Calgary livestock analyst Barbara Duckworth recently covered the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association convention in Phoenix, Arizona, and filed these reports.
PHOENIX, Ariz. – A long awaited feed ban in the United States goes into effect this spring.
The rule, which was released last April, is intended to keep BSE out of the American animal feed supply, but critics claim it will be expensive and does not prevent the spread of the brain wasting disease.
The U.S. prohibited feeding ruminant-derived protein to other ruminants in 1997. Revisions resulted in the 2008 version.
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“The rule in 2005 was a bad one and this one is no better,” said Tom Cook, president of the National Renderers Association, which represents 15 companies that handle 95 percent of the rendering in the U.S.
The details of the new rule were explained at a committee meeting of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association convention in Phoenix, Arizona, Jan. 30.
Brains, spinal cords, nerves, tonsils, eyeballs and other body parts believed to carry the BSE agent are removed from cattle older than 30 months to prevent them from entering the food chain.
The material is rendered and ends up as meat and bone meal for non-ruminants such as poultry or hogs. It may also be used for fertilizer.
The rule refers to the banned tissues as cattle material prohibited in animal feed (CMPAF) rather than as specified risk materials, which is applied to the food supply.
Cook said the rule was part of an agreement to get back into the South Korean beef market.
It is less demanding than what has existed in Canada since 2007, where all specified risk materials are removed, stained, sent to separate disposal facilities, rendered and buried in designated landfills.
In a later interview, Cook said the industry is not looking at setting up dedicated rendering plants for cattle.
The new rule bans the use of cattle and bison brains and spinal cords. As well, dead cattle that are younger than 30 months are banned from the feed chain.
Handling dead animals is the main area of contention. It is often not practical to remove brains and spinal cords from dead stock.
As well, an independent study of rendering association members said nearly 70 percent would not pick up dead stock any more.
About four to five billion pounds of dead stock from all species are collected each year in the U.S.
Handling dead stock was not given that much consideration, said Shannon Jordre of the Food and Drug Administration, which is responsible for the rule.
Only 55 percent of dead stock are rendered, Jordre added.
“If 55 percent of the deads are disposed of by some other means, that additional burden is not a significant burden.”
However, Nancy Robinson of the Livestock Marketing Association said handling dead animals is a burden for auctions and dairies that regularly deal with them.
With more renderers and landfills unwilling to accept them, she added, the government should have given more consideration to disposal of old, dead animals.
“There is a significant number of landfills that will not take them,” she said.
Others charge significant fees and regard the material as hazardous waste.
The government has approved a number of CMPAF disposal methods, including landfill, incineration, composting, alkaline hydrolysis and burial.
