Pig owners reminded of EU law
The National Pig Association (NPA) has spoken of its concern that campaigns to lift the ban on feeding pigs kitchen and catering waste could be causing hobby pig keepers confusion.
Those who go against the ban can face up to two years in prison, so the NPA has launched a campaign, called Don't Kill Me With Kindness, to raise awareness of the issue.
Waste from catering and kitchens, if fed to pigs, can introduce costly and damaging disease epidemics to Britain.
In 2001, the foot and mouth epidemic was caused by inadequately treated catering waste being fed to pigs. Over the nine months it took to get the disease under control, 10 million pigs, sheep and cattle were slaughtered, costing the UK £8 billion.
It is now illegal throughout the European Union to feed pigs kitchen and catering waste, including raw or cooked left-over vegetables, as these may have come into contacted with meats.
However, fruit and vegetables taken directly from a garden or allotment are permissible.
An NPA spokesperson said: "You cannot be completely confident no cross contamination has taken place, so please just willingly obey the law."
Diseases, including foot and mouth, classical swine fever and African swine fever, can live for months and sometimes years in both raw and processed meat.
"Whilst NPA understands why people may think feeding food waste makes perfect sense, we want everyone who keeps pigs to follow the law to the letter because we feel that the stakes are too high," explained NPA general manager, Dr Zoe Davies.
"Pig keepers are responsible members of society and we think there is more chance they will obey the law scrupulously if we explain the reasons for not feeding any kitchen waste – and that's what our campaign seeks to do."
Defra has published guidance for the vet sector ahead of a proposed UK-EU Sanitary and Phytosanitary agreement.
