BSE and pigs

[dun]

I wonder if pigs can contract BSE or some form of it and the only reason it isn't seen is because they don't live long enough to show the signs.
Things like that are a curiosity to me

dun

 

[Anonymous]

I'm sure that there's a name for it in pigs...but you are right--they don't live long enough (generally) to know. The old feller I worked for up in NE Kansas had sows that were 9-10+ years old & he was still breeding them. BUT sometimes we'd get a one that went kinda 'goofy' and then be a 'downer'. We'd load them up & take 'em out to a pit in the field & put a .22 in 'em. If I asked too many questions I was told it was always 'something else'. (Yeah-"Cover-Up"-HA) More often than not it was a 'younger' (2-4 years) sow that'd do this as opposed to an older one. One thing about pigs is they will literally eat anything....even getting so bored as to start chewing on their penmates. (alive :? or dead).
Jay

 

[Craig-TX]

I read somewhere recently that pigs don't contract BSE. The article said that attempts to induce it in the lab have been unsuccessful. The scientists are trying to figure out why. They are omnivorous but I guess that's not a very scientific answer.

Craig-TX

 

[sam]

a pig is kinda like a coyote, they will eat about anything. wild pigs will eat baby calves, fawns, snakes, birds, anything they can get a hold of. i have 3 wild pigs i trapped, they have never failed to eat anything i give them. a lot of pig farmers will pickup the garbage from restaurants at night to feed their pigs, meat, veggies, bread, grease, everything that is thrown in the garbage.

 

[dun]

The only thing I found that they wouldn't it was pig testicles when we castrated them

dun

a pig is kinda like a coyote, they will eat about anything. wild pigs will eat baby calves, fawns, snakes, birds, anything they can get a hold of. i have 3 wild pigs i trapped, they have never failed to eat anything i give them. a lot of pig farmers will pickup the garbage from restaurants at night to feed their pigs, meat, veggies, bread, grease, everything that is thrown in the garbage.

 

[dd]

When cutting 3 or 4 day old pigs I used to toss them to the sow to keep her quiet, most loved them.

 

[Anonymous]

If anybody has read any articles, research papers, etc. (not just coffee shop conjecture) regarding BSE or its equivalent in pigs I would sure love to get the details from you. Feral (wild) hogs are running rampant throughout most parts of Texas and my deer lease in the western part of the Texas hill country is loaded with them. We kill and eat a pretty large number of them each year but I have been a bit nervous about that, since they are clearly omnivorous. To my knowledge there are no problems with the deer population in Texas having chronic wasteing disease or any of the other afflictions commonly lumped in with BSE. But I figure that the hogs gobble up a heck of a lot of deer parts from the various gut piles and so I'm more than a little bit interested in this whole topic. I seem to recall reading a few months ago that only ruminants (which hogs are not) could contract BSE and/or pass it on in certain of their body parts, but I'd like to see something authoritative on this! Thanks for any info that anybody can share. Arnold Ziffle.

 

[Anonymous]

Well. I just did a quick google search and scanned the following items that may be of interest. Probably there are many more now available on the internet but these were the first two that I clicked on. One report somewhat contradicts the other. See the comment regarding TSE (as opposed to BSE) at the end of the article by PCC Natural Markets. Best regards to all (even our buddy Blackpower) and pray for an early spring. Arnold Ziffle,


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