[oaklandspigs]

for once Wikipedia is not that far off.

The  "it is likely that the infected meat had been illegally imported to the UK" is a bit like saying that it is likely that Hitler was responsible for WWII.  Uk didn't have it, it comes on meat, don't legally import FMD meat, so either illegally imported or the tooth fairy brought it ! (except for 2007 when the Gov released it).
 
As per usual with Defra, both interpretation and consistency are to the fore, and the EU reg which bans the feeding of "catering waste" is interpreted by defra as ANY kitchen, and includes vegetarian restaurants for consistency and good measure !!  The risk that your kitchen has any FMD infected meat is so close to zero as to be equivalent to David Cameron ringing you at 8.21 this evening to ask you to help out in Government.  However rules is rules, as I would not advocate thatb you feed anything from your kitchen.

Finally, yes the rules do apply to pet pig keepers, in fact any pig keepers, as the risk is of transmission from live pig to live pig,sheep,cow,deer and thus to the to the UK herds of cattle and pigs and flocks of sheep, which can be via the air, rather than infected meat for eating (FMD is not harmful to humans).

[oaklandspigs]

HM,


Yes you are right that eu is considering PAP (Processed Animal Protein) to be allowed to pigs.

This is not as bad as it at first seems - Pigs are omnivours, and indeed wild boar get most of their nutrition from "dead things" they find - carrion.  So feeding meat to a meat eater is not a big no no.  Indeed swill contained meat, which was why it had to be boiled before being fed (and wasn't boiled for long enough in 2001, as even if the meat had FMD, the correct boiling process would have killed it)  My understanding is that PAP will be manufactured at approved presmsies, tightly controlled, so will have been heat treated prior to relaese into the great outdoors.

Where it all went wrong was when they fed animal protein to ruminants eg cattle to sheep, now that is cleary not right, as BSE shows.

Now I would not feed PAP to my pigs, as if I wanted a uniform bland feed to create a uniform bland meat, I would not bother bringing up pigs, and just buy from Tesco.

[Hilarysmum]

Thanks for the info its very interesting.