One packer's response to belly ruptures in pigs

Thursday, May 1, 2014

Conestoga Meat Packers has set up a three-step process to deal with hernias in hogs coming into its packing plant and now severe cases are rare

by DON STONEMAN

Frank Wood, procurement manager at Conestoga Meat Packers, Breslau, hasn't forgotten a particular day in 2008 that resulted in the farmer-owned co-op and third-largest pork packing plant in Ontario taking a tough line against so-called belly ruptures in pigs, a hot issue elsewhere in the industry last year and now.

"We had a very critical customer coming through," Wood related to a pork producer meeting in Kirkton recently. There were two badly ruptured pigs in the plant from different farms. Wood points out the company markets pork based on the premise that smaller-scale family farm production is a kinder system. "We are family farmers and we care about our hogs. I'll never forget hearing this woman say 'what I really see is farmers that don't care,' and that set off alarm bells."

Wood says the issue was taken to members who "voted on and approved" a process for dealing with hogs compromised by hernias ever since. First, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency inspector is called. Then the affected animal is segregated and euthanized. The producer is assessed a handling fee "and there is follow up between my department and the producer," Wood says.

One result, he says, is that severe cases hardly ever happen anymore at the Conestoga plant. Conestoga's rule is that pigs with belly ruptures are allowed through the system if the hernias are "no bigger than a softball." Producers call the plant sometimes to ask whether particular pigs can be shipped. Wood says photos taken with cell phones help in decision-making.  

While there is a new pig code and there are federal laws involving the transport of livestock, plus Health of Animals regulations, Conestoga is also responsible to its customers. "We had seven audits from seven large companies in the last year," Wood says, citing Wendy's, Tim Hortons and Sobeys Inc. among them. "They are paying attention to this kind of stuff."

Dealing with compromised pigs when they arrive at the plant is critical, Wood says. Mostly hogs are suffering from exhaustion. Trucking is the most stressful thing that happens to a pig in its lifetime and problems experienced in the barn will be multiplied.

Wood notes that customer perceptions aren't the only reason that ruptured hogs shouldn't be brought into the plant. There is a danger of fecal contamination of other carcasses on the kill floor if the rupture spills. Segregating the compromised pig is an added cost. And "bellies" are an important and profitable primal cut that greatly reduce the value of a hog if they are damaged.

Conestoga Packers kills 14,000 hogs a week, the output from about 150 family farms that it says are located within a two-hour drive of the plant. BF