Wed, 29 Sep 2004

CFIA Outlines New Feed Rules to Prevent Mad Cow

Well, the Canadians are moving, but they're not going far enough:

The new measures detail how the Canadian Food Inspection Agency expects to enforce a decision announced in July, which called for brains, spines and other materials from older cattle to be kept out of all livestock feed.

Firstly, the age of the diseased cow is irrelevant: they're diseased whether or not they've started to show symptoms. Secondly, it's not clear that prions (which cause BSE) are only contained in brains, spines and nerve tissue. That's where we know they are, but these regulations would apparently allow the spleen from a BSE infected cow, for example, to be fed to another cow!

And all of it really begs the question: why are we feeding ruminants meat by-products in the first place?

Canadian food safety regulators outlined new rules on Wednesday aimed at preventing the spread of mad cow disease through livestock feed, including stricter regulations governing feed plants and slaughterhouses.

(link) [Yahoo!News]

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