Question about porcine afflictions and humans...

[Marinarawr]

Please know that this question comes from a desire to add pigs to my aspiring homestead... How many "backyard" swine herds are ACTUALLY affected by things like trichinella worms, PRRS, and all of those scary things they show you on the news? I have a fantasy that involves raising 2-3 Large Blacks for garden-tilling, and as part of a pasture rotation with sheep. I also have a potentially irrational wariness of pig meat that has kept me pork free for nearly 6 years. After lurking through much of the info this forum and it's members have to offer, I've mustered up the courage to ask you knowledgeable pig folk what your experiences are. Hogs seem like such a key animal to have on a homestead or hobby farm that I'd hate to miss out due to some ignorance on my part.

 

[jhm47]

Trichinosis is now very rare in today's hogs. In the past, when it was common to feed pigs uncooked food garbage, the trich parasites were fairly common, and infected many people who ate undercooked pork. Even if you should acquire an infected pig (extremely unlikely), you will have no chance if infection if you cook the meat to the recommended temperatures. Bear in mind that the parasite does not pass from animal to animal through exposure, it must be passed from eating infected muscle tissue.

As to PRRS, I would not worry about that if you don't keep your pigs in close confinement. This is another disease that is somewhat blown out of proportion by some of the animal rights advocates.

I would worry more about the danger of the pigs injuring you. From experience, I know that they can do a lot of damage with their sharp tusks. I once had many stitches from a boar that I bought, and it took over 6 months to heal. Good luck!

 

[Cornish Heritage]

All pigs normally carry some kind of parasites but so does any other mammal. It is how they & you handle it, that is important. It is important to not let the parasite load get too high but if they have one or two it is not going to hurt them. We have Large Blacks here & we worm all piglets, just as a precaution, when we wean them at 8 weeks old. After that we only worm if we suspect a problem. Remember most of the parasites are in the intestine so will not affect the meat. As has already been said, it is vitally important to cook pork properly - you do not eat it rare like you can beef.

Some breeders feed Diatemacious (Sp?) Earth (DE Food Grade). Pumpkins, Black Walnuts & Garlic are also known as good natural dewormers. THEN they just deworm once a year as a precaution.

If you are able to rotate your pastures that will help the parasite load too. ALSO parasites are host specific so you can run sheep & pigs together for example & they will not infect each other.

Large Blacks are a naturally docile breed & if raised correctly will not threaten or hurt you. We have had LB's for 3 years & run several full size boars here. We have never been injured. Now that doesn't mean that we are not always aware of where the pigs are - you do need to be alert to your surroundings but give me a Large Black boar any day to an over friendly Ram! Our boars do have sharp tusks but we do not encourage them to rub up against us although they do get their bellies scratched etc.

Large Black pasture raised meat is delicious

Liz

 

[Marinarawr]

Thanks so much for your replies . I'm getting pretty excited about this idea of adding pigs to my list of livestock!

So I'm assuming that any non-porcine wildlife (raccoons, deer, etc) will not transmit parasites to pigs? Also, if one were to use garlic or black walnuts to discourage intestinal parasites, is there a limit to how much you can feed these items? Obviously I wouldn't want to make either a significant portion of the diet, but I wouldn't want to fence them in with a walnut tree if they should only have the nuts sparingly. Thanks again.

 

[beerman]

Don't worry about Trich it is not around much anymore. Just cook your pork to the proper Temp, federal says 145 degrees here in Illinois they want it cooked to 155 degrees.
I am no pig expert I have had 2 pigs one I ate and one I am going to breed. I would trust my own pork more then store bought.

 

[Cornish Heritage]

I would trust my own pork more then store bought.

That is SO true! Before we started raising our own pork we had not eaten pork in years.

If you have pigs out in the pasture they will clear up all the nuts in the Fall - they LOVE them. I have never seen one get ill from it. There are many times in the Fall that our pigs will not come up at feeding time as they are busy harvesting their own food. They will only eat as much as they want each day. As for feeding garlic, just think about how much you would eat. Our digestive systems are very similar but of course they can be a little bigger.

When we get pumpkins we normally feed 1-3 small pumpkins per pig per day. If the pumpkins were large probably one a day per pig would be good. Don't want to change their diet too much & give them the runs!

Liz