Pig abuse on the rise

MONDAY, 30 NOVEMBER 2009 09:25 DN NEWS

Increasing number of pigs arrive at slaughter houses with serious injuries from being hit with chains and planks

A new system which rewards the speed of loading pigs on to transport vehicles could be behind the rising number of pigs being delivered with injuries to slaughter.

In the last two years, the number of cases involving pig abuse has quintupled.

The country’s largest slaughterhouse, Danish Crown in Horsens, and the Department of Veterinary Disease Biology at the University of Copenhagen, have noted the tendency, where in some cases more than 30 pigs have arrived at slaughterhouses with serious injuries.

Professor Henrik Elvang Jensen at the University of Copenhagen said studies of the pigs’ injuries showed that most of them were occurring on the farms. The injuries were caused by blunt instruments such as pipes, planks and chains, he said.

An explanation for this may lie with the introduction of a new system in 2006 that rewards farmers for transporting the pigs more quickly.

‘When a system is like that it can provoke a violent reaction if the farmer suddenly sees 30 pigs running in the wrong direction,’ Elvang Jensen said.

Erik Bredholt, who is in charge of Danish Crown’s pork production committee, said beating animals was completely unacceptable.

‘Every farmer knows you don’t get your pigs loaded on to the truck faster by beating them,’ he said.

Bredholt argued that the increase in the number of injured pigs had nothing to do with the new system, pointing instead to the economic pressure many farmers were presently under.

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PORK 101 Dates Set for 2010

By Pork news source | Monday, November 30, 2009

PORK 101 has announced its 2010 schedule. A three-day, hands-on experience designed to update participants on quality and consistency issues in the pork industry, PORK 101 is hosted by the American Meat Science Association in cooperation with the National Pork Board.

PORK 101 is scheduled for March 9-11 at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa; April 13-15 at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln, Neb.; May 25-27 at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas; and on a yet-to-be-announced date at Oklahoma State University.

At PORK 101, participants evaluate eight live hogs that are processed during class, with attendees learning about grading, food safety and product processing. The class will make and sample processed product from the hogs including pumped loins, bacon, hams and sausage.

For more information and to register.

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Dutch Scientists Grow First Pork Meat In Lab

By Paul Adams

Posted 11.30.2009 at 1:59 pm

Bioreactor for Cell Cultures M. Janicki

A Dutch project that launched in 2005 has finally borne fruit: cells from a delicious pig have been cultured in the laboratory to grow the first successful filet of in vitro pork, The Times reports.

The prospect of vat-grown meat has been the stuff of science fiction for quite a while, and the subject of serious study for over a decade. A number of groups, including odd bedfellows NASA and PETA, see it as the answer to feeding a hungry world, without all the unpleasant externalities of large-scale meat production. And many vegetarians say they would not have an ethical dilemma eating meat if no animal was killed to produce it.

The team at Holland's Eindhoven University extracted muscle cells from a living pig and incubated them in an appetizing nutrient broth "derived from the blood products of animal foetuses," according to The Times. Future lab meat will be grown in a synthetic medium instead.

An actual lab-grown pork chop is still a ways away, though. Meat suitable for the plate has to be more than a simple petri-dish-grown wad of muscle tissue. Without blood flow, bones, connective tissue, and a modest amount of exercise, the flavor and texture of the muscle will be far from palatable. The culture achieved by the Dutch scientists is reportedly a "soggy form of pork" that its creators have not yet ventured to taste.

For now, though, before the technology for a beautiful synthetic steak has been perfected, lab-grown meat may still be suitable for feeding to other animals, where its impact on environmental and economic issues would still be beneficial. At present, for instance, 25 percent of the world's fish catch is fed back to farmed fish each year, a ratio that's hugely detrimental to the sustainability of the seafood industry.

The lab-grown meat might be edible as a component of sausage as well; and indeed one of the primary funding sources of the Dutch study is Stegeman, a sausage manufacturer owned by Sara Lee.

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