May 6, 2004
USDA Approves Destroyed Texas Cow Material For Swine Feed
The byproducts of a Texas cow that was destroyed after it showed potential signs of a central nervous disorder must be made into pig feed or be destroyed, the Food and Drug Administration said Tuesday.
The FDA said it tracked down all the material from the cow that was sent to a processor for rendering into animal feed and other products. All the material is being held by a business that the agency didn't name. The government has said that none of it got into the human food supply.
The cow was destroyed before it could be tested for mad cow disease, an incurable illness that eats holes in the brain, attacking the central nervous system.
The FDA planned to send a letter to the business saying it "will not object to use of this material in swine feed only" because pigs aren't considered susceptible to mad cow disease, one in a family of illnesses known to infect grass-eating animals.
If the business agrees to only using the material in swine feed, FDA said it will then track the material through the supply chain from the processor to the farm to ensure that the feed is monitored and fed only to pigs.
The Agriculture Department learned of the cow Friday. It was taken to slaughter Wednesday at Lone Star Beef in San Angelo, Texas. Cattle with mad cow disease exhibit symptoms of a disorder in the central nervous system.
The FDA said inspectors checked the slaughterhouse, the rendering facility, the farm where the animal came from and the processor that initially received the cow from the slaughterhouse.
On Monday, Agriculture Department officials said a veterinarian condemned the animal after seeing it stagger and fall, indicating that it was either injured or sick with a neurological disorder such as rabies or mad cow disease.
Animals found with those symptoms are supposed to be kept until the department can collect samples for testing. The Agriculture Department has said it didn't know why that had not happened in the Texas cow's case.
