Cafeteria Scraps

[Robinson]

I believe hoof and mouth disease is a bigger concern with feeding cafeteria scraps than trichinosis. I'm also pretty sure it's illegal most everywhere now.

There are studies that suggest a *slightly* higher risk for trichinosis from eating pastured pork as opposed to eating factory farmed pork, but properly freezing and cooking pretty much eliminates that risk. You can't freeze trichinella out of bear meat though.

 

[jhm47]

Hoof and mouth disease does not exist in the USA. There is a lot of it in South America and Africa though, and there were outbreaks in the UK about 8 - 10 years ago.

 

[Robinson]

The last U.S. outbreak was 1929 and was caused by feeding hogs infected meat scraps from Argentina (South America). In 2001 the United Kingdom had an outbreak of hoof and mouth disease caused by feeding pigs imported infected meat scraps.

The fact that there are federal laws in place as to what can and cannot be fed to pigs is part if not all of the reason there is no hoof and mouth disease in the United States. I think if small producers want to continue to have the right to raise their own pigs we need to be conscientious about the risks of ignoring those laws.

http://uscode.house.gov/download/pls/07C69.txt