Procedures for Testing Garbage To Be Fed to Swine Need Strengthening

GAO reviewed a portion of the Swine Disease Surveillance Program related to the treatment of garbage to be fed to swine. A primary component of the program is the periodic inspection of garbage-feeding premises to inspect swine for clinical disease signs, check cooking equipment, and check garbage to determine if it has been adequately cooked. The review was directed to provide adequate assurance that garbage fed to swine is being properly cooked each day and not just when inspectors are present. According to Federal regulations, raw garbage is one of the primary media for the spread of several serious swine diseases. Regulations restrict the interstate movement of swine fed raw garbage or pork derived from such swine. Swine fed any raw garbage may be shipped in interstate commerce only for immediate slaughter and special processing. Products from swine fed raw garbage must be specially processed prior to interstate shipment. The laws and regulations of each State to require proper treatments for killing any disease organisms are relied on because there is no current authority to impose uniform Federal requirements.

The inspectors check garbage-cooking operations primarily by checking the temperature of the garbage that is being cooked at the time of their visits. Garbage is not always being cooked at those times and the temperature check does not provide any assuance of proper cooking when inspectors are not present. Greater assurance of proper garbage cooking could be achieved if the inspectors would make use of the phosphatase field test, a chemical analysis. A major advantage of the test is that it can be made up to 48 hours after the cooking operation, thus, it can be used on an unannounced, after-the-fact basis.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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