May 4, 2004

FDA Considers Banning Chicken Waste From Cattle Feed
 

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) continues its struggle in implementing a proposal to ban adding blood, chicken excrement and restaurant table scraps to cattle feed, according to officials with the Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM).

The FDA has been flooded with negative feedback ever since it announced the recommendation in January, in an effort to strengthen safeguards against bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease. There are concerns that the proposed restrictions would generate serious unintended consequences.

Tainted feed from a Canadian mill is believed to have infected the Washington state Holstein which set off the U.S. mad cow crisis in December. With major export markets still refusing to buy U.S. beef, calls to up the regulations are getting louder.

While CVM Director Stephen Sundlof maintains progress is being made, he offers no deadlines for the new bans. He stated that delays are generated by chicken producers who reject the FDA proposal. Chicken litter is said to include chicken fecal matter, dead birds, feathers and spilled feet.

Adding chicken litter to cattle feed is a primary method of waste disposal for producers, Sundlof says.