Mad Cow USA--Will Agribusiness Stop Feeding Animals Hazardous Slaughterhouse Waste?

From: www.agprofessional.com/show_story.php?id=28057
Source: Dow Jones Newswires

New BSE Feed Rule May Create 2.1 Billion Pounds Of Cattle Waste
Oct. 15, 2004

The new rule the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is now writing to ban
some bovine material - parts believed to be a higher risk for bovine
spongiform encephalopathy infection - from all livestock feed may force
industry to destroy as much as 2.1 billion pounds now being commercialized
each year.

This, FDA veterinarian Burt Pritchett said, would be a worst-case scenario
for the rendering, livestock and feed industries that would absorb most of
the cost associated with the new feedban rule.

The FDA has said the reason behind the proposed expansion in the feedban is
to "control the risks associated with cross contamination throughout feed
manufacture," keeping cattle from being accidentally given feed for other
livestock that may contain bovine material, such as brains, spinal cords
and tonsils, considered to be a risk for spreading the disease.

Pritchett said the estimate that 2.1 billion pounds of bovine material
would be diverted from commerce to "special disposal" is based on the
assumption that the FDA decides the list of specified risk material
prohibited in animal feed will be the same as the list now prohibited in
human food by the USDA, something that has not yet been settled on by the
FDA.

In January, the USDA expanded the list of specified risk material from
cattle that are prohibited from the human food supply as well as banned
beef from non-ambulatory and dead animals.

Included in Pritchett's estimate is about 800 million pounds of specified
risk material collected from 28.2 million head of cattle under 30 months
old, 600 million pounds from older cattle and 700 million pounds from dead
stock or non-ambulatory cattle, or animals too sick or injured to stand.

All of this bovine material - now being used in feed products - would go
into "special disposal," Pritchett said. That could mean landfills,
incineration or possibly the production of biofuel.

The USDA said in May it wants to use up to $50 million in government loan
guarantees to help efforts to turn banned bovine material into energy.

James Hodges, president of the American Meat Institute Foundation, said
that the meat processing and feed industries are still hoping the FDA will
look for other options to banning specified risk material from all animal
feed and should at least wait for the USDA to complete the 18-month
surveillance program in started in June to assess the prevalence of BSE in
the U.S.

So far the USDA has tested about 80,000 cattle under the initiative with a
final goal of testing 268,500 and has found no new cases.

"You ought to not precipitously take these actions until you understand
what our current BSE situation is in the United States," Hodges said. "The
positive we had in Washington state was of Canadian origin."

Tom Cook, president of the National Renderers Association, criticized the
2.1-billion-pound FDA estimate as conservative. "That's a very low-ball
figure." And it won't just be the rendering industry that's hurt by the new
feedban, he said.

Renderers take dead stock off ranchers' hands for only a small fee, Cook
said. But if, under a new FDA rule, renderers have no use for those dead
animals, that service will no longer be there and ranchers would have to
bear the full costs of disposal.

The FDA has banned bovine material from cattle feed since 1997 because it
is believed BSE, also called mad-cow disease, can be spread in herds when
cattle eat infected tissue from rendered cattle. Makers of feed for swine,
poultry and other animals can still use cattle parts for protein under the
1997 rule, but the bovine materials deemed risky for BSE infection would be
banned under the new FDA rule.

The FDA has said the reason behind the proposed expansion in the feedban is
to "control the risks associated with cross contamination throughout feed
manufacture and distribution ... on the farm."

Pritchett, who spoke before a government advisory committee this week, said
FDA has already completed the review of the 1,500 feedback letters it
received since announcing on July 14 that it intended to change the feedban
rule by banning SRM in all animal feed. He said the next step - writing the
actual proposal - is underway, but gave no timeline for its completion.

Once it is complete, the FDA will allow for yet more public feedback and
only after that is complete will work begin on a final rule.

In January, the FDA pledged to change the feedban rule but made no mention
of banning specified risk materials. Instead it pledged to ban things such
as plate waste, chicken litter and mammalian blood and blood products from
cattle feed.

Chicken litter, which is excrement, feathers, bedding and leftover chicken
feed, may be able to spread BSE because the feed component could contain
ruminant material.

Pritchett said Thursday those restrictions are still being considered by
the FDA, but the agency will concentrate first on the specified risk
material ban. "We'll do an SRM ban first and then start dealing with the
other measures," he said. "First things first. We're going to remove (the
possibility of) infectivity from the feed channel and then we'll sort the
rest out later."