May 10, 2004

US FDA Says Mad Cow Feed Rules Not Yet Ready

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has not finalized long-awaited rules to prohibit cattle blood and poultry litter from U.S. cattle feed. The rules serve as a precaution against mad cow disease, an agency spokeswoman said Friday.

The FDA announced in late January a series of new safeguards to protect the food and feed supply from the brain-wasting disease. The agency had said then it would swiftly publish detailed rules to carry out the changes.

Amid traders' speculation that the FDA was about to tighten limits on feeding meat and bone meal to livestock, soybean and soymeal futures on the Chicago Board of Trade rose on Friday. Such a measure would boost soymeal demand.

According to an FDA spokeswoman, the agency did not have a specific timeline for publishing the new rules. On Thursday, an FDA commissioner told reporters he expected the rules to be completed by the end of May.

FDA rules currently allow cattle remains to be fed to poultry and swine.

However, the FDA said earlier this week that it would allow feed rendered from a condemned Texas cow to be fed only to swine, not poultry. The 12-year-old cow exhibited possible signs of a central nervous system disorder when it arrived at a slaughter plant. However the U.S. Agriculture Department did not test the animal for mad cow disease.

Meat from the animal did not enter the human food supply, but was rendered and processed into animal feed.