The cutest thing you'll see today

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Growing number of farm animals spawn new diseases

A growing number of livestock, such as cows and pigs, are fueling new animal epidemics worldwide and posing more severe problems in developing countries as it threatens their food security, according to a report released by the International Livestock Research Institute.

Seventy-five percent of emerging infectious diseases originate in animals. Of these 61 percent are transmissible between animals and humans.

A new disease emerges every four months; many are trivial but HIV, SARS and avian influenza illustrate the huge potential impacts.

The report warned that rapid urbanization and climate change could act as "wild cards," altering the present distribution of diseases, sometimes "dramatically for the worse."

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Scary pork?

In a small complex of nondescript barns set in the flat, snow-covered fields of Ontario, Enviropig is a scientific project which, some argue, represents the new frontier of a technology that could benefit millions of people around the world.

For others what is happening here is weird, dangerous science.

The pigs they are breeding could be among the first genetically modified farm animal to be approved for human consumption.Each pig contains genes from mice and E.coli bacteria, which have been inserted into their DNA with absolute precision.

Those genes make a small but important difference to the way these pigs process their food.

Ordinarily, pigs cannot easily digest chemicals called phosphates. That means that the stuff that comes out of the back end can be toxic and damaging to the environment. The phosphates are easily washed into waterways, where they can produce a hugely fertile environment for plants. But the plants grow so rapidly that they choke the stream or river and cause huge damage to the ecosystem.

The genetic modification enables these pigs to digest phosphates, which means they are less polluting and cheaper to feed.

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Smile, it's Friday!

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(via Reddit)

Still around

Protect yourself from the "Swine Flew"

Coopergreen says, "Wear safety goggles at all times."

Cute or not? Meishan piglets

Photo credit: Markus Schreiber

Video: Kingsford: Tiny Cute Pig

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China's Miracle Pig Becomes Fat and Lazy

The giant pig embraced in China as a miracle survivor of a massive earthquake in May has been voted the country's favorite animal.

The hog was trapped for over a month following the 7.9 magnitude quake that killed nearly 90,000 in Sichuan, survived on charcoal and rainwater for 36 days, and was then bought by a businessman who named him "Zhu Jianqiang," or "Strong Pig."

People come from all over to see the miracle pig, Reuters reported, but it was becoming increasingly spoiled, fed up with visitors even as it chows down.

"It's gotten fatter and lazier by the day," the China Daily quoted staff as saying. "We used to take it out for a walk every morning and afternoon, but it's too lazy — and too fat — to do it."

Source: FoxNews

Loose pigs snarl traffic

A truck carrying nearly 100 pigs overturned on Interstate 94 near Interstate 494 in Minnesota Thursday morning causing traffic to be snarled.

State Patrol Lieutenant Jeff Gladfelter says that not all of the pigs stayed with the flipped tracter-trailer. "There was about 15 of them that got loose." Gladfelter says 7 troopers and some MnDot workers were able to corral most of the pigs in a makeshift pen on the side of the highway.

Source: kare11

Philosophy

(comic found at Presurfer)

Video: Squeaky the herding pig

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PIG 05049

What happens to a pig after it has been slaughtered?

Of course, part of the animal is meant for consumption, but what happens to the rest?

Over three years, designer Christien Meindertma has investigated exactly what products are made from pigs. Her quest provided her with 187 products and led her to a tattoo artist, dentist, farmer and weapon specialist.

Beer, medicine, munitions, cardiac valves, brake discs and bubblegum: these are but a few products that contain parts, or sometimes minuscule particles, of a pig.

For the very first time an almost surgical dissection of one specific pig is exhibited: PIG 05049 is on display in the Kunsthal, Rotterdam, together with all the products that originate from it.

The presentation can be considered as the preamble to KunsthalKOOKT, Festival of Real Taste, to be held from 26 up to 28 September.

(via Scribal Terror)

Oink your phone

Who could resist?

Especially when you can replace the ring tone with a pig snore.

$22.00 at Novelty Phones

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Inhaling pig brains may be cause of new Illness.

A new disease has surfaced in 12 people among the 1,300 employees at the factory run by Quality Pork Processors about 100 miles south of Minneapolis.

The ailment is characterized by sensations of burning, numbness and weakness in the arms and legs. For most, this is unpleasant but not disabling. For a few, however, the ailment has made walking difficult and work impossible. The symptoms have slowly lessened in severity, but in none of the sufferers has it disappeared completely.

The packing house slaughters 1,900 pigs a day. The 12 sufferers of the neurological illness all work at or near the "head table" where the animals' severed heads are processed.

One of the steps in that part of the operation involves removing the pigs' brains with compressed air forced into the skull through the hole where the spinal cord enters. The brains are then packed and sent to markets in Korea and China as food.

Investigators say there is no reason to suspect that either the brains or the pork cuts were contaminated. Their working hypothesis is that the harvesting technique -- known as "blowing brains" on the floor -- produces aerosols of brain matter. Once inhaled, the material prompts the immune system to produce antibodies that attack the pig brain compounds, but apparently also attack the body's own nerve tissue because it is so similar.

Source: Washington Post

When Pigs Fly

I didn't know that flying pigs were so frequently seen.


Paulus Tjiang Flying Pig
7" x 7" Pink glass complete with wings, bug eyes and kissy lips.

$275.00 at CBL Fine Art



Iron Piggy Paper Weight
Combination paperweight and non-verbal response of "Yeah, right!"

$19.00 at Wisteria



Gemstone Flying Pig
Carved in Aventurine stone

$15.00 at Exquisite Crystals


Flying Pig Lawn Ornament
Ready for either hanging or mounting on a stake,

$170.00 at Uncommon Goods


Flying Pig Jewelry
Earrings, Pendants, Charms, Pins

$26.00 and up at Dee Sharp Jewelry


Flying Pig for home and garden
A rusty cast iron statue (and bank)

$29.00 at Stone Griffin


Flying Pig Door Stop
Sturdy cast-iron design features a double-tiered base and a whimsical design.

$29.99 at GoCollect.com



When Pigs Fly T-Shirt
In 2 colors and several sizes

Starting at $14.95 at GoWear


Pig Flying Hat
Pull the chin string to flap the wings. Size fits most adults. Approximately 15"L.

$4.95 at US Toy Company




Flying Pig Hood Ornament
Customize your vehicle, or try these hood ornaments on boats, golf carts, plaques, trophies or promotional items.

$46.72 and up at Truck Customizers

Pig-sitter accused of abuse

A Winona woman wants charges pressed against an acquaintance for making her pig fat.

Michelle Schmitz said her pot-bellied pig, Alaina Templeton, weighed 50 pounds last spring when Schmitz left her with a co-worker. Nine months later, the pig was 150 pounds. It took veterinarians 4 1/2 hours to surgically remove the obese pig’s collar.

Now the one-eyed Alaina is the subject of a police investigation into whether her pig-sitter abused her by neglecting and over-feeding her.

Schmitz, 22, said she cried for three days after she discovered her pet’s weight problem.

“That pig is my life,” she said. Schmitz even has a tattoo of Alaina’s name. “Everyone in Winona knows I have this pig.”

Road hog

There was no time for social niceties, table manners or even a please and thank you.

When little pigs insist on stopping for lunch, there's nothing much a mother on the move can do.

"The sow was feeding her piglets in the middle of the road and there was no way of moving her," said Bernie Bedford, a local doctor who took the picture.

Photo: Daily Mail

Cute Mini Pigs

The mini pigs weigh less than a fifth of an ordinary pig when fully grown.

Photo: © Pennywell Farm

Rare Pigs

Pig Paradise Farm is also the home of the spectacular 'Curly Coated' Breed, first in UK for 34 years.

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Pig News

Pigs around the world

In China, 68,000 pigs have died and 175,000 more have been slaughtered because of the highly infectious blue-ear pig disease. Some Western press reports have said the number of infected pigs is much higher than disclosed government figures, citing the dramatic spike in pork prices in China this year as evidence.

In Spain, Manuel Maldonado, is taking the art of the ham to new heights, pampering his pigs with a free-range lifestyle and top-quality diet of acorns before slaughtering them, then curing the meat for two years - twice as long as his competitors. His a salt-cured ham, the 2006 Alba Quercus Reserve, will cost about $1,979 per leg, or $158.35 per pound - the most expensive ham in the world.

In Austria, three people were injured after a truck carrying 200 pigs crashed. Police and rescue teams were forced to conduct a pig hunt to catch the fleeing pigs. After the fugitive hogs had been apprehended, the driver continued his trip but a few hours later he crashed against a tunnel wall in southern Austria, causing porcine pandemonium on the motorway a second time when his pigs escaped again.