares and most of us keep a range of livestock. I have a handful of sheep for my familys consumption chickens for eggs and I get a weaner pig twice a year. Ive not heard of any restrictions or regulations but I really appreciate your comments and will be giving the cooked meat scraps to the dogs now.

Cheers

Gary

[Kaleb]

Hi again Wigster,

The NZ Government have just introduced new regulations! From July there will be a fine of $5,000 for anyone feeding untreated swill. Remarkably I have just seen this reported in the UK farming press (we don't get much news about NZ farming generaly). See:

http://www.biosecurity.govt.nz/pests-di ... tsheet.pdf

for more info!

Not as strict as the UK so you can still use kitchen waste without meat! Don't know how they will inspect you though. When we lived in Wiltshire 25 years ago the local Policeman was responsible for inspections; hadn't got a clue. Now we are in Yorkshire and we have all sorts of officials turning up with clipboards demanding to see into every corner of the farm and prep room, I reckon our small farm must employ one full-time equivalent bureaucrat!

Regards

Kaleb

[wigster]

Hi Kaleb

Wow thanks for that, as you say to enforce this will be impossible as we only have one policeman in our town and he spends most of his time drinking at the golf club. The FNDC (far north district council) who I presume will control this are equally inefficient mostly due to (wait for it) lack of resources and manpower. So it would appear to be aimed at the big boys rather than us self sufficientcy bods but in saying that I am going to follow the rules and I thank you for the time and effort you have put in to this

Cheers

Gary

[Rough Country Boy]

Gidday

I hope I am not too late to answer this, but as a Kiwi very new to this forum I would firstly, late again, welcome you to N.Z.

As for feeding meat to pigs, it should not be done and there are dozens of very good reasons apart from it being illegal. Even your own pigs and your own swill, but if you do make sure you boil it bloody well. Pigs are very much like us and can catch all sorts of diseases just like us too, so it could be false economy.

One very good reason for never ever feeding raw meat to pigs is that if they get the liking for raw meat they can become canables, or even worse, become very dangerous. They are extremely strong and if you were in the pen and they smelt blood on you, they will have a go at eating the hands that feed them and as well as the rest of you. There has in the past been documented cases where farmers have been killed and eaten by their own pigs.

So, please don't go down that road.

[Rik vonTrense]

I always thought that it is the way most crime fiction writers got rid of unwanted bodies so as not to arouse suspicion.....

That was feed the dismembered body to the pigs because they will not leave a scrap of evidence for forensic science and you know what they say with a no body crime....it becomes one of those unsolved disappearance cases of which there are thousands.

If people want to disappear for any reason then they just do it and get lost in the world........same thing applies if some one wants you to get lost.

Here piggy piggy.......here piggy piggy piggy ....


.

[Sam Newman]

Hi. I also live in the Far North. I feed fresh possums to the Captain Cook pigs. They love them and they have always been very healthy. My friend keeps a variety of domestic breeds and she says they don't like them. I fed my last pig a whole dead calf. My pigs have never wanted to bite or taste me because I am nice to them. Altho I'm sure many layers and crooked cops have been disposed of in that way. A hungry pig will eat the bones and all. I feel it is important that they get a variety of food and I have never been a fan of feeding them loads of stale bread or rubbish milk. They like the organicly grown vege's pumpkins, kumara and carrots. also, they love the worms and fungi that grow under and around manure, especially horse poo. There are good bacteria in there. People are so buisy trying to kill the bad bugs that they often forget about the good ones. I think a lot of the reason for the diseases comming about are partly due to years of keeping pigs in too smaller areas in may cases they can't even turn around and live in their own waste. Thats why I refuse to buy pork or ham from the grocery store. Treat them as your friend and pigs will come running when you call them and they are easy to teach to sit and lydown for a good ol' scratch. Good luck mate.

[mitchamus]

my 2 cents is - It's just a bad idea...

from Wikipedia about BSE:

A British inquiry into BSE concluded that the epizootic was caused by cattle, who are normally herbivores, being fed the remains of other cattle in the form of meat and bone meal (MBM), which caused the infectious agent to spread

[Richierich]

Perhaps it might be possible to transfer the thinking to pigs. But the B in BSE means bovine, not sure of PSE? A pig could be considered an omnivore could it not, perhaps its physiology is a wee bit different.

[saucisson]

Scrapie is the natural human form found in tribes that ritually eat the brains of their dead.

Eating your own kind is not good, period.

[Jogeephus]

Scrapie is the natural human form found in tribes that ritually eat the brains of their dead.

Eating your own kind is not good, period.

I agree with you. Its the prion that is the problem and this is an infected malformed protein in an animal whether it be monkey, pig or cow. Cannibalism is not good.

[saucisson]

you missed hamsters off the list

Dave