FDA bans certain cattle parts from all animal feed

U.S. makers of pet food and all other animal feed will be prevented from using certain materials from cattle at the greatest risk for spreading mad cow disease under a rule that regulators finalized on Wednesday.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which oversees animal feed, said excluding high-risk materials from cattle 30 months of age or older from all animal feed will prevent any accidental cross-contamination between ruminant feed (intended for animals such as cattle) and non-ruminant feed or feed ingredients.

Contamination could occur during manufacture, transport or through the accidental misfeeding of non-ruminant feed to ruminant animals.

Canada and the United States banned the inclusion of protein from cows and other ruminant animals such as goats and sheep in cattle feed in 1997, following a mad cow outbreak in Britain.

The measure issued today finalizes a proposed rule opened for public comment in October 2005. It goes into effect on April 23, 2009.

The major U.S. safeguards against mad cow disease are the feed ban, a prohibition against slaughtering most "downer" cattle -- animals too sick to walk on their own -- for human food, and a requirement for meatpackers to remove from carcasses the brains, spinal cords and other parts most likely to contain the malformed proteins blamed for the disease.

The United States has found three cases of mad cow disease, including the first one detected in December of 2003. Soon after, U.S. beef exports were virtually halted. U.S. official have been slowly working to resume beef shipments.

Last week, South Korea officially announced it would gradually open its market to U.S. beef imports as Washington intensifies safety standards.
Eventually, if all goes well, a full range of U.S. beef boneless and bone-in, from animals of any age, would be shipped to a market estimated to be worth up to $1 billion a year.
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My feelings about this:
I thought this article was going to be about helping improve pet food and maye make it safer. Then I realized it had nothing to do with Pet Health. It comes down to wanting to get the $1 billion dollars a year to exports.

The I realized pet food that is being mass-marketed cannot be helped by just banning certain animal parts. If you can't prepare your pets food buy the best healthy, natural product you can afford. Having a pet is for the life of the animal and you owe it to them to do the best you can.

Don't support the pet food giants that mass-market pet food, they do not have your pet's health first in their mind, they are after the dollar.

Healthy Pet Food My Gang Eats