Feed Mix-Up Causes 4 Pigs From Fair to Fail Drug Test

COSTA MESA —  All the little piggies from the Orange County Fair went to market, but a few were halted Tuesday when government tests showed that their bodies were laced with drugs.

During routine inspections over the last week, federal authorities discovered traces of an antibiotic in four pigs that were raised by local schoolchildren and auctioned at the fair for slaughter. Those four carcasses were condemned Monday, and about 150 live pigs have been waylaid at a nearby slaughterhouse until the drug has time to clear their systems.

Fair officials, local veterinarians and the child who raised one of the tainted pigs said the problem was caused by a mix-up in bags of feed given to the pigs.

“We don’t know how it happened, but we are certain that it wasn’t malicious. It was an accident,” said Jim Bailey, the fair’s livestock supervisor. In 34 years at the fair, Bailey said, he has never before had swine sent back because of a drug problem.

“I’m bummed,” said 13-year-old Justin Parkinson of Silverado Canyon, who helped raise one of the contaminated pigs. “I don’t know where it came from or anything like that.”

The antibiotic, sulfa methazine, is used in piglets’ starter feed to ward off infection. But the drug is removed from feed given to older pigs to ensure that no residue remains when the pigs are sold for slaughter. Pork containing sulfa methazine could cause an allergic reaction--or even death--in some people, veterinarians said.

U.S. Department of Agriculture officials tested 12 of the 163 pigs sent to slaughter at the Farmer John plant in Vernon and found enough drug residue in four to make them potentially hazardous. The eight “clean” pigs were sent to the people who bought them at the auction, while the four tainted ones were ground up for fertilizer or turkey feed, Farmer John spokesman Ron Smith said.

Farmer John will care for the rest of the pigs until next week, when the drug should be gone from their systems. All the pigs will be tested before they are distributed, Bailey said.

The 55 fair pigs sent to other butchers and processors will also be tested by the USDA.

USDA veterinarian Arthur Endo said sulfa methazine is more often found in pigs raised by children for fairs than in those from commercial pig farmers. Smith said the only other pigs stopped at the Farmer John slaughterhouse because of drugs recently were ones from a Texas fair last year.

Because the four sulfa-contaminated pigs from Orange County were raised by different children, some suspect a feed mix-up at the fairgrounds. The pigs lived at the fair from July 9 until the July 17 auction.