January 7, 2004

Meat and Bone Meal Ban in US Feed Unlikely

A ban on use of meat and bone meal in animal feed in the United States following the mad cow case is unlikely, Hamburg-based newsletter Oil World said on Tuesday.

The U.S. banned use of meat and bone meal in 1997 for ruminant feed, but it can still be fed to pigs and poultry.

"We believe that chances are currently very small that the U.S. Department of Agriculture or the Food and Drug Administration will announce a total feeding ban on meat and bonemeal unless new cases of BSE are discovered," Oil World said.

"When it was subsequently reported that the BSE-affected milk cow had been imported as live from Canada about six years ago, the pressure on U.S. authorities to implement a complete ban on the feeding of bonemeal and animal products from slaughter waste eased," Oil World said.                       

However, a ban would be explosive for soybean and meal prices, it added.        

U.S. feed makers use about 1.7 million tonnes of meat and bone meal annually, and a ban would increase U.S. demand for vegetable proteins by about 2.2 million tonnes a year, Oil World said.