[Digestion] Digestion Digest, Vol 16, Issue 20 consumption of wsste products by hogs

[Jim and Amy Rankin]

The practice of garbage/food waste feeding (on production agricultural
scale) is regulated because of the potential for disease transmission.

Tapeworm and Trichinosis are the classical parasitic concerns, but probable
transmission of foot and mouth disease and possibly other viruses have
happened in the past.

In reality, no one is ever sure what actually was in the food waste/garbage,
when an outbreak occurs, and if no other source is identified, food waste
gets the blame.  So the regulations are written to ban feeding outright or
require cooking the food waste to temperatures sufficient to inactivate
parasites and viruses.

In the US, you will find that states with a large swine population (and
others) are especially cautious of anything which might allow a small amount
of diseased material to be multiplied/disseminated through the swine
population.  Nationwide, even in states where it is allowed, feeding food
waste is regulated by USDA because of regulations prohibiting feeding of
bovine products back to cattle among other concerns.

Regulation of garbage/food waste feeding adds another layer of defense
against importation by normal trade (foreign grown food products), and other
accidental or deliberate introduction of infectious disease into a country.
And it makes it less likely for there to be spread of the disease even if it
makes it across the borders.  After all, if some bit of disease containing
material is "wasted" in a landfill or digested in a thermophilic digester,
it is unlikely to ever be near enough to another live animal who might
contract the disease for tramsission to occur.

James R Rankin, DVM
Cedarcrest Farms Inc
Faunsdale, AL USA