A disagreement has broken out between food and consumer groups and the beef industry over the practice of feeding chicken feces to cattle. The food and consumer groups say the practice increases the possibility that a cow will catch mad cow disease, while the industry says this isn’t the case.According to Jerry Hirsch’s article for the Los Angeles Times, the Consumers Union (CU) and the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) has asked the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to ban the practice of feeding poultry farm waste to cattle. In addition to the CU and CSPI, McDonald’s Corp. “the nation’s largest restaurant user of beef, also want the FDA to prohibit the feeding of so-called poultry litter to cattle.”
The coalition members may have some bite behind their bark as they have threatened to file a lawsuit or to push for legislative action enacting a ban if the FDA doesn’t act on their own in the coming months. The FDA estimates that farmers “feed 1 million to 2 million tons of poultry litter to their cattle annually [.]”
While mad cow disease is transmitted through feeding ruminant remains to cattle, chicken feces could classify as a ruminant as the feces contains tissue from ruminants. The tissue from ruminants comes from sheep, cows, and other mammals.
Using the litter -- which includes feces, spilled chicken feed, feathers and
poultry farm detritus -- increases the risk of cows becoming infected with
bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease, said Michael Hansen, a
senior scientist at Consumers Union . . . "It takes a very small quantity of
ruminant protein, even just 1 milligram, to cause an infection," said Steve
Roach, public health program director with Food Animal Concerns Trust, a
Chicago-based animal welfare group that is part of the coalition.
For their part, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA), a leading beef industry trade group, argues the ban is not needed. The NCBA points out that “the chance of cattle becoming infected with mad cow disease from eating poultry litter was remote.” ‘"Science does not justify the ban, and the FDA has looked at this now many times,’ said Elizabeth Parker, chief veterinarian for the trade group.”
Parker noted that the FDA this year banned the use of certain types of tissue
from any form of animal feed, even that eaten by chickens. Those tissues include
brain, spinal cord material and other high-risk tissues where the pathogens
believed to cause mad cow disease typically are found. The tissue ban greatly
reduces chances that prions, implicated in mad cow, can find their way into the
food chain, Parker said. She also said the disease was not a threat to public
health.
Linda Detwiler is a food safety consultant and former USDA veterinarian. In her opinion, any ruminant protein should be banned from feed that will be fed back to ruminants. The practice makes McDonald’s “nervous,” and McDonald’s does not ‘“condone the feeding of poultry litter to cattle,’ it said in a statement.”
This issue has been around since mad cow was discovered six years ago in an animal imported from Canada. There have only been two “known indigenous cases of mad cow infections in domestic cattle since then, but both were in animals born before the enactment of stricter regulation of feed.”
The FDA said its 2004 rule, which prohibits using high-risk tissue in all animal feed, should be sufficient to prevent against any risk from poultry litter. ‘“With respect to pathogenic microorganisms, drug residues and contaminants in poultry litter, FDA is not aware of any data showing that the use of poultry litter in cattle feed is posing human or animal health risks that warrant restrictions on its use,’ the agency said.”
The consumer groups remain unconvinced though, and they appear plenty motivated to fight their case out.
To read the LA Times article by Jerry Hirsch click here.
Posted: 11/02/09
