In this April 2, 2019, photo, pigs eat from a trough at the Las Vegas Livestock pig farm in Las Vegas. The farm feeds their pigs with food wast from Las Vegas casinos. (AP Photo/John Locher)

In this April 2, 2019, photo, pigs eat from a trough at the Las Vegas Livestock pig farm in Las Vegas. The farm feeds their pigs with food wast from Las Vegas casinos. (AP Photo/John Locher)

One man’s trash is another ... hog farmer’s cheaper feed alternative.

But is it a treasure?

As concern builds over the threat of African swine fever, officials at both the state and national levels are scrutinizing the swine industry to make sure protections, and a potential response, are in place.

One area that has garnered attention is the practice of garbage feeding. In this context, USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service defines garbage as human food waste that contains or has had contact with meat, poultry or fish. Common origins for garbage include restaurants, school cafeterias and food processing plants.

The concern, according to several experts, is the risk of spreading African swine fever through infected meat that is ultimately fed to swine. The virus can persist even in cooked pork, though it poses no danger to humans.

In fact, the risk of a disease entering the U.S. and getting into domestic swine via garbage feeding was the main driver behind the Swine Health Protection Act of 1980, according to APHIS spokesperson Mike Stepien.

“For 40 years we have taken this potential pathway into our domestic swine population seriously, and will continue to be vigilant in our enforcement of the SHPA,” he said.

The act regulates food waste containing meat products that is fed to swine. Any producer who brings garbage to their operation for the purpose of feeding to swine must be licensed and is subject to inspections. In 2020 alone, state and federal personnel conducted 3,170 inspections of licensed garbage feeders.

The act also requires food waste to be cooked to 212 degrees for 30 minutes before it’s fed to pigs, to kill any pathogens.

That can be a labor-intensive process for a producer, and Stepien said garbage feeding has been declining over the last two decades.

Still, there are 828 licensed garbage feeders in the 27 states where the practice is allowed, along with Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

In Pennsylvania, one pork producer, in the north-central part of the state, is licensed for garbage feeding.

Shannon Powers, press secretary for the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, said that farmer lost his feed source during the pandemic but continues to keep his license current.

In New Jersey, 10 pork operations hold a garbage feeding license, and they’re all located in the southern part of the state, according to the New Jersey Department of Agriculture.

Jeff Wolfe, public information officer for the department, said the practice is on the decline in the Garden State, but because of the threat of African swine fever, the licensed operations are inspected at least every three months.

In the 1970s, New Jersey had more than 100 garbage-feeding hog farms, in large part due to the proximity of big cities.

Considering the risk of disease transmission and the stringent licensing process and inspections, is there any incentive for a pork producer to practice garbage feeding?

Wolfe said there are some benefits, such as diverting food waste that would be destined for a landfill and saving money on feed. Wolfe said that when fed properly, food waste can be a nutritious food source for swine.

But there are cons to the practice, he said. Heat treating the waste at the proper temperature adds to the cost. Garbage feed needs to be supplemented and balanced. The feed often contains large amounts of trash that needs to be sorted. And there is the risk of disease.

According to Elizabeth Hines, a swine specialist with Penn State Extension, the main advantage of garbage feeding is it provides a relatively cheap source of feed. In her opinion, that’s where the benefits end.

“It’s labor intensive. It takes storage space to refrigerate and store the waste before it’s fed, it needs to be cooked, and it’s really an inconsistent food source,” she said.

A restaurant with a lot of customers will have a variety of food orders, and that means the content and quality of the resulting garbage, or plate waste, varies as well, Hines said.

While pigs grow well on bakery waste, which is different from garbage, plate waste from restaurants contains more vegetables and animal products.

“Pigs may do OK on it, but they could be lacking all types of nutrients. A plate waste diet needs to be supplemented with other things,” Hines said.

It’s also a lot of work to feed garbage, and that’s why large swine operations typically avoid it.

“If you’re a garbage feeder, the common method is to feed it as a swill. Garbage feeding tends to have more water content, and it’s harder to store. It also has to be fed right away after it’s cooked, and it’s almost always fed by hand,” Hines said. “It’s different than feeding a dry feed that is stored in a bin and automated with a feeder system.”

Despite the licensing and inspection requirements, there is a garbage feeding loophole that raises concerns about oversight and disease transmission.

Powers said “backyard” swine operations are exempt from USDA’s license requirements, and it’s unknown how many there are in the state. A backyard swine producer can feed plate waste produced at home without adhering to the requirements of a garbage-feeding license.

“That’s one of the most significant challenges tied to disease prevention. We encourage anyone raising backyard swine or poultry to register for a premises ID so that we can notify them of disease threats in their area,” she said.

The risk of garbage-feeding operations that are unknown and practicing without a permit is also an issue. States and APHIS constantly monitor for noncompliance, Stepien said, and in 2020 federal and state officials performed approximately 7,000 searches for illegal garbage feeding.

Hines is also concerned about meat being smuggled in from other countries and fed to swine as plate waste produced at home. If the animals are feeder pigs intended to be sold and finished at another facility, the disease risk is heightened.

“Those animals could end up at a livestock market and sold, and then they go somewhere else. That’s where the concern is,” she said.

African swine fever would be bad enough if it hit a a U.S. farm. But if the deadly disease were to infect feral hogs, the nation’s swine industry could be in for a long-running nightmare.

The Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture’s Bureau of Animal Health and Diagnostic Services has gone mobile with a retrofitted trailer testing for SARS-CoV-2 and other infectious diseases where there appears to be an imminent risk. 

While there is currently no vaccination for African swine fever, the disease has been found to be slow-moving and likely to be kept at bay by good biosecurity and awareness on and off your farm.

For many wildlife biologists across the U.S., feral hogs have proved to be a formidable foe that can withstand weather extremes and proliferate, posing a disease risk to domestic swine and wildlife.

Ben Barcovtch serves on a task force for the National Pork Board and the Investor and Member Relations Committee of the National Pork Producers Council when he’s not working as a farm manager at Will-O-Bett Farm and a service manager at Country View Family Farms.

Tom Venesky is a staff reporter for Lancaster Farming. He can be reached at tvenesky@lancasterfarming.com

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