Regulations to strengthen Canada’s animal feed ban should be published by the end of this year.
The regulations are intended to provide further protection from BSE that is believed to be transmitted in certain tissues called specified risk materials, or SRMs, such as brains, spinal cords, eyeballs, nerves and glands.
The law will ensure that materials or protein from dead and downer animals are not allowed in any animal or poultry feed, including pet food. This could prevent potential cross contamination of ruminant animal feed during manufacture or on the farm.
First announced last July, commentary closed in February. The logistics of how to remove all of these materials has been under evaluation by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency since then, said Serge Tollusso.
“We have been working with the provinces to come up with an implementation plan because at least in the short term, if we move ahead and put our ban into effect we would have to find a home for this SRM material that could no longer go into animal feed,” he said.
