Thousands of cattle quarantined in Swift Current, Saskatchewan, Canada-- ate prohibited feed

[Ian David]

GLIDE Number: BH-20070302-10159-CAN
Date / time: 02/03/2007 18:56:30
Event: Biological Hazard
Area: North-America
Country: Canada
State/County: Province of Saskatchewan
City: Swift Current
Number of Deads: None or unknow
Number of Injured: None or unknow
Damage level: Minor

Description:
Thousands of cattle have been put under quarantine in Saskatchewan after they ate prohibited feed. Nine farms with up to 8,000 cattle accidentally received ruminant meat and bone meal from a Saskatoon feed mill, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency said Friday. The feed is permitted for poultry and swine, but cattle and deer are not allowed to eat it because of the risk of spreading bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), also known as mad cow disease. Two of the farms are near Swift Current while the others are in the Saskatoon district. CFIA spokesman George Luterbach said officials were doing a risk assessment to decide what to do next. "All likelihood is that the animals are likely not going to be required to be destroyed, but at this point in time I don't want to go further than that," he said. However, a decision won't be made until the assessment is completed, he said. According to the CFIA, there is no food safety risk associated with meat and other products from the exposed animals. The animals are not allowed to leave their farms or enter the food chain until the risk assessment is completed, Luterbach said.

More:
http://hisz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/woalert_read.php?lang=eng&id=10159

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

1. Why is the feed permitted for poultry and swine? nt.

[RC]

2. It is cheap and pigs and chickens do not get mad cow from this feed.

I should clarify here. cows get it from being fed their own kind. Pigs and chickens don't, but they can get it by being fed mad cows.

Do your own research. google is your friend.
http://www.mad-cow.org/
http://www.organicconsumers.org/madcow.cfm
http://www.fda.gov/oc/opacom/hottopics/bse.html
http://whyfiles.org/012mad_cow/
http://science.howstuffworks.com/mad-cow-disease.htm


And don't forget this site: (Not Safe For Work)
http://www.totallytom.com/MadCow.html

[GreenPartyVoter]

3. Why don't they? And anyway, I just think it is gross to feed them that.

[donsu]

4. is that a scientific fact? any links to research reports?

I didn't know that other animals were fed this. is it in cat and dog food too?

[kestrel91316]

6. Chickens don't get BSE. That's why they can get away with feeding

meat and bone meal from cattle to chickens. But then they feed the "used poultry litter" back to the cattle.

Yes, sportsfans - cattle are fattened, in part, on CHICKEN CRAP. That's why you want grass-fed beef that's never seen a feedlot.

AFAIK pigs don't get BSE either.

[Kali]

7. well, if you know your feedlot, you can still do it.

There are still a few small outfits around that will feed a grain/hay diet and get them as fat as any 1950's housewife might want.

Believe it or not there is even organic corn feeding going on.

[kestrel91316]

5. "...accidentally received ruminant meat and bone meal ..." Huh. RIGHT.

Accidentally, my a--. They got caught, is my guess.

[achtung_circus]

8. Probably not.

I have issues with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) who enforces this stuff, but security of the Feeds Act isn't one of those issues.

I'm betting it's a fuck up rather than deliberate.