For related articles and more information, please visit OCA’s Mad Cow News & Views page and our Food Safety Research Center page.

Mad Cow Disease (the common term for Bovine Spongiform Encepholopathy (BSE) made headlines once again in April 2012, when a dairy cow at a rendering facility in California was found to have the disease.

BSE, a progressive neurological disorder of cattle that can be transmitted to other species, including humans (in people it’s called Cruetzfeldt-Jakob Disease) is a devastating condition that typically leads to progressive dementia and death, often within a year of the onset of symptoms.

One of the primary ways Mad Cow Disease is transmitted is when cows are fed bone meal and waste products from other cattle infected with the disease.

As a result, it’s now illegal to feed beef-based products to cows … but the beef industry has found ways to circumvent this rule by using a feed product known as “chicken litter.”

Cows Fed “Chicken Litter” May be Indirectly Eating Parts From Cows

Chicken litter, a rendered down mix of chicken manure, dead chickens, feathers and spilled feed, is marketed as a cheap feed product for cows. The beef industry likes it because it’s cheaper than even corn and soy, so an estimated 2 BILLION pounds are purchased each year; yes, this is a very serious amount of this product being fed to animals.