The times may not be a-changin’, but the press releases are
By Christie Keith
April 23, 2008
I was shocked to get a press release from the FDA that started out with these words (emphasis mine, but the missing period is theirs):
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today issued a final regulation barring certain cattle materials from all animal feed, including pet food. The final rule further protects animals and consumers against bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE, also known as “mad cow disease”)
Can you imagine them even thinking about, let alone mentioning, pet food before the pet food recall? In the very first sentence, even.
The rest of the release was the usual kind of thing… blah blah, risk of BSE in the United States incredibly low, in fact, so low it’s amazing we’re wasting your time doing this, and please don’t look at the man behind the curtain fact that we actually prohibit farmers from testing their livestock for BSE in the first place, but honestly we care about you and your pets just not as much as agribusiness.
The entire release is under the jump.
FDA Strengthens Safeguards for Consumers of Beef
Issues Regulation on Animal Feeds with Added Safeguards Against BSE
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today issued a final regulation barring certain cattle materials from all animal feed, including pet food. The final rule further protects animals and consumers against bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE, also known as “mad cow disease”)
“This FDA action serves to further protect the U.S. cattle population from the already low risk of BSE,” said Dr. Bernadette Dunham, Director of FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine. “The new rule strengthens existing safeguards.”
The materials that can no longer be used in animal feed are the tissues that have the highest risk for carrying the agent thought to cause BSE. These high risk cattle materials are the brains and spinal cords from cattle 30 months of age and older. The entire carcass of cattle not inspected and passed for human consumption is also prohibited, unless the cattle are less than 30 months of age, or the brains and spinal cords have been removed. The risk of BSE in cattle less than 30 months of age is considered to be exceedingly low.
The removal of high-risk materials from all animal feed will further protect against inadvertent transmission of the agent thought to cause BSE, which could occur through cross-contamination of ruminant feed (intended for animals with four-chambered stomachs, such as cattle) with non-ruminant feed or feed ingredients during manufacture and transport, or through misfeeding of non-ruminant feed to ruminants on the farm. The added measure of excluding high-risk materials from all animal feeds prevents any accidental feeding of such ingredients to cattle.
Today’s regulation finalizes a proposed rule that the FDA issued for public comment in October 2005. The final rule is effective 12 months from today to allow the livestock, meat, rendering, and feed industries time to adapt their practices to comply with the new regulation. Under the new requirements of the final rule, renderers that process cattle not inspected and passed for human consumption must make available for FDA inspection their written protocols for determining the age of cattle and demonstrating that the brain and spinal cords of cattle have been effectively removed.
Scientific studies have linked BSE to cases of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD) in humans, an invariably fatal disease that mostly likely results from human consumption of infectious material from cattle with BSE. A 1997 rule prohibited specific risk materials from use in the human food supply. There have been no vCJD cases linked to consumption of U.S. beef and the risk of BSE among U.S. cattle is low.
FDA regulates feed and drugs. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and FDA together promulgate and enforce the regulations that ensure the exclusion of specific risk materials from the human food supply.
For a copy of the final rule and other information about the FDA’s work on BSE, go to www.fda.gov/oc/opacom/hottopics/bse.html.
I just want to make sure I understand this. Slaughterhouses can no longer use the brain or spinal chords from animals older than 30 months for human or animal food including pet food right?
But it looks like this will be left to the slaughterhouses to document. So just how are they going to prove they aren’t selling this off to rendering plants? How many inspections will actually take place? What are the penalties if companies don’t comply?
And I guess its still OK to sell off diseased organs to rendering plants to be used in pet food.
Call me a skeptic but since the inspectors missed the torture of downer cows while they were at a processing plant (as documented by the HSUS) I don’t have a whole lot of confidence that anything will change.
Comment by 2CatMom — April 23, 2008 @ 7:12 pm
You cynic you! Don’t you trust your government to protect you from
hearing aboutthings that might harm your health?Comment by Christie Keith — April 23, 2008 @ 7:14 pm
“The entire carcass of cattle not inspected and passed for human consumption is also prohibited, unless the cattle are less than 30 months of age, or the brains and spinal cords have been removed.”
Love those loopholes and thanks FDA for detailing what will be going into animal food under the new rule. That is: cattle carcasses NOT PASSED FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION as long as they’re under 30 mos or as long as the brains/spinal cords are removed. *Licks chops*
“The risk of BSE in cattle less than 30 months of age is considered to be exceedingly low.”
Well up until this press release, the FDA assured us that the risk of BSE in *any* cattle that would make it to market (for humans or pets) was exceedingly low. *raises hand to ask invisible FDA a question*
Comment by slt — April 24, 2008 @ 4:12 am
In my experience you can ask the FDA questions by email, and the do answer. Given their duties exceed their funding it is easy to villify regulatory bodies but in my experience people in them are genuinely, almost fanatically interested in doing the job the were hired to do—including answering the mail, paper or e-. As for the age thing, I imagine that is the age of cattle going to slaughter today. The risk is exceedingly low in all cattle and even more low (for the lack of better phrasing) in young cattle who could not have been exposed to the dangerous feeds.
Comment by emily — April 24, 2008 @ 7:10 am
My experience tells me that FDA, USDA, etc seem to be far more interested (“fanatical” if you will) in protecting big business than in protecting citizens. My experience is as a consumer. I work in the private sector and so have no other knowledge or experience beyond the FDA website info and other such publically accessible documents.
I am interested to hear about your experience Emily.
Comment by slt — April 24, 2008 @ 8:42 am
I think it probably differs depending on whether you are talking to the folks “in the trenches” v.s. the Big Boys. Although the cultural frustration filters down to affect folks at all levels in the kind of a hypocritical and underfunded agency such as the FDA has become.
Comment by The OTHER Pat — April 24, 2008 @ 9:36 am
Given their duties exceed their funding it is easy to villify regulatory bodies but in my experience people in them are genuinely, almost fanatically interested in doing the job the were hired to do
Emily, I see now that you are confounding two different things: Blaming the fact that they are underfunded with blaming individuals who work for those agencies.
The FDA has been gutted. You just said it there yourself.
WHY IS THAT OKAY, and why is pointing that out an attack on individual people who work there?
Comment by Christie Keith — April 24, 2008 @ 10:11 am
I caught about 30-45 minutes of the congressional hearings on contaminated heparin on C-SPAN the other night. They were interviewing the head of the FDA. I got three very clear messages from what I watched.
1. We don’t want to offend the Chinese. 2. We wouldn’t want the corporations that import goods to this country to have to pay for inspections. 3. We’re not giving the FDA any more money. They have the same budget as last year. There wasn’t much mention about safety of the American consumer. It’s enough to give one nightmares. It was like watching “Catch-22.”
Comment by C.L.H. — April 24, 2008 @ 10:48 am
If the heparin hearing was anything like the pet food recall hearing, I imagine the FDA basically said “The heparin that’s out there now is safe. Our drugs in the US are the safest in the world. We’re doing everything possible to continue to ensure that.” etc…
Comment by slt — April 24, 2008 @ 11:04 am
O yeah and: “Don’t try to make your own heparin at home!” ; )
Comment by slt — April 24, 2008 @ 11:05 am
Actually, it was more bleak than that. They were discussing how we’re going to inspect cheap pharmaceuticals that come into this country from overseas. The Chinese are irate because they feel the FDA’s science is not accurate and that the heparin was contaminated in this country. The congressmen asked scary questions like, “When you found you needed more money, did you ask for it?” and, “Why in the last year have we had lead painted toys, tainted pet food, tainted toothpaste and contaminated heparin?” It was surreal. We’re pointing fingers and not solving the problem.
Comment by C.L.H. — April 24, 2008 @ 11:22 am
This hearing, maybe?
http://therpmreport.com/Free/firsttake.aspx
Oh, and drat, I HAVE BEEN making my own heparin at home. Sheesh. Gotta stop that.
Comment by Gina Spadafori — April 24, 2008 @ 11:51 am
Yeah, that’s the one. Congress doesn’t seem to understand that imports have increased 100-fold and we haven’t made accommodations for this. They asked Von Eschenbach (sp?) how he was going to handle this in light of the fact that they weren’t giving the FDA more money this year. Of course, no rational answer was forthcoming. It’s a “Ship of Fools” if I ever saw one.
You must send pictures of the pigs in your backyard, Gina! Heparin comes from pig intestines. You’ve been holding out on us.
Comment by C.L.H. — April 24, 2008 @ 12:37 pm
Here’s a few more fun facts about Herparin. There have been 81 cases (though this could be like the imfamous 16 poisoned animal numbers) of confirmed deaths due to bad Herparin.
And they have not all been in the US. What is it with our government and the Chinese? Someone at that hearing needed to ask “Just how many (in order magnitude of 1000s) deaths will it take for the FDA to be concerned enough to ask for funding before Chinese goods enter our country? 1,000, 10,000, 100,000?
Oh yeah, that’s human deaths because we know that 10,000+ pet deaths was not enough to change diddly squat!
Comment by 2CatMom — April 24, 2008 @ 1:45 pm
I got the impression from the hearings that the FDA has been asking for funding and can go on asking forever. They’re not going to get it.
I also don’t trust the numbers when it comes to death and injuries related to the contaminated heparin. Considering it is given to seriously ill people, it may be hard to determine cause of death in some cases.
Comment by C.L.H. — April 24, 2008 @ 2:18 pm
Yeah, well now some of the drug research jobs by the big U.S. drug companies are going to be done overseas, according to the Wall Street Health Blog.
We have nothing to fear until we have to take one of the drugs—researched and manufactured by the Chinese and Indian countries.
I thought the FDA sent samples to several labs and found definite contamination in the Heparin drug from China—at least that is what I have read.
Why should the FDA get more funding if they are not part of a big corporation that will give campaign funds to a Senator, a U.S. Representative, or a Presidential Campaign?
Mama—mee-a—what a way to go!
Comment by Colorado Transplant — April 24, 2008 @ 3:53 pm
My joy that the FDA plans to enforce something from 2005, in 2009, maybe,knows no bounds.
However my dread for what is going to be dumped into pet food -this- year, likewise knows no bounds.
Melamine and pool chemicals with a sauce of expired acetaminophen is starting to sound tasty, the more you look into prions like Mad Cow, BSE, etc. Which may be loose already in the food chain.
With the FDA refusing to count the dead from the Heparin, just like they refused to count the dead pets, a fabulous system for keeping the death toll low from any disaster, it looks like the FDA has no intention of doing anything that might inconvenience big food and pharma.
Keep the death register software handy, PetConnection, the need for using it again is going to remain elevated for a while.
I don’t have the heart to ask the PFI, or the FDA, how long it takes for dogs and cats to show signs of infection from eating prion infested meat, because I am sure they know.
Sigh.
Comment by Duaneisadork — April 25, 2008 @ 8:55 am
Is this “Here we go again . . .” or “Still . . .”?
Comment by catmom5 — April 26, 2008 @ 5:00 am
The dead bodies should not be obvious—doesn’t everybody know that.
No bodies of dead soldiers shown on TV, the Heparin deaths are not fully counted, the number of dogs and cats killed are minimized.
Just keep eating the poisoning food they sell you so you can take the poisoning drugs after.
Comment by Colorado Transplant — April 26, 2008 @ 6:29 am
As Ive said before, the pet food buisiness is a dirty one.
The FDA formerly prohibited using downer cows from entering the human food supply unless they were examined pre-mortem by a vet and certified injured - not sick.
Yeah, a lot of good that did!
The people who work in these plants and not the upper crust of society and not likely to give two hoots about “rules”. Without constant on site supervision by well paid squeaky clean inspectors I wouldnt bet my milk money on this happening. Trust me. Ive been in these plants including the one in Green Bay that has now been bought out by a Brazilian firm which now controls 3/5 of the US production.
Just wait til the FDA starts dealing with these guys on that scale!
Comment by Bernard J. (Bernie) Starzewski — April 26, 2008 @ 6:38 am