What are the risks of feeding pigs with swill? Regulations you need to know

Geliaogou Village, Dongshe Subdistrict, Wanbailin District, provincial capital, is located on the west bank of the river. In the Taiyuan dialect, "geliao" means a remote place. It is in such a remote area that the village's pig-farming industry has sprung up. According to the reporter's understanding, when the pig pens were first built, some villagers took up pig farming one after another. On the evening of October 21, the reporter conducted an on-site undercover visit.

The gate was wide open, and two large dogs were chained to a simple iron gate and in front of the pig pens respectively. A pungent smell of pig manure spread through the damp air after the rain. When the reporter stepped forward to look, 5 plump white pigs were resting in the first pen of the pig house.

Through an informant's introduction, the reporter quickly learned that this pig house was not the largest in the village in scale, housing about 100 pigs. The reporter observed that the small motorized three-wheelers used to collect swill from restaurants in the streets and alleys on ordinary days were parked right beside the pig house.

The swill-fed pigs raised in this place were shocking. At the scene, all kinds of garbage were scattered everywhere in more than ten pig farms, and the garbage gave off a pungent sour stench that was suffocating. The reporter counted and found that each pig farm had several dozen pigs, and beside the pig pens were large pots and tools for processing swill, with some pots still holding large amounts of swill hauled from restaurants.

It is understood that most of those who rent space here to raise pigs are locals, and they have been raising pigs here for several years. Every night, they drive three-wheelers into the urban area to collect swill. The swill they bring back is boiled in large pots and then fed to the pigs, and where these swill-fed pigs end up is cause for concern.

An informant in the catering industry revealed: nowadays, on the one hand, there is no proper channel for the catering industry in the provincial capital to dispose of swill; on the other hand, the catering industry can still make money by selling swill to pig farmers, and pig farmers can also make substantial profits by using swill to raise pigs, so this chain of interests has taken shape.

It seems that ways must be found to break this chain of interests, because only in this way can swill-fed pigs be fundamentally banned.

At a pig farm in the village, the reporter gained the farmer's trust under the pretext of selling cheap pig feed. A woman with a suburban accent told the reporter very clearly that her pigs had already grown up, there was no need to feed them feed, and now they were basically all fed with swill. When the reporter said the feed being sold was very cheap, the woman expressed doubt: “It surely isn't cheaper than swill, right?” A person familiar with the situation did the math for the reporter: a pig takes about 100 days from entering the pen to leaving it, feeding it feed costs about 7 yuan per day, while feeding it swill can reduce the cost by about two yuan.

Only after repeated questioning by the reporter did the woman say mysteriously that they generally go to a restaurant in the city every day before dawn to collect swill. Moreover, the two sides have a long-standing relationship, “the restaurant will keep it secret for us, and basically no one can trace us.” This pig farm was right next to a stinking ditch, and the smell of swill and the odor from the ditch were nauseating.

While talking with the reporter, the woman kept scooping something out of the swill pot with a simple ladle. The reporter noticed that scattered beside the swill pot were many black garbage bags and some white plastic boxes for packed meals. When asked why the swill was heated, the woman said shamelessly that it was to prevent the pigs from getting any illness after eating the swill.

When swill-fed pigs are ready for market, who comes to buy them? No matter how the reporter probed, people at several pig farms all said only that when the time came, pig dealers would come to their door to buy them.

Swill-fed pig farming is not the same as some small farming workshops that feed leftovers, and even less the same as the simple household-style feeding in rural areas in the past. Swill-fed pig farming has already formed a considerable scale around major cities. You should know that swill is generally stored in restaurants waiting for swill collectors to buy it at night.

After the swill is hauled by people to the pig-raising site, it has been left for at least a day in between, and much of the swill begins to mold and stink during transport.

Experts point out that because swill contains many foreign objects, it is no longer simple swill, so it contains heavy metal elements such as lead and mercury, and after long-term feeding, large amounts will remain in the pigs' bodies.

The reporter checked the information and learned that according to the current Measures for the Administration of Animal Quarantine, quarantine of live pigs requires live testing, urine sample spot checks, ear tag checks, breeding archives, and so on. As long as the pigs are determined to be healthy and free of disease, a Animal Quarantine Certificate must be issued. But whether there are drug residues in the pigs' internal organs and whether antibiotics are excessive are not covered by the certificate.

So can the meat of swill-fed pigs be eaten? Recently, the reporter consulted the Taiyuan Animal Quarantine Center on this matter, and a person in charge said: “At present, the state allows feeding pigs with swill, and after its meat is cooked at high temperature, it can be eaten. What is lacking at present is improved regulations.”

In fact, foreign countries have not completely banned swill-fed pigs either. Europe once issued a sanitary regulation effective from 1985, prohibiting the feeding of animals with “swill,” but with an exception for raisers that have disinfection steam cookers with automatic temperature recorders. This kind of steam cooker can ensure that the temperature is maintained at a high temperature of 100°C for one hour, which can eliminate the harm of “swill.”