Swine Health Protection Act 1980

Type of practice Reuse for feed

Name of practice Swine Health Protection Act 1980

Name of main actor USA Government

Type of actor(s) Farmers

Location United States of America

Stage of implementation Farm

Year of implementation 1980

What was/is being done? The US Federal Swine Health Protection Act regulates the use of animal by-product for swine feed and includes provisions, so as to reduce the risk of foreign animal diseases and the spread of harmful pathogens. It provides that animal waste or non-animal products that had contact with raw or improperly cooked meat products must be properly treated and cooked before being fed to swine. The Act leaves wide room for individual states to establish their own regulation, resulting in implementation of converse legislation. For instance, California, Nevada, New Jersey and North Carolina have adopted relaxed regulations with provisions similar to the one contained in the federal law, while other states, such as Georgia, Illinois, Wisconsin and Iowa, have chosen not to allow the use of any kind of animal by-products for feeding purposes. Prior to the BSE outbreak in 2001, the highest percentage of waste-fed animals in USA was found in Texas, Florida and New Jersey, which on their own constituted the 50 percent of the total. However, many states imposed temporary or permanent bans on feeding animal waste to swine; for example, the 2001 Texas Swine-Feeding Law’ provisions were then relaxed by the exception mentioned under Section 165.026 on Feeding garbage to swine of the Texas Agriculture Code, which allows feeding PAPs to swine under certain circumstances. On the other hand, some other states have adopted more relaxed standards and allow animal waste to be fed to swine (provided that all the necessary treatment to prevent the transmission of diseases have been taken in accordance to the Swine Health Protection Act), with the exception of the no cannibalism principle (e.g. bill recently approved by the California Assembly Committee on Agriculture).

Outcomes and impacts N/A