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>Banned all forms of animal protein, including chicken litter, in cow feed in 2001. Saw a Dirty Jobs segment some time ago in which a Nevada pig farmer picks u

>Banned all forms of animal protein, including chicken litter, in cow feed in 2001. Saw a Dirty Jobs segment some time ago in which a Nevada pig farmer picks up all the waste from several casinos' buffets, hauls it out to his farm, hand-picks the plastic and other inedible crud out of it, liquefies it, steams it to kill off some of the bacteria, then feeds it to his hogs. My first thought was that it was pretty clever of him to find a near-zero-cost source of food for his pigs. Then I thought a while longer and realized that those buffets serve a whole lot of pork. Some of which goes uneaten and into the trash... he's turning his pigs into cannibals! And then slaughtering them and selling the meat to the buffets. "Better eat that bacon, boy; three generations of pigs gave their lives for it!"

latj 13y ago
I saw that episode but never thought about that part. Waiter! I'll have the eggplant tartine today.
baddox 13y ago
Is there a health concern from pigs eating pig meat, or is it just something that seems gross?
- garblegarble 13y ago
  My understanding is that it increases the risk of an infection spreading - any agent that survives the slaughter/cooking process could infect a much larger number of animals. See the BSE epidemic we had in the UK a number of years ago: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bovine_spongiform_encephalopathy#Epidemic_in_British_cattle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bovine_spongiform_encephalopat...
protomyth 13y ago
Of all the animals, I get the feeling trying to regulate what goats or pigs eat is going to be a loss. Pigs have been used as "garbage disposals" for a long time by many groups. There is a decent historical reason for some religions to ban the eating of such animals. Parts of the Old Testaments are after all a health manual for their time period.
exDM69 13y ago
Pigs are omnivorous and naturally eat carcasses of other pigs or in the case of packs of wild boar, sometimes even kill other pigs to eat them. Feeding pigs with food containing bits of pig meat (like human food leftovers) is not ideal but it's not a very serious situation. Cows, on the other hand, are herbivores. Their digestive system cannot properly handle animal protein and this can have disastrous consequences. BSE, aka. mad cow decease is a symptom that is caused by feeding cows with animal protein, in particular from other cows. This decease is not caused by a bacteria or a virus, but a wrong kind of protein that ends up in the brain.
- mikeash 13y ago
  BSE has nothing to do with a digestive system that can't handle animal protein. After all, the human digestive system handles animal protein just great, but we can catch BSE by eating contaminated food even so.
  - nobodysfool 13y ago
    Pigs are safe from BSE, so feeding pigs pig meat has nothing to do with BSE.
  - exDM69 13y ago
    Humans can get BSE (or Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease) from eating contaminated meat, but the meat gets contaminated in the first place because cows or other animals eat protein that they can't handle and produce misfolded proteins called a prions.
    - mikeash 13y ago
      Is there any evidence that the misfolding occurs due to the inappropriate digestive system? I've never heard of this, and some quick searching around shows nothing of the sort.

latj 13y ago

I saw that episode but never thought about that part. Waiter! I'll have the eggplant tartine today.

baddox 13y ago

Is there a health concern from pigs eating pig meat, or is it just something that seems gross?

garblegarble 13y ago
My understanding is that it increases the risk of an infection spreading - any agent that survives the slaughter/cooking process could infect a much larger number of animals. See the BSE epidemic we had in the UK a number of years ago: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bovine_spongiform_encephalopathy#Epidemic_in_British_cattle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bovine_spongiform_encephalopat...

protomyth 13y ago

Of all the animals, I get the feeling trying to regulate what goats or pigs eat is going to be a loss. Pigs have been used as "garbage disposals" for a long time by many groups. There is a decent historical reason for some religions to ban the eating of such animals. Parts of the Old Testaments are after all a health manual for their time period.

exDM69 13y ago

Pigs are omnivorous and naturally eat carcasses of other pigs or in the case of packs of wild boar, sometimes even kill other pigs to eat them. Feeding pigs with food containing bits of pig meat (like human food leftovers) is not ideal but it's not a very serious situation. Cows, on the other hand, are herbivores. Their digestive system cannot properly handle animal protein and this can have disastrous consequences. BSE, aka. mad cow decease is a symptom that is caused by feeding cows with animal protein, in particular from other cows. This decease is not caused by a bacteria or a virus, but a wrong kind of protein that ends up in the brain.

mikeash 13y ago
BSE has nothing to do with a digestive system that can't handle animal protein. After all, the human digestive system handles animal protein just great, but we can catch BSE by eating contaminated food even so.
- nobodysfool 13y ago
  Pigs are safe from BSE, so feeding pigs pig meat has nothing to do with BSE.
- exDM69 13y ago
  Humans can get BSE (or Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease) from eating contaminated meat, but the meat gets contaminated in the first place because cows or other animals eat protein that they can't handle and produce misfolded proteins called a prions.
  - mikeash 13y ago
    Is there any evidence that the misfolding occurs due to the inappropriate digestive system? I've never heard of this, and some quick searching around shows nothing of the sort.