Feds Looking Into Evidence of B. Coli at Pig Farm

PETA Alerts Officials to Veterinary Findings That Pigs Carried a Parasite Transmissible to Humans

For Immediate Release:
July 13, 2020

Contact:
Brooke Rossi 202-483-7382

Following a report from a PETA veterinarian, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is looking into findings that two pigs transferred to PETA from a farm owned by an Alvord-based company tested positive for Balantidium coli (B. coli), which can sicken humans who have contact with infected pigs’ feces or consumers who eat the contaminated, undercooked flesh. PETA has also alerted the state veterinarian to its findings.

On June 26, PETA honored the memory of recently killed animal rights activist Regan Russell—who was mowed down by a pig transport truck outside a Canadian slaughterhouse—by acquiring the pigs from an Iowa factory farmer. It appears that they were born in South Dakota and raised at Pig Hill Farms in Iowa, which supplies pigs to big-name brands like Hormel, JBS, and Prestage Foods. They were transported to a sanctuary in New York, where fecal test results showed the presence of B. coli, which can cause pain and diarrhea in humans and, in extreme cases, lung and bone infections from lesions.

“These two pigs weren’t killed for bacon, ham, or sausage, but this same parasite may well be present in other pigs from the farm whose flesh is on the way to supermarkets,” says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk. “PETA looks to state and federal authorities to tell the public how many farmhands, slaughterhouse workers, and consumers may have been exposed to B. coli.”

Confining and killing animals for food has been linked to swine flu, SARS, avian  flu, and COVID-19—which is sweeping through slaughterhouses, sickening thousands of workers and their families—and a new strain of swine flu with “pandemic potential” has just been detected in China and is now spreading from pigs to farmworkers. The World Health Organization has confirmed that processed meats such as sausages, ham, and bacon are known carcinogens—and eating meat is also linked to higher rates of diabetes, heart disease, and strokes.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—opposes speciesism. For more information, please visit PETA.org.