Disease experts focus on pig feed
24 February 2001
Disease experts focus on pig feed
by Alistair Driver and Johann Tasker
EXPERTS are visiting an airport in northern England amid fears that animal feed made from waste airline food sparked foot-and-mouth disease in Britain.
A Northumberland pig fattening unit said to be the source of the disease which has engulfed six farms is on the outskirts of Newcastle and close to the airport.
Ministry of Agriculture (MAFF) officials are investigating the source of swill used to feed pigs by brothers Bobby and Ronnie Waugh at Heddon-on-the-Wall.
Agriculture minister Nick Brown has asked MAFF vets to list all possible factors including feeding practices which could have caused the disease.
In an attempt to trace the outbreak, industry practices are being scrutinised along the whole food chain, from feed suppliers to supermarket delivery methods.
Mr Brown pledged that the government would examine the findings and then consider new public policy measures to limit disease outbreaks in the future.
But he has said that the most likely source of the disease is the illegal importation of material from one of the 60 or so countries affected recently.
The virus certainly entered Britain from outside Europe.
It is a pan-Asiatic strain that has wreaked havoc over the past two years in Asian and African countries many from which Britain imports meat.
Jim Scudamore, the governments chief veterinary officer, has refused to comment on reports that swill could spread foot-and-mouth if improperly treated.
Waste food is supposed to be heat-treated by specially approved suppliers and carefully handled if it is to be fed to livestock under strict conditions.
A spokesman for Newcastle Airport admitted to Farmers Weekly that he did not know where waste from the airports catering operation ended up.
It was removed from the airport by a firm of contractors, he said.
“We would not sell or give waste food directly to farmers,” the spokesman added. “But we do not know what the contractor does with it.”
The National Pig Association said there were less than 140 pig farmers were licensed to feed swill, accounting for about 1.6% of Britains pig production.