The Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) has warned farmers and smallholders not to feed catering or kitchen waste to their livestock.
APHA and Trading Standards say they are still finding and investigatingincidents where farmers and smallholders are illegally feeding pigs (and poultry) with catering waste, often because they are unaware of the disease risk posed to their livestock by giving them this type of food.
The reminder, according to a report on the NPA website, “appears to be largely targeted at smallholders and people with pet pigs and poultry”, with APHA stressing that it remains illegal to feed catering waste, kitchen scraps, meat or meat products to farmed animals.
This is to prevent the introduction and spread of potentially devastating notifiable animal diseases, such as African and Classical Swine Fever, and Foot and Mouth disease.