Expanding the list of banned ingredients for livestock feed might cause some problems for renderers and feed manufacturers.
“The way our industry is structured, some of it is not workable,” said Kathleen Sullivan, a spokesperson for the Animal Nutrition Association that represents 90 percent of Canada’s commercial feed manufacturers.
If the ban becomes too broad, it could drive some away from using meat and bonemeal in feed mixes altogether, she said.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is proposing to remove specified risk materials, or SRM, from livestock and pet feed, as well as banning ruminant bonemeal for fertilizer.
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There is a 75-day comment period ending Feb. 24, 2005.
Renderers would be required to ensure their processing removes at least 90 percent of the infectivity in non-SRM ruminant ingredients, to dedicate production lines and equipment within facilities and to dye meat and bonemeal used for animal feed.
Specified risk materials include the skull, brain, eyes, tonsils, spinal cord and the trigeminal and dorsal root ganglia of animals that are older than 30 months of age. For practical purposes the processors now remove the entire small intestine from all animals and the entire vertebral column from condemned or dead animals or those more than 30 months of age. However, blood and its components are still acceptable.
While the new regulations are likely to create more problems for the rendering industry, feed mills must also make adjustments, said Mike Cooper, chair of the Animal Nutrition Association.
Under the 1997 ban, all feed containing ruminant protein must include a warning label not to feed it to cattle, sheep, deer or other ruminants. A new label with larger print would warn, “The feeding of this product to cattle, sheep, deer or other ruminants is illegal and is subject to fines or other punishment under the Health of Animals Act.”
