SWILL FEEDING AND PIG PRODUCTION CHAIN.

( food waste). Swill refers to cooked food given to pigs.Pigs consume almost anything,and are great feed converters turning feed into muscle fast.Feed costs and efficiency has pushed the stakes high on alternative feed sources that will provide necessary nutrition requirements but also ensure optimum growth.Swill benefits not only farmer’s wallets, but also the environment, as farmers replace grain- and soybean-based feeds with swill, they reduce demand for these land- and greenhouse gas-intensive feeds. Pigs are usually fed a formulated ration in most pig farms,while others provide a combination of various feed components to achieve the same aim of growth at stipulated pace.Pigs are sometimes fed kitchen waste ,which is the common practice in small scale production,but the practice has gained more acceptance now even on large scale production because of the potential to reduce production costs. Swill is currently illegal in the EU,many developing countries still practice this with good feedback.The only caution in the practice is to cook the food properly so as to kill pathogens.The risks of feeding uncooked food waste were demonstrated in 2001 when a UK farmer illegally fed some to pigs, precipitating the 2001 FMD outbreak, which cost the UK economy £8 billion (€ 10.4 billion). In response, swill-feeding was banned in the UK in 2001, with the ban extended across the EU the following year. While the EU saw swill only as a disease risk, other nations saw it as a potential resource. Heat treatment deactivates viruses such as FMD and Classical Swine Fever (hog cholera) and renders food waste safe for animal feed. In the same year that the UK banned the use of swill, the Japanese government launched an initiative to promote the regulated use of food waste in animal feed. Japan and South Korea recycle around 40% of their food waste as feed which is a waste-resource innovation, as swill is seen as a strategic resource. It is a cheap, domestic alternative to the more expensive, volatile grain- and soybean-based feeds. Pigs reared on food waste produce pork of high quality , although swill-fed pigs tend to grow more slowly than when fed conventional, grain-based feed. The swill has a more variable nutritional content thus the costs of slower growth are more than offset by the savings in feed costs.