An interesting campaign. We are quite convinced that neither the Classical Swine Fever (CSF) in 2000 nor the Foot and Mouth (FMD) 2001 epidemics in Britain came from swill, either from home or imported ingredients despite what was repeatedly claimed.
Too many lobbyists were about fabricating stories that it was the source to believe that. All of those stories were seriously flawed and many of those telling that tale had long records of deception.
Live imports, semen or embryos were never even mentioned publicly, despite that being the most obvious source.
With that in mind, swill should be perfectly safe, but there has been so much veterinary deception it is hard to be absolutely sure, and new diseases that can be carried in food emerge on a regular basis.
It's a shame that an age old practice was banned to protect corrupt veterinarians, but that's what you get when the politicians are afraid to stand up to errant civil servants and their cronies.
Full Huffington Post story here.
Pigs Should Be Fed Leftovers To Cut Waste, Say Campaigners
PA | Posted: 05/06/2013 07:32 BST | Updated: 05/06/2013 07:32 BST
Leftovers should be put back on the menu for pigs to conserve food supplies, cut waste and farming costs and protect the environment, campaigners are urging.
The Pig Idea campaign wants to bring back the age-old practice of feeding waste food to pigs and aims to encourage more use of legally-allowed food, such as unsold bread, dairy, fruit and vegetables that are unfit for humans, as pig feed.
Feeding food waste to pigs was outlawed in the UK after the foot and mouth crisis of 2001.
Campaigners also want a change to European law to allow food leftovers to be fed to pigs, backed by the introduction of a robust legal framework for its safe processing and use to avoid spreading animal diseases.
Using waste from catering and homes as pig "swill" was banned in the UK in 2001 in the wake of the foot and mouth crisis due to concerns the disease originated on a farm illegally feeding pigs unprocessed restaurant waste. The ban was then extended across Europe...
...But a spokeswoman for the Environment Department said: "Feeding farm animals catering waste, kitchen scraps or meat is prohibited to prevent introduction and spread of diseases, such as foot and mouth,
swine fever and avian flu."
