Secret tests reveal cattle feed contaminated by animal parts

[daleo]

Mad cow fears spark review of 'vegetable-only' livestock feeds

Chad Skelton
Vancouver Sun

December 16, 2004

CREDIT: John Lucas, CanWest News Service
A majority of the first batch of 70 'vegetable-only' cattle feed samples were found to be contaminated with animal protein.

A series of secret tests on cattle feed conducted by the federal government earlier this year found that more than half the feed tested contained animal parts not listed on the ingredients, according to internal documents obtained by The Vancouver Sun.

The test results raise troubling questions about whether rules banning the feeding of cattle remains to other cattle -- the primary way in which mad cow disease is spread -- are being routinely violated.

According to internal Canadian Food Inspection Agency documents -- obtained by The Sun through the Access to Information Act -- 70 feed samples labelled as vegetable-only were tested by the agency between January and March of this year. Of those, 41 (59 per cent) were found to contain "undeclared animal materials."

http://www.canada.com/vancouver/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=892f5a65-1b99-4b84-8359-6629bbd1f419&page=1

[pinerow]

1. Parts is parts

nt

[DenaliDemocrat]

20. This is why I only eat meat

that I either hunt or raise myself. Eat a moose...10,000 wolves can't be wrong.

[RebelOne]

2. That's been known for a long time. n/t

[daleo]

4. These tests were done in 2004, after the mad cow find in Wash and Alta

And these feed bags were labeled as vegetable matter only - there were supposed to be (by law) no animal by-products. By the way, 19 of 39 "vegetable matter only" feed samples that were imports (I would guess these would be mostly from the U.S.) were contaminated with animal parts as well, so this is probably common in U.S. agriculture.

This means that the assurances that cows are not getting animal by-products if they are being fed from feed labeled "vegetable matter only" are not reliable.

[fshrink]

14. Known in Europe, and therefore *everywhere*, as early as the

late 90s. I live near several feed-lots and I can tell you that the smell of shit is not that of your healthy veggie cow. Smell like a mix between hollow-tooth and diarrhea... And these are Wyoming's finest!

[ElsewheresDaughter]

3. we swore off all beef 2 years ago..except for local organic providers.....

that we know personally...free range

[Krupskaya]

6. Us too.

Grass- and grain-feed only. They live down the road. We buy milk that comes from grass- and grain-fed cows across the river (it comes in glass bottles and isn't homogenized). Peace of mind, and it tastes better, too!

[htuttle]

8. Same here

Beef is a luxury for us now. Special occasions only, and only from the cows I drive past every day down the road from us.

Worth the cost, just don't eat as much.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

7. The problem with that is the ranchers think they are using safe feed.

I hail from the great ranchlands of Texas. I have heard them complain about this for years.

[daleo]

9. Yes, news like this puts that in some doubt

Unless you know the rancher has only fed his animals from grazing on grass or whatever - no outside feed could be considered reliable, given this news.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

12. The problem with that is the meat is too tough and stringy and the cattle

get sick from lack of nutrition.

Therefore, they have to feed them grain to make the meat taste better and keep the cattle healthy. The problem with the grain is that they don't know for sure if it's pure. By law, all grain products listed as vegetarian are supposed to be animal by-product free. They are supposed to contain the list of pure grains and the nutritional content posted on the label. The higher protein grains are more expensive so sometimes they (the feed provider) lower the content of the good grain and sneak in some by-product meal to add crude protein. It seems that by-products are much cheaper than other sources of protein.

In a nutshell this is what one rancher explained to me. I don’t know nothing ‘bout raising no cattle myself.

[daleo]

13. That all makes perfect sense

In my opinion, it also highlights why direct testing of cattle (after slaughter) is really the only sure-fire (within the limits of any diagnostic test anyway) way of making sure that mad cow prions are not getting into the human population. There are just too many motivations and opportunities to cheat on the production side to be sure that the beef is uncontaminated.

[Name removed]

15. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Megahurtz]

5. They were supposed to get rid of

all the animal parts in the feed when the mad cow disease came out, because that is causing it (protein prions,whatever, I'm no scientist)

[VegasWolf]

10. Protein prion is correct. Prions are smaller than Virus particles

and clump together to affect the workings of the intra-cellular
machinery. Contaminated animal parts in cattle feed
has long been suspected as the agent of transmission
for mad cow disease.

[warrens]

11. Cantwell is after FDA, USDA for feed loopholes

http://www.canada.com/news/agriculture/story.html?id=5ff7f132-b9a0-4b0c-abe8-e0c8545ca70a

[prairierose]

16. Be advised that your govt is NOT on your side when it comes to food....

They are on the side of the large agribus corps. This is exactly why they do NOT want testing of meat for madcow. This is exactly why you are eating GMO grains in your food.

When Tommy Thompson made his remark about terrorists attacking our food supply, I laughed. We already have terrorists attacking our food supply. They are called large agribusiness Corporations.

When raygun was elected, they started a concerted effort to destroy the family farm. It has worked quite well. Today, we have a trade deficit in agriculture. Ag has traditionally been the one area of trade where we had a surplus, no more. We are now importing more food. I have considered this a strategic issue for almost 30 years. If we can not any longer feed our own people; then who will? And how much will it cost you to feed your family? For most of the last century our government had a cheap food policy. With the death of the family farm Americans are going to find out how much food really costs.

All of my friends think I am crazy about this issue but I have lived through bad times for ag & watched the plicies of our govt, time & time again favor the corps to the detriment of famly farms & the people of the country.

[havocmom]

17. US Gov. not on our side, and that is also why Congress canned food label

requirement for Country of Origin. Prior to that little post-election prank, 40% of the foods in the US were imported. Now? Who knows? You don't know where it comes from = you don't know anything about how it was raised.

Yeah, somebody leaving the * malAdministration made a damn good point saying the food supply in the US was not safe from terrorist attack; problem is, the worst terrorists are the Corporations.

[porkrind]

24. Good call: "We already have terrorists attacking our food supply"

Thanks to all you Freepers, Security Moms, Nascar Dads, Fundies, and all other dipshit Repugs. Without you fuckers, we would live in a happy, safe, educated world. Wake the fuck up!

[Anakin Skywalker]

18. Silly Humans! Cows aren't Meant to be

carnivores, let alone CANNIBALS!

Who is/are the genius(es) who came up with feeding cattles food with animal parts in the first place? I am guessing some smug, arrogant bush-like person who thought he could get away with fooling Nature.

[VegasWolf]

19. Silly Rabit! How did your brain protein wind up in the cattle feed! n/t

[Niche]

21. Purina made the food that was supposedly BANNED!

We banned this practice here some time ago but sold feed with ground up cows to cows to other countries (the reason cows get mad cow). I stopped eating red meat as soon as W got in office. There is no oversite on this shit under this adm. Also, Mc Donalds cut off all US contracts (beef) a few years ago. Please be careful eating beef. Really it's scary stuff. Your health is at risk in more ways than you know.

[VegasWolf]

22. Sounds like fast food returants don't want to potentially open themselves

to lawsuits. Don't blame them. Anything that awol
hasn't destroyed about america yet.

[CHIMO]

23. Has Anyone Looked

At pet food?
It is not as severe as food in the chain for human consumption, but sometimes a poor dog or cat suffering might gain TV prominence.

[daleo]

26. Plus, not all pet food is eaten by pets

The issue of pet food is covered in the book Mad Cow USA, which is downloadable from the internet for free, and is an excellent reference on the entire subject.

Page 216 says "Perhaps the most egregious problem with the FDA rules is that they would permit known TSE positive materials to be used in pet food, pig, chicken and fish feed - FDA only requires that it be labeled 'Do not feed to cattle and other ruminants'".

[aikido15]

25. Me too...

Bush and deregulation of the USDA Inspections...ewwwwwwwww..no more meat for me, no way!