What took so long?
----- Original Message -----
From: "Ross Gould" <srgould@shaw.ca>
To: "Black-Ink" <black-ink@angus.mystery.com>
Cc: "GRAZE-L POSTING" <graze-l@witt.ac.nz>
Sent: Sunday, February 01, 2004 6:32 AM
Subject: [Graze-l] US Rules Issued On Animal Feed And Use Of Disabled
Cattle - LONG!
> Good Afternoon List Friends,
> This is a long snip of an article in the New York Times/Associated
> Press/Calgary Herald. I received it through a repost of the current
> issue of the CAHI (Canadian Animal Health Institute) "Clippings"
> service.
>
> A couple of points to note:
> 1. The new rules ban the "feeding cow blood and chicken wastes to
> cattle.
>
> 2. "Because a product called mechanically separated meat may carry
> infectious tissue, it will also be banned."
>
> 3. "Dennis Laycraft of the Canadian Cattlemen's Association was cited as
> saying Ottawa is planning its own feed ban on animal blood and had
> intended to make the announcement in conjunction with the U.S., adding,
> "I'm not sure what happened (to the joint announcement), but we expect
> Canada to move ahead within the next week or so."
>
> Regards
> Ross Gould, P.Ag. (Retired)
> Calgary, Alberta
> ==========================
> Rules Issued On Animal Feed And Use Of Disabled Cattle
>
> January 27, 2004
> New York Times/AP/Calgary Herald
>
> The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, according to these stories,
> imposed new rules yesterday to prevent the spread of mad cow disease,
> including a ban on feeding cow blood and chicken wastes to cattle. The
> agency also banned using dead or disabled cows to make products for
> people like dietary supplements, cosmetics or soups and other foods with
> traces of meat.
>
> The rules, described by Mark B. McClellan, commissioner of food and
> drugs, in a telephone news briefing, take effect in a few days, as soon
> as they are published in The Federal Register, a spokesman for the
> agency said. The stories note that the quick start of the rules after
> their announcement is a departure from the usual slower process.
>
> Tommy G. Thompson, the secretary of the Health and Human Services
> Department, the parent of the food and drug agency, was quoted as
> calling the rules "a giant step forward" but said in a telephone
> interview that even stricter regulations on animal feed might be imposed
> in the future.
> The rules mirror the steps that the Agriculture Department took last
> month to protect meat supplies. The two sets of changes are a reaction
> to the discovery last month that a cow in Washington State had the brain
> disease bovine spongiform encephalopathy.
>
> Officials theorize that the cow was infected by contaminated feed in
> Canada, where it was born.
> The stories add that the use of composted "poultry litter" as a feed
> ingredient for cows is also banned. The litter consists of bedding,
> spilled feed, feathers and fecal matter swept from the floors of chicken
> coops. The ingredient that worries health officials is the spilled feed,
> because chicken feed can legally contain meat and bone meal rendered
> from beef.
>
> Animals can no longer be fed "plate waste," the agency said, meaning the
> meat and other scraps that diners leave on their plates in restaurants
> and that is rendered into the meat and bone meal added to feed. That
> material interferes with tests for prohibited proteins in the animal
> feed, the agency said.
>
> Finally, the new rules say equipment that makes feed with meat or bone
> meal can no longer be used to make cattle feed.
>
> Andrew Kimbrell, executive director of the Center for Food Safety, a
> consumer group in Washington, was quoted as saying, "This is long, long
> overdue. I wonder whether it's too little too late. They've been legally
> on notice for seven years that they need to close all these loopholes.
> Everything they're doing, science organizations have requested long
> ago."
>
> Dr. Michael Hansen, a scientist at the Consumers Union, was quoted as
> saying, "It's a good step forward, but it's not good enough."
>
> A remaining loophole, Dr. Hansen said, is allowing rendered matter from
> cows to be fed to pigs and chickens and rendered pigs and chickens to be
> fed back to cows. In theory, that sequence could bring the disease full
> circle, back to cows. In Europe, cows cannot be fed any animal matter.
> Dr. Stephen F. Sundlof, director of the Center for Veterinary Medicine
> at the food and drug agency, was cited as saying there was no evidence
> that pigs or chickens could transmit mad cow disease.
>
> Mr. Thompson was cited as saying the rules might be changed in the
> future to stop such practices, adding, "We're looking at that. It's
> reasonable to say it could be changed in the future."
> With regard to products meant for people, the new rules say that from
> now on material from animals that die on the farm or from "downer" cows,
> which cannot walk, will be banned from use in cosmetics and dietary
> supplements. The ban will also apply to foods with traces of meat, items
> that the food and drug agency rather than the Agriculture Department
> regulates.
>
> Also banned from products for humans will be the tissues most likely to
> carry the infectious agent like the brain, skull, eyes and spinal cord
> of animals 30 months or older and the tonsils and part of the small
> intestine of all cattle. Because a product called mechanically separated
> meat may carry infectious tissue, it will also be banned.
>
> To ensure the rules are followed, FDA this year will increase
> inspections of feed mills and renderers, conducting 2,800 inspections
> and contracting with states for an additional 3,800.
> Caroline Smith DeWaal of the consumer advocacy group Center for Science
> in the Public Interest was cited as saying that poultry and pigs can
> still eat feed made from cow remains, so what's to prevent a farmer from
> accidentally mixing up the feed, adding, "They have more protections,
> but when you get down to the farm level, mistakes can still happen."
>
> Dennis Laycraft of the Canadian Cattlemen's Association was cited as
> saying Ottawa is planning its own feed ban on animal blood and had
> intended to make the announcement in conjunction with the U.S., adding,
> "I'm not sure what happened (to the joint announcement), but we expect
> Canada to move ahead within the next week or so."
>
> The Canadian Food Inspection Agency, which regulates animal feed,
> refused comment on the issue.
>
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