Oldtimer
Well-known member
US Feed Ban May Be Too Costly To Industry
Today 9/12/2006 7:36:00 PM
US Feed Ban May Be Too Costly To Industry
WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--The U.S. Food and Drug Administration may have
underestimated the cost to industry of the government's plan to improve the
way mad-cow disease contamination is kept out of livestock feed, Steve
Sundlof, director of the FDA Center for Veterinary Medicine, said Tuesday.
Sundlof, in an interview with Dow Jones Newswires, said FDA is now going
back over its proposal that seeks to force renderers to remove the brain and
spinal cord from all deadstock cattle processed for livestock feed.
The FDA had presumed that the rendering industry would not be hindered
greatly when the new feed rule proposal was devised, Sundlof said.
"What we heard back, was that no, that's probably not the case," Sundlof
said. Instead, only a minority of companies "would be willing to separate
the brain and spinal cord out."
Officials have been taken aback by the industry's response.
The FDA is reviewing previous assumptions and new data from representatives
of an industry that provides billions of pounds of protein for the livestock
feed industry. The delay, he said, may push publication of the final rule
back to "later this year," or beyond that.
The FDA unveiled its proposal to reform the U.S. feedban rule - set in 1997
to try to keep mad-cow disease from spreading in herds if it ever appeared
in the U.S. - about a year ago and gave the public 75 days to submit
comments.
Many of the 850 responses FDA received said the agency's plan would have a
stronger detrimental impact than the government anticipated.
"A lot of comments said that we underestimated considerably the economic
impact associated with what we proposed," Sundlof said.
Tom Cook, president of the National Renderers Association, said FDA's
proposal would "take the incentive away for rendering of a significant
portion of material that needs to be rendered."
He is talking about cattle that die on the farm and are carted off by
renderers. Many, he said, would stop collecting the carcasses if FDA's
current proposal is implemented.
"Animals that are picked up on the farm represent 2-4 billion pounds of raw
material a year," Cook said. "If the renderers can't afford to pick it up
... they're not going to do it anymore."
The FDA banned the practice of feeding bovine material to cattle in 1997
because mad-cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, is believed to
be spread among cattle if they ingest infected material. Other livestock,
though, could continue to be fed all bovine material, including what is
considered risky material for BSE infection.
The first BSE-infected cow was found in the U.S. in December 2003. Since
then, two more cases in cows have been discovered.
In October 2005, FDA unveiled a plan to require that brains and spinal cords
be removed from all deadstock cattle before they are rendered for feed for
any animals. The FDA said that simply trying to keep bovine material out of
cattle feed was not good enough.
"Cross-contamination" of feed for cattle and feed for other livestock that
contained bovine material is a risk that should be avoided, FDA reasoned in
its proposal.
The FDA said "it may not be possible to verify that there is zero carryover
of feed or feed ingredients in equipment."
That proposal, though, may be so costly that it would remove a cheap protein
source from feed manufacturers who rely on rendering cattle carcasses that
aren't fit for human consumption.
"Many renderers believe this restriction on dead stock will be the beginning
of untenable economic pressure on dead stock collection that could
eventually lead to the end of the service for all species," the National
Renderers
Association said in a written submission to FDA.
FDA officials continue to review the economics of the proposed changes to
the U.S. feedban, Sundlof said. "So, we expect it will be some time before
we issue a final rule."
Today 9/12/2006 7:36:00 PM
US Feed Ban May Be Too Costly To Industry
WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--The U.S. Food and Drug Administration may have
underestimated the cost to industry of the government's plan to improve the
way mad-cow disease contamination is kept out of livestock feed, Steve
Sundlof, director of the FDA Center for Veterinary Medicine, said Tuesday.
Sundlof, in an interview with Dow Jones Newswires, said FDA is now going
back over its proposal that seeks to force renderers to remove the brain and
spinal cord from all deadstock cattle processed for livestock feed.
The FDA had presumed that the rendering industry would not be hindered
greatly when the new feed rule proposal was devised, Sundlof said.
"What we heard back, was that no, that's probably not the case," Sundlof
said. Instead, only a minority of companies "would be willing to separate
the brain and spinal cord out."
Officials have been taken aback by the industry's response.
The FDA is reviewing previous assumptions and new data from representatives
of an industry that provides billions of pounds of protein for the livestock
feed industry. The delay, he said, may push publication of the final rule
back to "later this year," or beyond that.
The FDA unveiled its proposal to reform the U.S. feedban rule - set in 1997
to try to keep mad-cow disease from spreading in herds if it ever appeared
in the U.S. - about a year ago and gave the public 75 days to submit
comments.
Many of the 850 responses FDA received said the agency's plan would have a
stronger detrimental impact than the government anticipated.
"A lot of comments said that we underestimated considerably the economic
impact associated with what we proposed," Sundlof said.
Tom Cook, president of the National Renderers Association, said FDA's
proposal would "take the incentive away for rendering of a significant
portion of material that needs to be rendered."
He is talking about cattle that die on the farm and are carted off by
renderers. Many, he said, would stop collecting the carcasses if FDA's
current proposal is implemented.
"Animals that are picked up on the farm represent 2-4 billion pounds of raw
material a year," Cook said. "If the renderers can't afford to pick it up
... they're not going to do it anymore."
The FDA banned the practice of feeding bovine material to cattle in 1997
because mad-cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, is believed to
be spread among cattle if they ingest infected material. Other livestock,
though, could continue to be fed all bovine material, including what is
considered risky material for BSE infection.
The first BSE-infected cow was found in the U.S. in December 2003. Since
then, two more cases in cows have been discovered.
In October 2005, FDA unveiled a plan to require that brains and spinal cords
be removed from all deadstock cattle before they are rendered for feed for
any animals. The FDA said that simply trying to keep bovine material out of
cattle feed was not good enough.
"Cross-contamination" of feed for cattle and feed for other livestock that
contained bovine material is a risk that should be avoided, FDA reasoned in
its proposal.
The FDA said "it may not be possible to verify that there is zero carryover
of feed or feed ingredients in equipment."
That proposal, though, may be so costly that it would remove a cheap protein
source from feed manufacturers who rely on rendering cattle carcasses that
aren't fit for human consumption.
"Many renderers believe this restriction on dead stock will be the beginning
of untenable economic pressure on dead stock collection that could
eventually lead to the end of the service for all species," the National
Renderers
Association said in a written submission to FDA.
FDA officials continue to review the economics of the proposed changes to
the U.S. feedban, Sundlof said. "So, we expect it will be some time before
we issue a final rule."
