- Hello, Jeff - Pardon my ignorance, but am I reading the
reports below correctly? Downer cows, many of whom are ill and some probably
infected with BSE, are going to rendering plants but 'won't be used for
human consumption'?
-
- The report goes on to describe some of the products produced
by rendering plants which include bloodmeal and blood plasma, etc. that
we KNOW are to be used as food supplements for calves, pigs, chickens and
sheep. 'No ruminant for ruminant' is what the USDA rules state. But since
we KNOW BSE is in the blood of infected animals, and that blood to still
going to be fed to other animals, how is that NOT feeding ruminants to
ruminants?
-
- I also see products that are used in bakery goods and
products like hot dogs, burgers etc. How can we say that downers are not
going to be "consumed by either humans or animals" such as ruminants?
Am I missing something?
-
- It sure looks to me as though Ann Veneman's announcement
that downer cows won't be used for human consumption was just bogus damage
control. (We used to call them 'lies' -ed) By the way, when was the last
time you saw a dog or cat step up to a bakery counter and order fresh rolls
and donuts to go?
-
- I also note that some rendered products are used in pharmacy
products, like gelatin capsules, and are often the binding agent which
holds TABLETS together.
-
- (Virtually no one knows about the tablet angle. Suggest
you see the incredible list of uses for our slaughtered animal friends:
http://www.rense.com/general6/cow.htm -ed)
-
- IF a misfolded BSE prion is in the calf or downer cow,
or road kill deer, etc, it will go right through the rendering process
and enter the products produced.
-
- No wonder there is an increase in "Alzheimer's Disease
cases" and "sporadic CJD." The government claims there is
an increase due to aging population. Well, how come so many cases are in
younger people in their 20s, 30s and 40s? These are the demographics for
"quick" mortality Alzheimers's and CJD. Maybe a good number of
these cases are really mad cow. In addition, a misfolded prion causes CJD
and, in my opinion, starts the process of Alzheimer's Disease.
-
- Patricia Doyle
-
- BSE, BOVINE - USA
-
- A ProMED mail post ProMED-mail, a program of the International
Society for Infectious Diseases http://www.isid.org
-
- [1] Date: 2 Jan 2004 From: Raymond Weinstein, MD <AlaskaRay@aol.com>
-
- [Re: previous ProMED postings in this thread, including,
"In light of yesterday's announcement, these animals will no longer
be going to slaughterhouses but instead most likely most of them will be
euthanized and sent to rendering plants."]
-
- Please forgive my ignorance, but what products are produced
in rendering plants, where do they go from there, and for what are those
products used?
-
- -- Raymond Weinstein, MD George Mason Univ. Manassas,
Virginia <alaskaRay@aol.com>
-
- ****** [2] Date: 2 Jan 2004 From: Don A Franco <dfranco99@aol.com>
-
- [In response to the above question, ProMED-mail sought
one of the world's experts on the rendering industry. We offer our thanks
to Dr. Franco. - Mod.TG]
-
- The products of the rendering industry fall within 2
major categories: proteins and fats. Within the protein category there
are meat meal and meat and bone meal (MBM). MBM can generally be made from
raw material of all livestock species.
-
- Obviously with the current feed rule, if the product
contains raw materials originating from ruminants, it cannot be fed to
cattle or other ruminants. Meat and bone meal could be made from pure bovine,
porcine tissues, etc. and traded as such. This may include blood meal,
spray-dried animal blood, poultry meal, poultry byproduct meal, poultry
hatchery byproducts, and blood protein.
-
- On the fat side, there are tallow, greases (yellow and
white), fatty acids, glycerine, etc. Tallow production could be edible
or inedible; the same for lard and yellow grease.
-
- Some rendering companies produce fish meal and bakery
byproduct meals. Their uses include livestock and poultry feeds; pet foods;
industrial uses such as lubricants, paints, lipsticks, gums, glues, etc.
-
- -- Don A Franco, DVM, PhD Center for Biosecurity, Food
Safety & Public Health 6430 Stonehurst Circle Lake Worth, FL. 33467
<dfranco99@aol.com>
-
- ****** [3] Date: 2 Jan 2004 From: ProMED-mail <promed@promedmail.org>
Source: USDA Technical Briefing and Webcast with U.S. Government Officials
on BSE Situation - January 2, 2004 [edited] <http://www.usda.gov>
-
-
- Dr. Ron DeHaven (USDA Chief Veterinary Officer):
-
- Just to recap where we are in tracing those 82 animals,
we now have 11 of them definitively accounted for. One is the indexed positive
cow; 9 are those known to be in the indexed herd; one is the animal that
I mentioned on the Mattawa dairy operation. But we believe that one may
still be in Canada. The whereabouts of the remaining 70 animals are still
yet to be confirmed but again, we have good leads on those, and we will
keep you posted on that information as we gather it.
-
- First, as to the epidemiological investigation, we have
now confirmed that 81 of the 82 animals listed on the Canadian health certificate
-- and that would include the positive animal -- entered the United States
through the Oroville, Washington port on 4 Sep 2001. One of those 82 has
now been confirmed on the ground at a Mattawa dairy facility operation
that is now under state hold order. An inventory of that facility to look
for possible additional Canadian animals is continuing, though we don't
necessarily expect to find any. And in fact that has been delayed because
of bad weather conditions in Mattawa today.
-
- I want to reiterate that our interest in finding these
cows is not because BSE can spread from cow to cow, but because it's possible
that they may have shared a common feed source when they were young, and
therefore potentially would have had a common exposure. I think it's important
to note, however, that even at the height of the outbreak of the disease
in the United Kingdom, it was uncommon to have more than just one or 2
animals in a herd found to be positive.
-
- Also to clarify, we currently have 3 facilities under
state hold orders, as our epidemiological investigation continues. The
1st is the index herd, that herd from which the positive cow departed immediately
before slaughter. The 2nd is a nearby facility that has the indexed cow's
recently born bull calf, and the 3rd is that dairy operation in Mattawa.
-
- We expect to have our DNA results from the indexed cow
by sometime next week, and certainly we will share that information with
you after we receive it and have an opportunity to analyze it. Of course
the Canadian laboratory is also running the DNA tests in their laboratory,
and we are continuing to work very closely as we do our epidemiological
work. Indeed, 2 Canadian epidemiologists are on the ground with us in the
United States, and likewise USDA epidemiologists are in Canada.
-
- This work would not be going nearly as well as it has
been if we didn't have that close cooperation and partnership. So, again,
our many thanks to our Canadian colleagues.
-
- ProMED-mail <promed@promedmail.org>
-
-
- Patricia A. Doyle, PhD Please visit my "Emerging
Diseases" message board at: http://www.clickitnews.com/ubbthreads/postlist.php?Cat=&Board=emergingdiseases
Zhan le Devlesa tai sastimasa Go with God and in Good Health
-
- A ProMED-mail post
- ProMED-mail, a program of the
- International Society for Infectious Diseases
- http://www.isid.org
-
-
- [1]
- Date: 3 Jan 2004
- From: Robert Paul <Robert.Paul@directory.reed.edu>
-
- Dr. Franco writes, "Obviously with the current feed
rule, if the product contains raw materials originating from ruminants,
it cannot be fed to cattle or other ruminants."
-
- The force of "cannot" here is that of "should
not." [Actually, it is a case of cannot! See comment below. - Mod.TG]
-
- According to an Op Ed piece in Friday's New York Times,
by Eric Schlosser (the author of Fast Food Nation), "A 2001 study
by the Government Accounting Office found that 1/5 of American feed and
rendering companies that handle prohibited material had no systems in place
to prevent the contamination of cattle feed. According to the report, more
than 1/4 of feed manufacturers in Colorado, one of the top beef-producing
states, were not even aware of the F.D.A. measures to prevent mad cow disease,
4 years after their introduction."
-
- It's my understanding that the 1997 rule banning ruminant-to-ruminant
feeding was extended to include mammal-to-ruminant feeding as well. Apparently
these bans have not been enforced, or even much advertised.
-
- --
- Robert Paul
- <Robert.Paul@directory.reed.edu>
-
- [The ruminant-to-ruminant feeding ban was changed to
a mammalian-to-ruminant feeding ban.
-
- One must understand that feed manufactures and renderers
are not the same. Renderers produce a starting material that is delivered
to the feed manufactures. Feed manufactures include a variety of livestock
feed manufacturers as well as pet food manufacturers.
-
- Meat and bone meal is still an acceptable product to
be fed to companion animals.
-
- Although in any business, the unscrupulous will bend
or break the rules, the vast majority of the renderers are well aware of
the feed ban rule, as are the vast majority of the feed manufacturers.
For those found to be in non-compliance, the fines are heavy and are an
excellent deterrent; consequently the statement that ruminant-to-ruminant
products 'cannot' be used.
-
- Perhaps the Op Ed piece was either not well researched
or the information was not well understood. For example, the contamination
in the feed manufacturer's facility may be a matter of not having sealed
bags separated by different rooms. Many facilities are not equipped with
separate rooms to temporarily handle outgoing material in sealed bags.
The actual risk of contamination is extremely small, yet according to the
rule, even sealed bags must be in different rooms. Furthermore, GAO report
in 2001 likely reflected practices of 1999 or 2000. Consequently things
have changed, and compliance is better in 2004.
-
- So, it might be constructive to see the reports of compliance
from 2003. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) usually posts its compliance
reports regarding renderers and feed manufacturers on the website. (<http://www.fda.gov>).
- Mod.TG]
-
- ******
- [2]
- Date: Sun, 04 Jan 2004 15:38:13 -0800
- From: Fran Taylor <ftaylor2768@earthlink.net>
-
-
- Could you please enlarge on the response to the products
of rendering plants? It is not clear to me that these products are not
used in food for human consumption.
-
- Where are meat and blood meal used? What is the use
of bakery byproduct? Would they be used in producing either human or pet
foods?
-
- In England animal by products were used in producing
baby food for a while after the BSE problem arose. Could any of these
products be used for that purpose here? That is, does the law prohibit
that use? How satisfactorily are the laws prohibiting various uses of
animal byproducts monitored and complied with?
-
- --
- Frances Taylor, MD, MPH
- <ftaylor2768@earthlink.net>
-
- ******
- [3]
- Date: 5 Jan 2004
- From: Dr. Don A Franco <dfranco99@aol.com>
-
-
- Other than lard, tallow, etc. produced under inspection,
none of the products referenced are used in the human food chain. So the
key for use of rendered products in the human food chain (lard, tallow,
gelatin) must be inspection by the Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS).
Meat meal is seldom produced as per definition anymore, but when used was
in pet food as applicable.
-
- None of the bakery by-products goes into the human food
chain. It all goes into animal feed.
-
- As a point of clarification, the FDA governs feed manufacturers
for pets and livestock, while FSIS governs the safety of food for human
consumption. FSIS is involved in lard, tallow, and gelatin, which are the
only products from rendered materials that may be routed to the human food
chain. They are products that have scientifically been shown not to harbor
prions.
-
- --
- Don A Franco
- Center for Biosecurity, Food Safety & Public Health
- 6430 Stonehurst Circle
- Lake Worth, FL. 33467
- <franco99@aol.com>
-
- [Rendered products are not found in baby food products,
aside from possibly fats (lards), which are inspected for safety and cleanliness
by the FSIS.
-
- The laws regarding such issues are strict and generally
well followed, under the threat of heavy fines and perhaps being put out
of business for non-compliance.
-
- Bakery by-products are those damaged packages of Twinkies,
potato chips, corn chips, and other similar products that are crushed and
recooked to make a pleasant grain-based product that may be fed to some
pets.
-
- Blood meal has not been shown to process the prion agent.
However, it is used by gardeners. - Mod.TG]
-
- ****** [4]
- Date: Sun, 4 Jan 2004 18:20:26 -0500
- From: Heather Tick <rsi@mindbodycan.com>
-
-
- Shouldn't we be concerned about feeding the carcasses
of these potentially suspect animals to other animals -- birds, fish, livestock
(not defined in the last communication). The listing of potential uses
of products from the rendering plants seems too vague to allow the rendering
plant to dispose of medically questionable material to the highest bidder!
-
- --
- Heather Tick MD
- Mind-Body Medicine Canada
- <rsi@mindbodycan.com>
-
- [Downer cows does not mean diseased cows. It means the
animal cannot get up, because of a torn tendon, perhaps from a rough trailer
ride, or a broken bone from a slippery floor. Whatever the reason the
animal is down, this status now means this animal will not be allowed into
the human food chain. In the United States, there is a mammalian-to-ruminant
feeding ban, which means that no mammalian tissue can be processed and
fed to ruminant animals (cattle, goats, and sheep).
-
- The use of these animals as feed for birds, specifically
commercial poultry (chickens and turkeys) has caused some concern. Poultry
litter is often fed back to cattle, and the concern is that any prion may
pass through the litter and be transmitted to the ruminant animal. There
is little concern that birds are susceptible to prion agents.
-
- Although genetically modified chickens have been made
to produce the disease under experimental conditions, it is not found naturally.
-
- Likewise, the issue of fish being susceptible to prion
disease has not been proven in the natural setting, and is again of little
concern.
-
- The use of rendered products in the US is strictly governed
by the FSIS and FDA. Meat and bone meal is allowed to be in pet food. However,
the pet food industry does not want downer animals in its products, and
is actively working to institute a similar ban.
-
- The rules and regulations governing renderers are strict
enough to prevent the scenario described. - Mod.TG]
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