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The Food and Drug Administration's new rules on cattle feed are a start toward calming fears about mad cow disease, but the regulatory agency didn't go far enough. While the FDA took steps to keep cow byproducts out of cattle feed (which likely spreads mad cow, the common name for bovine spongiform encephalopathy), it should have extended the ban to pork and poultry feed, too.
Even under the more stringent rules, pigs and chickens could consume beef parts, and then those animals could end up in cattle feed. "Swine have been shown to be capable of contracting mad cow disease in a laboratory setting," warned Michael Hansen, senior research associate for Consumers Union. "We are worried that swine could be silent carriers of the disease."
Besides, the practice of feeding potentially contaminated beef byproducts to pigs and chickens, even if those animals are not susceptible to BSE, is a sickening revelation that could turn off consumers.
That shortcoming aside, the new rules are welcomed, although it took a crisis for the FDA to act. Most of the rules were written more than a year ago, but the agency showed no urgency in enacting them until late December, when it was announced that a cow slaughtered in Washington (and imported from Canada) had BSE.
The new prohibitions will stop the practice of feeding cow blood to calves and the use of "poultry litter" and "plate waste" in cattle feed. Poultry litter is swept up from the floor of chicken cages and includes feed that could contain beef byproducts (as well as feathers and chicken droppings). Plate waste is made from meat scraps left over from restaurant meals. Most Americans probably had no idea that such material was used in animal feed, much less that it threatened to spread mad cow disease.
Another rule will ban the use of beef parts, particularly organs, in dietary supplements, cosmetics and other foods. So-called "glandular supplements" often contain beef brains, which are considered the greatest risk to people because BSE infects that tissue.
Both the FDA and U.S. Department of Agriculture have responsibility to regulate the food supply. Earlier, the USDA banned the use of "downer" cows for human consumption and called for stricter control of the slaughter process and a better system to keep track of individual animals. Together, the agencies have strengthened consumer protections, but they can't afford to leave the job undone.
A recent report by a panel that advises the USDA found that mad cow disease is "indigenous in North America" and recommended more testing and a ban on feeding any animal protein to cattle. As long as animal byproducts are allowed in feed, doubts about meat safety will remain.