A pot of money is waiting to be spent as industry and government sort out the best ways to dispose of animal matter deemed to pose the greatest risk for spreading BSE.
Ottawa has committed as much as $80 million to help the livestock industry adjust to anticipated changes in Canada’s feed regulations.
Those changes, which could be known by the end of this year, will determine how specified risk materials, or SRMs, can be used and whether more of that material will end up as waste.
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“Their original regulation proposed some pretty extreme measures in dealing with the material,” said Rob McNabb, assistant general manager of the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association. “Quite frankly, you got the sense that they thought it was a toxic waste.”
Late last year, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency proposed changes that would include a ban on the use of specified risk materials in all animal feeds, including pet food.
But establishing new feed regulations is only one thing that will affect how SRMs are disposed of in the
future.
The federal government also needs to decide what other means of disposal will be allowed, taking into account health and the environment.
That decision is important to the provinces, since waste management falls in their domain and they have been asked by the federal government to come up with proposals for SRM disposal.
The goal is to get proposals that are tailored to the needs of each province or region of the country.
Manitoba, for example, is proposing to use large-scale incineration and regional composting to dispose of offal and dead stock.
The province has already sent its ideas to the federal government.
“They may throw them out. It’s hard to say,” said Manitoba Agriculture assistant deputy minister Allan Preston.
“At least we’ll have our ideas on the table.”
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency did a series of risk assessments this summer on the most probable methods of SRM containment and disposal. Its findings could be presented to the provinces this fall.
“I hope it will happen quickly,” said Tom Shenstone, Agriculture Canada’s director general of policy planning and integration, when asked about a possible timeline for reviewing proposals from the provinces and deciding which ones warrant a commitment of federal money.
“I have no desire to have this drag out and I don’t think the federal government does either.”
Specified risk materials include the brain and spinal cord of cattle. They are thought to be parts of the animal where the prions linked to BSE can exist. There could be as much as 200,000 tonnes of material to be disposed of in Canada each year.
“When rendered, it comes down to about 50,000 tonnes across the country would be waste,” said Bill Hewett, executive director for CFIA program policy.
However, it is difficult to estimate the volumes since dead stock removal from farms can fluctuate. During the past couple of years, because of the BSE crisis, an increasing number of farmers opted to dispose of dead stock on their farms rather than pay to have dead cattle hauled away.
“The provinces report to us that the volume or proportion that is now collected through the commercial stream has dropped by upwards of 50 percent,” Hewett said.
“Natural disposal, on-farm burial and other methods have apparently picked up the slack.”
Hewett would not offer clues as to whether the CFIA is still planning to proceed with the feed regulations proposed late last year or whether there will be modifications based on feedback gathered from the livestock industry and other stakeholders.
Whatever the outcome, McNabb said the regulations need to be practical for the industry and mindful of what the United States is doing.
“Our position is that whatever we do needs to be harmonized with the U.S.,” McNabb said. “The FDA (Food and Drug Administration) have indicated they are preparing a proposed rule that will enhance their current feed regulations as well.”
Unless Canada does something soon, it could end up lagging behind the U.S., said Manitoba Agriculture minister Rosann Wowchuk. She has written to federal agriculture minister Andy Mitchell, urging him to move on the issue.
“It’s time for some action on it,” Wowchuk said. “We hear that the U.S. is moving along and I don’t want to be a follower. I want Canada to have their plans for handling of SRMs.”
