Border rancher
Well-known member
Despite promises, gaps remain in U.S. defence against mad cow disease
WASHINGTON (AP) - American cattle are eating chicken litter, cattle blood and restaurant leftovers that could help transmit mad cow disease, a gap in the defences the U.S. administration promised to close nearly 18 months ago.
"Once the cameras were turned off and the media coverage dissipated, then it's been business as usual, no real reform, just keep feeding slaughterhouse waste," said John Stauber, an activist and co-author of Mad Cow USA: Could the Nightmare Happen Here? He contended, "The entire U.S. policy is designed to protect the livestock industry's access to slaughterhouse waste as cheap feed."
The government is now investigating another possible case of mad cow disease in the United States. The beef cow had been tested and declared free of the disease last November, but new tests came up positive, and a laboratory in England is conducting more tests.
The Food and Drug Administration promised to tighten feed rules shortly after the first case of mad cow disease was confirmed in the U.S., in a Washington state cow in December 2003.
"Today we are bolstering our BSE firewalls to protect the public," Mark McClellan, then-FDA commissioner, said on Jan. 26, 2004. FDA said it would ban blood, poultry litter and restaurant plate waste from cattle feed and require feed mills to use separate equipment to make cattle feed.
However, last July, the FDA scrapped those restrictions. McClellan's replacement, Lester Crawford, said an international team of experts assembled by the Agriculture Department was calling for even stronger rules and that FDA would produce new restrictions in line with those recommendations.
Today, the FDA still has not done what it promised to do. The agency declined interviews, saying in a statement only that there is no timeline for new restrictions.
"It's just a lot of talk," said Representative Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), a senior House Democrat on food and farm issues. "It's a lot of talk, a lot of press releases, and no action."
Unlike other infections, bovine spongiform encephalopathy, BSE, or mad cow disease, doesn't spread through the air. As far as scientists know, cows get the disease only by eating brain and other nerve tissues of already-infected cows.
Ground-up cattle remains left over from slaughtering operations were used as protein in cattle feed until 1997, when an outbreak of mad cow cases in Britain prompted the United States to order the feed industry to end the practice. Unlike Britain, however, the U.S. feed ban has exceptions.
For example, it's legal to put ground-up cattle remains in chicken feed. Feed that spills from cages mixes with chicken waste on the ground, then is swept up for use in cattle feed.
Scientists believe the BSE protein will survive the feed-making process and may even survive the trip through a chicken's gut.
That amounts to the legal feeding of some cattle protein back to cattle, said Linda Detwiler, a former Agriculture Department veterinarian who led the department's work on mad cow disease for several years.
"I would stipulate it's probably not a real common thing, and the amounts are pretty small," Detwiler said. But still, if cattle protein is in the system, it's being fed back to cattle, she said in an interview.
Cattle protein can also be fed to chickens, pigs and household pets, which presents the risk of accidental contamination in a feed mill.
-
Loopholes in the ban on cattle remains in cattle feed
The Food and Drug Administration promised in January 2004 to close loopholes in a ban on putting cattle remains in cattle feed, but it has failed to act. The government calls the ban a "firewall" against the spread of mad cow disease. Eating the mad cow disease protein is the only way cows are known to get the disease.
Loopholes include:
-Ground-up cattle remains can be fed to chicken, and chicken litter is fed back to cattle. Poultry feed that spills from cages mixes with chicken waste on the ground, then is swept up for use in cattle feed. Scientists believe the BSE protein will survive the feed-making process and may survive being digested in chickens.
-Cattle blood can be fed to cattle and often comes in the form of milk replacement for calves. Some scientists believe blood from infected cattle could transmit the disease.
-Restaurant leftovers, called "plate waste," are allowed in cattle feed. Cuts of meat that contain part of the spinal cord, or become contaminated by spinal tissue while being prepared, could be infected with BSE.
-Factories are not required to use separate production lines and equipment for feed that contains cattle remains and feed that does not, creating the risk that cattle remains could accidentally go into cattle feed.
-Besides being fed to poultry, cattle protein is allowed in feed for pigs and household pets, creating the possibility it could mistakenly be fed to cattle.
-Unfiltered tallow, or fat, is allowed in cattle feed, yet it has protein impurities that could be a source of mad cow disease.
WASHINGTON (AP) - American cattle are eating chicken litter, cattle blood and restaurant leftovers that could help transmit mad cow disease, a gap in the defences the U.S. administration promised to close nearly 18 months ago.
"Once the cameras were turned off and the media coverage dissipated, then it's been business as usual, no real reform, just keep feeding slaughterhouse waste," said John Stauber, an activist and co-author of Mad Cow USA: Could the Nightmare Happen Here? He contended, "The entire U.S. policy is designed to protect the livestock industry's access to slaughterhouse waste as cheap feed."
The government is now investigating another possible case of mad cow disease in the United States. The beef cow had been tested and declared free of the disease last November, but new tests came up positive, and a laboratory in England is conducting more tests.
The Food and Drug Administration promised to tighten feed rules shortly after the first case of mad cow disease was confirmed in the U.S., in a Washington state cow in December 2003.
"Today we are bolstering our BSE firewalls to protect the public," Mark McClellan, then-FDA commissioner, said on Jan. 26, 2004. FDA said it would ban blood, poultry litter and restaurant plate waste from cattle feed and require feed mills to use separate equipment to make cattle feed.
However, last July, the FDA scrapped those restrictions. McClellan's replacement, Lester Crawford, said an international team of experts assembled by the Agriculture Department was calling for even stronger rules and that FDA would produce new restrictions in line with those recommendations.
Today, the FDA still has not done what it promised to do. The agency declined interviews, saying in a statement only that there is no timeline for new restrictions.
"It's just a lot of talk," said Representative Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), a senior House Democrat on food and farm issues. "It's a lot of talk, a lot of press releases, and no action."
Unlike other infections, bovine spongiform encephalopathy, BSE, or mad cow disease, doesn't spread through the air. As far as scientists know, cows get the disease only by eating brain and other nerve tissues of already-infected cows.
Ground-up cattle remains left over from slaughtering operations were used as protein in cattle feed until 1997, when an outbreak of mad cow cases in Britain prompted the United States to order the feed industry to end the practice. Unlike Britain, however, the U.S. feed ban has exceptions.
For example, it's legal to put ground-up cattle remains in chicken feed. Feed that spills from cages mixes with chicken waste on the ground, then is swept up for use in cattle feed.
Scientists believe the BSE protein will survive the feed-making process and may even survive the trip through a chicken's gut.
That amounts to the legal feeding of some cattle protein back to cattle, said Linda Detwiler, a former Agriculture Department veterinarian who led the department's work on mad cow disease for several years.
"I would stipulate it's probably not a real common thing, and the amounts are pretty small," Detwiler said. But still, if cattle protein is in the system, it's being fed back to cattle, she said in an interview.
Cattle protein can also be fed to chickens, pigs and household pets, which presents the risk of accidental contamination in a feed mill.
-
Loopholes in the ban on cattle remains in cattle feed
The Food and Drug Administration promised in January 2004 to close loopholes in a ban on putting cattle remains in cattle feed, but it has failed to act. The government calls the ban a "firewall" against the spread of mad cow disease. Eating the mad cow disease protein is the only way cows are known to get the disease.
Loopholes include:
-Ground-up cattle remains can be fed to chicken, and chicken litter is fed back to cattle. Poultry feed that spills from cages mixes with chicken waste on the ground, then is swept up for use in cattle feed. Scientists believe the BSE protein will survive the feed-making process and may survive being digested in chickens.
-Cattle blood can be fed to cattle and often comes in the form of milk replacement for calves. Some scientists believe blood from infected cattle could transmit the disease.
-Restaurant leftovers, called "plate waste," are allowed in cattle feed. Cuts of meat that contain part of the spinal cord, or become contaminated by spinal tissue while being prepared, could be infected with BSE.
-Factories are not required to use separate production lines and equipment for feed that contains cattle remains and feed that does not, creating the risk that cattle remains could accidentally go into cattle feed.
-Besides being fed to poultry, cattle protein is allowed in feed for pigs and household pets, creating the possibility it could mistakenly be fed to cattle.
-Unfiltered tallow, or fat, is allowed in cattle feed, yet it has protein impurities that could be a source of mad cow disease.