Farm Progress – Internet rumors claim mRNA in hog vaccines could end up in the pork we eat.
Animal scientists, USDA and farmer-led pork organizations all say that’s not true and pork is safe.
One reader called in asking for help finding the truth, seeking information from scientists.
My phone rang the other day. On the other end was Vernon Reipe, a farmer from Metropolis, Ill., with a story and a question.
Vernon had heard a rumor that mRNA is being injected into pigs via vaccines and is showing up in the meat we eat. His wife read it on the internet, and he said she’s been very precise in her predictions.
“Could the RNA inside the vaccine become DNA and integrate itself inside the pig’s genome, creating havoc? The problem is that the pig’s DNA exists inside the nucleus of the cell, and the vaccine RNA does not enter the nucleus.” – Gene-Therapied Pork or the Fear of RNA Vaccines in Livestock, McGill University Office for Science and Society
In this case, folks on the internet insisted that like the COVID-19 vaccine, hog vaccines with mRNA meant the mRNA remained in the pork that we eat.
So, Vernon and I talked a little while. Turns out, he just wanted to know if this was true.
He used to raise hogs and gave them all the shots his vet told him to give, and he thought maybe the Illinois Pork Producers Association might know about this mRNA. We had a great conversation; Vernon was open to the truth, even if it wasn’t what they had read online.
I made a few calls. First on the list was Jennifer Tirey, executive director at IPPA. I could feel Jennifer nodding through the phone as she confirmed that yes, they’d gotten a few calls about mRNA in pork. She also said it’s patently untrue.
It’s no surprise that something on the internet is false, especially when it comes to food and medicine. But how that came to be is sometimes the most interesting part.
Last spring, social media posts falsely asserted that farmers are required to inject livestock with mRNA vaccines and, without evidence, suggested that unsuspecting humans would consume the vaccine right along with their bacon …
“The safety of these RNA vaccines has been tested extensively, by making sure that the virus used to transport the RNA cannot and does not make copies of itself, that the RNA cannot mess with the animal’s genome, that vaccinated animals do not shed these vaccine particles, that the virus capsule does not harm humans, and that the animals who receive these vaccines do not show signs of harm following their immunization.” – McGill University
