Mad Cow in Pet Food?

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=US+cow+rendering+rules&btnG=Google+Search

A new law passed in the US requires animal rendering plants to remove brain and spinal tissue from animals prior to rendering.

Watchers and readers of "All Creatures Great and Small" will recall the knacker buying dead animals off of farmers. In more recent times in this country, farmers have to pay the company to collect the dead animals.

The rendering company then cooks the animal down and separates the result into different parts-protein, fat, etc, and then markets the by-products. The by-products are used in animal feed (although US regulation prohibits rendered cow from going into cattle feed as a current mad cow preventative_) the protein can still go into pet food and other livestock feed-chickens, pig, etc.

The trick with mad cow is that it is a prion, and is not destroyed by heat. So, if a chicken were to be fed protein contaminated with mad cow, and then the resulting litter-yes, that's right, some cows are fed chicken excrement-the prion could find its way back to the cow.

Years ago a Countryside magazine contributor pointed out that sheep should not have their feed measured with the same container as the dog-because scrapie, the sheep version of mad cow, could be passed through the residue in the container.

The by-products of rendered dead cows are also used in cosmetics including, but not limited to, toothpaste and lotions for human use.

The new regulations are to ensure that any possibly contaminated tissue (brain and spinal tissue) are removed from the carcass before rendering.

Well, that's good. The news is reporting that farmers are going to see an increase in costs of dead animal removal, as rendering plants pass those costs of precaution to the farmer. Many farmers might decide to compost, bury, or drag into the back 40, those dead cows, instead of rendering them.

In the meantime, since I know firsthand that composting and burying is an adequate solution, I am more concerned about the fact that I have been letting my kids handle the dog, cat, and chicken food as part of their daily chores. As a precaution, I am now handling the pet feed-much to my childrens horror after I relayed the story and the reason why I have now taken over those duties. Now I just need to scrape(pardon the pun) up the funds to buy some galvanized cans to get the feed out of the house-since I am worried that the dust might be carrying mad cow prions.

Hopefully not for long, with the new regulations...

Ignorance is bliss

Or apparently that is what the Bush Administration feels about the general public.
According to the following article, a small meatpacking company wants to tests each beef critter that comes through their slaughterhouse for Mad Cow Disease. Or rather, each carcass.

The USDA is blocking that. ONly 1% of slaughtered cattle are currently tested for the disease. The Bush Adminstration claims that is because it is so rare-the disease, not the steak.

The rationale is that if one company test all their beef, the larger slaughterhouses will feel compelled to do the same..aw shucks.

Records show that no humans have died of the disease in the US, but I have spoken with several people who claim to have known people that have died with all the symptoms of mad cow...hmmm...no mad cow disease in the US-no Golden Eagles in Maine-no Climate change-sound familiar?

Here's the article:


Court: US can block meat packer from testing its cattle for mad cow disease
By MATT APUZZOAssociated Press Writer
(AP) 01:42:47 PM (ET), Friday, August 29, 2008 (WASHINGTON)
The Bush administration can prohibit meat packers from testing their animals for mad cow disease, a federal appeals court said Friday.
The dispute pits the Agriculture Department, which tests about 1 percent of cows for the potentially deadly disease, against a Kansas meat packer that wants to test all its animals.
Larger meat packers opposed such testing. If Creekstone Farms Premium Beef began advertising that its cows have all been tested, other companies fear they too will have to conduct the expensive tests.
The Bush administration says the low level of testing reflects the rareness of the disease. Mad cow disease has been linked to more than 150 human deaths worldwide, mostly in Great Britain. Only three cases have been reported in the U.S., all involving cows, not humans.
A federal judge ruled last year that Creekstone must be allowed to conduct the test because the Agriculture Department can only regulate disease "treatment." Since there is no cure for mad cow disease and the test is performed on dead animals, the judge ruled, the test is not a treatment.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit overturned that ruling, saying diagnosis can be considered part of treatment.
"And we owe USDA a considerable degree of deference in its interpretation of the term," Judge Karen LeCraft Henderson wrote.
The case was sent back to the district court, where Creekstone can make other arguments.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.