Bovine spongiform encephalopathy primary prevention
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Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [2]
Overview
Primary Prevention
Husbandry practices in the United States relating to BSE
- Soybean meal is cheap and plentiful in the United States. As a result, the use of animal byproduct feeds was never common, as it was in Europe. However, U.S. regulations only partially prohibit the use of animal byproducts in feed. In 1997, regulations prohibited the feeding of mammalian byproducts to ruminants such as cows and goats.
- However, the byproducts of ruminants can still be legally fed to pets or other livestock such as pigs and poultry such as chickens. In addition, it is legal for ruminants to be fed byproducts from some of these animals. [3] A proposal to end the use of cow blood, restaurant scraps, and poultry litter(fecal matter, feathers)[1] in January 2004 has yet to be implemented [4], despite the efforts of some advocates of such a policy, who cite the fact that cows are herbivores, and that blood and fecal matter could potentially carry BSE.
- In February 2001, the USGAO reported that the FDA, which is responsible for regulating feed, had not adequately policed the various bans. [5] Compliance with the regulations was shown to be extremely poor before the discovery of the Washington cow, but industry representatives report that compliance is now 100%. Even so, critics call the partial prohibitions insufficient.
- Indeed, US meat producer Creekstone Farms alleges that the USDA is preventing BSE testing from being conducted [6].
- Japan was the top importer of U.S. beef, buying 240,000 tons valued at $1.4 billion in 2003. After the discovery of the first case of BSE in the U.S. on December 23, 2003, Japan stopped U.S. beef imports in December 2003. In December 2005, Japan once again allowed imports of U.S. beef, but reinstated its ban in mid-January 2006 after a technical violation of the U.S.-Japan beef import agreement: a vertebral column, which should have been removed prior to shipment, was included in a shipment of veal.
- Tokyo yielded to U.S. pressure to resume imports, ignoring consumer worries about the safety of U.S. beef, said Japanese consumer groups. Michiko Kamiyama from Food Safety Citizen Watch said about this: "The government has put priority on the political schedule between the two countries, not on food safety or human health."
- Possibly due to pressure from large agribusiness, the United States has drastically cut back on the number of cows inspected for BSE. [2]
- Sixty-five nations have full or partial restrictions on importing U.S. beef products because of concerns that U.S. testing lacks sufficient rigor. As a result, exports of U.S. beef declined from $3.8 billion in 2003, before the first mad cow was detected in the US, to $1.4 billion in 2005. [2]
- On December 31, 2006, Hematech, a biotechnology company based in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, announced that it had used genetic engineering and cloning technology to produce cattle that lacked a necessary gene for prion production - thus theoretically making them immune to BSE.[3]
References
- ↑ The term "chicken litter" also includes spilled chicken feed as well as fecal matter and feathers. It is still legal in the United States to use ruminant protein to feed chickens. Thus, ruminant protein can get into the food chain of cattle in this round about way.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 USA Today, August 3, 2006, archived at [1]
- ↑ Weiss, Rick (2007-01-01). "Scientists Announce Mad Cow Breakthrough". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2007-01-01. Check date values in:
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