While it has not yet been totally documented, it appears the outbreak of Foot and Mouth Disease in Britian may have been started by one or more farmers feeding their hogs plate scrapings as swill which had not been thoroughly recooked. The likely source was some meat product from a country with F&MD which ended up in the food supply, then garbage, then hog feed. If you keep a swill bucket in the kitchen, don't put anything in it of a non-vegetable matter.

Folks, if F&MD comes to the U.S. it will have a devastating economic and social impact. Maybe a couple of years ago it might have been different, but with the economy tanking, it would be a double whammy.

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), March 15, 2001

Answers

Ken, I think you are right on the mark. However, it probably is not a question of "if it comes", but "when it comes". It is bad enough (and getting worse) in Europe where they are accustomed to being highly regulated. Here, in The US, the independent nature of the farmer and especially the small homesteader will greatly impede corrective actions by the various gov't agencies. Without utmost cooperation it truly will be "devastation".

-- Lynn Goltz (lynngoltz@aol.com), March 15, 2001.

Ken, even things such as oatmeal, bread and the like? Or strictly no meat type products? Thanks!

What about eggs?

-- Wendy@GraceAcres (wjl7@hotmail.com), March 16, 2001.

I beleive its just under cooked meat products .I also beleive we have a ban on importing meats for now.

-- Patty {NY State} (fodfarms@slic.com), March 16, 2001.

Although some countries have banned the importation of grains from Britian, you should be fine here. Eggs and chicken guts also. F&MD is an easily killed virus. If you want to feed swill (plate scrapings), throughly cook it first - a rolling boil for several minutes. Milk or milk-byproducts, such as whey, should be OK also if they come from your own healthy animals.

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), March 16, 2001.

Okay, thanks!

-- Wendy@GraceAcres (wjl7@hotmail.com), March 16, 2001.

I don't know very much about hogs, at one time raised a couple for butcher every year but that's about it. I always raised them on purchased feed plus goat milk. This year we'd like to get a couple weaners again. Step-son works in the produce dept. of a local grocery store and could get us all the outdated fruits and vegies, plus trimmings for the pigs. Would this be safe? Dh (who is a medical lab. director) has concerns about other diseases, not necessarily FMD. What do you all advise?

-- Lenette (kigervixen@webtv.net), March 16, 2001.

The vegetables and produce may have come from Mexico, Peru, Chile, Guatamala or India or whereever. Now is not the time to take a chance on unknown sources. If you use it, boil it thoroughly into a vegetable soup first.

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), March 16, 2001.

Thanks, Ken! That was my dh's concern. I hate to pass up freebie food, but would hate even worse to bring in disease. Guess I could put it a big boiler outside and cook it all up.

-- Lenette (kigervixen@webtv.net), March 16, 2001.

I have never fed my pigs anything except their pellets and pasture, since I feel if they fill up on fillers they don't grow properly. And the taste is superb! Now I'm glad I think this way.

-- ~Rogo (rogo2020@yahoo.com), March 16, 2001.

A local resturant in Houston, Chili's, is out of Baby Back Ribs, they import these from Sweden, now unable to get them. They are looking for local sources now. Perhaps not all bad things are going to come of all of this. Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh TX (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), March 16, 2001.

All hog feed should be cooked anyway if you want healthy animals. It doesn't take much to keep a bucket if, you cook everything into a nice soup everyday.

Little Bit farm

-- Little bit Farm (littlebit@calinet.com), March 16, 2001.

I read a Foxfire book that told about mountain farmers who let their pigs run in the mountains and shepherded them home in the evenings. I guess they branded them for identity. Are the natural plants in the woods safe for them? I would rather free range on our property and supplement what they might need than pen them up anyway. (Less clean up)

-- Vickie Allen (ouvickie@hotmail.com), March 21, 2001.

Free ranging hogs has a long history -- and probably was the original way these animals were raised in the US (colonists turned hogs into the fall woods to get their own acorns, for instance).

The problem today with modern breeds is that they have been bred to do well on grain, and lots of it. Rate of gain, the amount of weight the animals put on over time, depends heavily on how much and what they eat. The more primitive "heirloom" breeds (like Tamworths, for instance) do better and are consequently leaner on pasture.

This doesn't mean that you can't pasture your pigs! Here in the Ozarks, pasturing used to be commonplace -- almost every small holder had a sow or two. Now, of course, almost nobody does. Pastured pigs gain a little slower, but find some of their own food. Unless you've got something poisonous out in your field, the hogs should do allright. (Pigs are poisoned by anything that's poisonous to people, so poke plants ought to go.) Keep in mind that pastured pigs will eat stuff that they couldn't get ahold of in a pen -- including dead things they might find, and nesting things (like baby geese). If rabies is in your area, I'd vaccinate them, too. By the way, regular pigs will tear up your fields something awful...which makes them great early-spring and late-fall critters to turn into your garden plot to do a little "tilling".

We've got potbellied pigs (PBP's) on pasture with sheep, goats and horses. PBP's are very economical on the land; don't tear it up with rooting, and are small enough not to annoy the other livestock. Not real big meat producers, though, since they're so small -- but easily handled compared to the big guys!

-- Anita Evangelista (ale@townsqr.com), March 22, 2001.