Manitoba_Rancher
Well-known member
Major political figures from across the spectrum have joined consumer groups and others in criticizing various aspects of USDA's and FDA's procedures for protecting animals and humans from bovine spongiform encephalopathy and its human form, variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.
Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, called on USDA to speed up its national animal identification plan and possibly make it mandatory, warning that if USDA doesn't have "guts enough to make a decision that we're moving forward … Congress is going to have to act." His Iowa Democratic counterpart, Sen. Tom Harkin, meanwhile, called on USDA and FDA to ban poultry litter from cattle feed when FDA revises feed ban rules later this year.
Meanwhile, Farm Sanctuary, an animal welfare group, joined Rep. Gary Ackerman, D-N.Y., in calling for a permanent ban on all downer (non-ambulatory) animals in the food supply. USDA has temporarily banned downers, but farmers and processors have protested that many downers may be injured, not diseased. "In addition to BSE, downed animals are more likely to be contaminated with fecal pathogens and other diseases, and it is impossible to move them humanely," said Gene Bauston, president and cofounder of Farm Sanctuary, which has called for such a ban since its inception 20 years ago.
The discovery of the BSE case in Alabama created a stir in neighboring Tennessee, whose cattle industry is its largest agricultural product. A state representative introduced a bill banning all feed containing any cattle parts or bone meal made from any ruminant. That would include feed for poultry and hogs, and would go well beyond current FDA feed regulations.
Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, called on USDA to speed up its national animal identification plan and possibly make it mandatory, warning that if USDA doesn't have "guts enough to make a decision that we're moving forward … Congress is going to have to act." His Iowa Democratic counterpart, Sen. Tom Harkin, meanwhile, called on USDA and FDA to ban poultry litter from cattle feed when FDA revises feed ban rules later this year.
Meanwhile, Farm Sanctuary, an animal welfare group, joined Rep. Gary Ackerman, D-N.Y., in calling for a permanent ban on all downer (non-ambulatory) animals in the food supply. USDA has temporarily banned downers, but farmers and processors have protested that many downers may be injured, not diseased. "In addition to BSE, downed animals are more likely to be contaminated with fecal pathogens and other diseases, and it is impossible to move them humanely," said Gene Bauston, president and cofounder of Farm Sanctuary, which has called for such a ban since its inception 20 years ago.
The discovery of the BSE case in Alabama created a stir in neighboring Tennessee, whose cattle industry is its largest agricultural product. A state representative introduced a bill banning all feed containing any cattle parts or bone meal made from any ruminant. That would include feed for poultry and hogs, and would go well beyond current FDA feed regulations.
