U.S. FOOD SUPPLY FDA strengthens mad cow defense
Four new rules are designed to increase safety of animal feed.
WASHINGTON POST
WASHINGTON -- Meat from downer cattle -- animals too sick to walk to slaughter -- will be prohibited from canned soups, pizzas, dietary supplements and cosmetics, the federal government said Monday, announcing a series of new measures to strengthen protections against mad cow disease.
"Firewalls" must be strengthened to prevent the spread of mad cow disease after the discovery of an infected Holstein cow in Washington state last month, Food and Drug Administration officials said, adding that the new measures would keep potentially infected tissue from being consumed by both humans and cattle.
A 1997 ban on using meat from infected cattle in feed given to other cattle will be strengthened: The new measure also bans blood from cattle being fed to cattle, officials said.
Blood fed to calves
Blood from slaughtered cattle, which new research has identified as a potential source of transmission of mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, is fed to calves to replace milk, which is diverted to grocery stores. The blood serves as an alternative protein source.
"The set of actions we are implementing will strengthen a series of firewalls that will protect Americans against the agent that causes BSE," FDA Commissioner Mark McClellan said.
Blood from the infected Holstein cow that was slaughtered Dec. 9 at a Moses Lake, Wash., facility, was tracked and impounded before it could be fed to other animals, said Lester Crawford, deputy FDA commissioner.
The new measures come on the heels of regulations introduced last month by the Department of Agriculture. Like USDA rules that ban sales of meat containing certain risky tissue -- primarily from the brain, spine and the nervous system -- the new FDA rules would ban those tissues from such products as cosmetics and dietary supplements.
Officials said the feed ban would be widened to keep cattle tissue from being fed to other ruminants such as sheep and goats, but the restrictions will not apply to other animals, including pets.
While USDA regulates meat, FDA regulates human food products that contain small quantities of meat, such as canned soups and pizzas, officials said. Meat that is mechanically separated from the carcasses of slaughtered animals will no longer be allowed for these products.
Four new measures
FDA announced four new measures to increase the safety of animal feed in what was called an interim final rule -- it will go into effect as soon as it is published in the federal register, which is expected to happen within days.
Besides the ban on using blood in feed, officials said they would ban the use of poultry litter as a source of cattle feed. Because poultry are fed ground-up feed from slaughtered cattle, and cattle are then fed poultry litter, officials were concerned that slaughtered cattle tissue that was not eaten by poultry could enter the litter and be fed back to other cattle.
An outbreak of mad cow disease in Europe spread rapidly as cattle were fed infected tissue from slaughtered cattle. About 154 people have died worldwide of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, which is believed to be caused by eating meat contaminated with infectious material called prions.
Other new restrictions on cattle feed include a prohibition on restaurant scraps' being rendered into animal feed, and forbidding animal feed plants from producing feed for both ruminants and nonruminants.
FDA said it will step up inspections of rendering facilities and feed mills.
; in collaboration with state officials, every facility in the country will be inspected on an annual basis, officials said.
The agency will continue to fund efforts to develop cheaper tests for the disease that could improve surveillance efforts.