The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

Bahamian farmers were yesterday blaming a “bad feed batch” from the Gladstone Road Agriculture Centre (GRAC) for recent pig deaths, with one telling Tribune Business he had lost close to 50 pigs and more than $35,000 as a result.

The farmer, who spoke to Tribune Business on the condition of anonymity due to victimisation fears,  said: “I understand that they had an issue with the feed. At the Government place they lost a bunch of pigs also.

“We all got the same feed. I feed pigs down in Exuma. They say the pigs died from sand ingestion. I’ve never heard such foolishness in my life. Those pigs have been living on that cay now for how long. Why would they die from sand ingestion now?”

  V Alfred Gray, minister of agriculture and marine resources, recently told reporters that Exuma’s world-renowned swimming pigs had died from ingesting “sand material”.

Mr Gray said that according to a report by the chief veterinary officer attached to his ministry, an autopsy performed on some of the animals revealed the pigs had “a good amount of sand” in their stomachs.

More than a half a dozen of the swimming pigs were found dead under mysterious circumstances more than a week ago.

The majority of the pigs, believed to be around 15, are still alive.

No link between the GRAC’s “bad feed batch” and the swimming pigs’ deaths has been proven or stated, with no evidence yet available to draw such a connection. However, multiple Tribune Business sources in the agriculture industry yesterday dismissed the ‘ingested sand’ explanation.

The farmer reiterated to Tribune Business of the GRAC: “They had a bad batch of feed. It was just a bad batch where they left the feed on the dock too long and the corn spoiled.

“That stuff has a shelf life. I’ve probably lost 47 grown pigs from this, and we had a lot of stillborns. I’m looking at well over $35,000. One of the boars, one of my top boars I lost, was over 500 pounds. You really can’t even put a value on a pig like that.”

Other Tribune Business sources, also speaking on condition of anonymity, suggested that the livestock feed ingredients had been left on the dock too long, which resulted in them “going bad” and “toxins” developing.

This newspaper was told that the GRAC had lost around 40 adult pigs and sucklings to the “bad feed batch” and, when these losses were added to those incurred by private farmers, “several hundreds pigs” have died as a result over the past six to eight weeks - potentially crippling a significant segment of Bahamian agriculture.

Attempts to obtain a comment on the matter from the Bahamas Agricultural and Industrial  Corporation (BAIC) were unsuccessful up to press time yesterday.

However, Tribune Business understands that the Bahamas Agriculture and Marine Science Institute (BAMSI) is taking over the management of the GRAC, which supplies the feed. 

BAMSI, Tribune Business has been informed, has brought in an animal nutrition specialist to oversee the GRAC.