“Cold Turkey” on the menu at UK pig farms?

By Peter Crichton

FOLLOWING the long awaited report of the Department of Health slamming the alleged overuse of antibiotics fed to pigs there are signs that the industry may soon be forced to comply with further restrictions over this issue.

The Advisory Committee on Microbial Safety of Food (ACMSF) warns that steps must be taken to limit the high use of in feed antibiotics.

Their concern arises from signs that there is a real threat that resistant bacteria are being transformed from animals to humans.

The ACMSF claim that diseases such as salmonella and E.Coli will develop previously unseen levels of resistance unless urgent action is taken now.

The reports concern highlights in feed antibiotic use in the UK both as a growth promoter and as preventative disease medication.

However, other than for certain growth promoters all in feed antibiotics can only be used under veterinary supervision in the UK.

Pig producers claim that with rapid growth in the use of EP vaccines such as Stellamune there is far less reliance on in feed medication.

The report also points out that with the switch to less intensive more welfare friendly production systems antibiotic use has fallen sharply.

Although the Soil Association has said the threat posed by antibiotics is “infinitely greater and more costly than BSE” the British Pig Industry Support group (BPISG) has long campaigned that imported pigmeat poses a far greater risk to human health.

BPISG members have produced a whole series of food safety issues posed by imported pigmeat.

These include the recent dioxin scare, the continued use of meat and bonemeal in feed rations, the Belgian tranquilliser scandal last October and more recently the French “sewage in pig feed” disclosure.

With only between 50 and 60% of all bacon and ham on sale in the country labelled British, the BPISG will continue to push for a bigger swing to the home produced product which they claim will have a higher food safety profile than many products.

Ian Campbell of the BPISG challenged the Dutch meat board claim made today on BBC radio 4s farming programme that “all imported Dutch bacon met all the specification of the UK market.”

Mr Campbell pointed out that there was still no hard evidence that this is the case in a country where tethers and stalls are still in daily use and meat and bonemeal is routinely fed. These activities are illegal in the UK.

Further militant action by the group is promised the weeks ahead to ram this message home at a time when the industry is still struggling to meet losses of up to £10/pig produced.

• Peter Crichton is a Suffolk-based pig farmer offering independent valuation and consultancy services to the UK pig industry