1. CDFA Home
2. AHFSS
3. AHB
4. Swine Garbage Feeding

Swine Garbage Feeding

Many foreign animal diseases, including classical swine fever and foot and mouth disease, may be spread by feeding raw garbage derived from meat products to swine. The swine garbage feeding regulations are the direct result of the past occurrence of swine vesicular exanthema and its spread by garbage feeding. The regulations were written in 1954, following 20 years of unsuccessful attempts to eradicate the disease.

What Is Garbage Feeding?

A swine "garbage-feeding facility" is a facility that feeds any meat garbage to pigs. Garbage is defined as any waste which consists in whole or in part of any animal waste that results from the handling, preparing, cooking, and consuming of food. To prevent potential disease spread, all meat garbage must be sterilized prior to being fed to swine. The only exception is ordinary household garbage originating on and being fed directly to swine on the same premise. In cases where other food products are transported to the premises in the same container with raw garbage, the entire load must be heat treated (cooked) before feeding. Other food products such as produce, bakery goods, and dairy products may be fed without heat treatment only if kept completely separate from untreated meat garbage and all equipment used to handle untreated meat garbage.

Licensing

Applications to obtain licenses to feed meat garbage to swine should be submitted to CDFA Animal Health Branch Headquarters. License renewal forms are also available from Headquarters. Licensed operators should keep a record of their garbage cooking activities. All garbage feeders, unless otherwise instructed, must be inspected a minimum of monthly, preferably once each by a Veterinary Medical Officer and a Livestock Inspector.

Return to Swine Health web page.