Originally published September 12 2005
FDA to expand mad cow restrictions
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
The FDA has said it plans to expand mad cow disease restrictions on what can be included in cattle feed in the next month or two, perhaps to ban poultry litter, table scraps, cattle blood and other items thought to promote the spread of the disease in addition to cattle parts that are already banned.
One of the bedrock U.S. safeguards against mad cow disease -- a ban on using cattle parts in cattle feed -- will be expanded "in the next month or two," the government said on Tuesday.
The U.S. Agriculture Department formally closed its investigation of the first native U.S. case of mad cow disease, which surfaced in late June.
It was the first U.S.-born cow found with BSE and the second U.S. case overall.
The Food and Drug Administration, which oversees animal feed, said it aimed to refine the livestock feed ban with an additional rule soon.
FDA has said it was considering a broader ban on use of poultry litter, table scraps and cattle blood in feed as well as more restrictions on use of items thought to carry the highest risk of spreading mad cow.
Always fatal, BSE is believed to be spread among cattle through consumption of feed that contains material from infected cattle.
People can contract a human version of the disease by eating contaminated meat.
The major U.S. safeguards against mad cow disease are the feed ban, a prohibition against slaughtering "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, nervous tissue and other parts most likely to contain the malformed proteins blamed for the disease.
"I am pleased we are now in a position to close this investigation, notify our trading partners and move on," said Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns during a telephone news conference.
Johanns renewed his frequent calls on Japan to "step up" and resume purchases of beef from young cattle, as it agreed to do last year.
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