November 7, 2013
The EU Joint Research Commission is releasing reference material, IRMM-AD482, thus facilitating the implementation of the new Commission regulation which re-authorised the use of processed animal proteins (PAPs), derived from non-ruminant farmed animals, in fish feed earlier in 2013.
The new reference material will facilitate the implementation of a test which detects the presence of ruminant PAPs in feed material obtained from non-ruminants. This will once more allow the feeding of farmed fish and other aquaculture animals with non-ruminant PAPs. The re-authorisation will improve the overall sustainability of the aquaculture sector, since these PAPs could be a valuable substitute for fishmeal, which is a scarce resource.
Animal by-products are derived from parts of slaughtered animals which are, in principle, fit for human consumption but are not used for food production of food. If properly sterilised, these products, known processed animal proteins (PAP), are considered to be a valuable protein source in animal nutrition.
Improperly heated animal by-products, fed to cattle, were identified as the root-cause for mad cow disease. Therefore, in 2001, all animal by-products were banned as feed ingredients in order to eradicate the mad cow (bovine spongiform encephalopathy, BSE) disease.
The European Commission's Strategy paper on Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies for 2010-15 emphasised that a partial lifting of the PAP ban to allow their re-introduction for certain animals should be primarily driven by scientific evidence.
In collaboration with the EU Reference Laboratory for animal proteins in feeding stuffs (EURL-AP), which is hosted by the Walloon Agricultural Research Centre (CRA-W), the JRC contributed to the validation of new diagnostic spectroscopic and DNA-based methods for identifying PAPs coming from different animal species.
More than a decade ago, the lack of measurement methods has contributed to the complete ban of PAPs. JRC scientists have since developed new quality assurance tools which helps to lift the ban.
