NZ: More effective rules wanted regarding raw meat fed to pigs

In 2005, regulations were put in place that require farmers to heat meat and food waste that has come into contact with meat to 100°C for one hour to destroy any bacteria or virus.

 

According to officials, more effective regulations is of vital importance, especially in light of a High Court case that has given the go ahead for new import standards allowing untreated pork from countries that have the pig disease PRRS, (Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome).

 

A pig farmer and processor Linda McCallum-Jackson of Havoc Farm Pork, stated that there are no commercial pig farmers in New Zealand who will feed pigs raw pig meat.

 

“But it’s the backyard pig farmers – the people who keep pigs in their back yard,  and they give them table scraps. That’s where (the risk) is going to come from,” she added.

 

New Zealand Pork does not agree with the easing of import restrictions, it believed that an increased risk of PRRS entering the country will be seen.