I have just sent my pigs to the abatoir. The inspector rejected the heads, although the meat was okay. He said they have TB, and could be because we also keep poultry. Has anyone heard of this connection before? What will we have to do to make sure it doesn't happen again, before the next lot of pigs arrive?

Thanks for your help

Alison

-- Alison Homa (alisonhoma@aol.com), April 17, 2002

Answers

check out this link-

http://www.ag.state.co.us/animals/livestock_disease/tb.html

Sounds to me like it's a reportable disease and tissue samples must be sent off for verification. If positive, they try to trace the TB to the originating herd. All but a handful of states are TB-free.

Personally, I don't believe I'd chance eating meat from a TB-positive animal.

-- shakeytails in KY (shakeytails@yahoo.com), April 17, 2002.

Ask your local extension agent. You pay him, her or them. This sort of thing is one of the major reasons they were put there: they either know about it, or know how to find out; and have the training to understand it, and make it understandable.

-- Don Armstrong (darmst@yahoo.com.au), April 17, 2002.

M. avium can be transmitted between birds and pigs. Avian tuberculosis is a ubiquitous and cosmopolitan disease of free- ranging, captive, and domestic birds. The disease is most commonly found in the North Temperate Zone, and, within the United States, the highest infection rates in poultry are in the North Central States.

Gross Lesions Typical cases of avian tuberculosis in wild birds involve emaciated carcasses with solid-to-soft or crumbly, yellow-to-white or grey nodules that are less than 1 millimeter to several centimeters in size and that are deeply embedded in infected organs and tissues. The liver (Fig. 8.3A) most often contains such nodules, but the spleen (Fig. 8.3B), lung, and intestines (Fig. 8.3C) may also contain similar nodules. Aggregations of these nodules may appear as firm, fleshy, grape-like clusters. Abscesses and nodular growths (Fig. 8.4) have been reported on the skin of birds in the same locations where pox lesions are commonly seen - around the eyes, at the wing joints, on the legs, side of the face, and base of the beak.

Nodular tuberculosis lesions in internal organs are often grossly similar to those of aspergillosis, and laboratory diagnosis is required to differentiate the two diseases as well as others that produce similar lesions

-- BC (desertdweller44@yahoo.com), April 17, 2002.

And that's why, in the USDA Milk Ordinance, poultry and pigs are specifically banned from roaming the milk parlor and milk room. Even though the language is antiquated in the Ordinance, if people read these posts, they'll finally understand.

Right BC?

-- Dennis Enyart (cowboy405@yahoo.com), April 18, 2002.