Cattle ate traces of animal remains

[Animal 0]

http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/story.html?id=33e3002f-aae9-4976-bfb6\
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Tuesday » December 5 » 2006

Cattle ate traces of animal remains

Dave Rogers
CanWest News Service; Ottawa Citizen


Tuesday, December 05, 2006


OTTAWA -The Canadian Food Inspection Agency said Monday that 10,000 cattle
in Ontario and Quebec have consumed feed containing traces of animal
byproducts, but the risk of exposing humans to mad cow disease is
negligible.

The feed used on 113 farms became contaminated recently when a rail car used
to ship meat and bone meal for hog and poultry feed was later employed to
transport blood meal that was added to cattle feed.

The beef will be sold to Canadians, but the food inspection agency has
decided to track the cattle movements so they cannot be exported. Darcy
Unseth, a veterinarian with the agency, said Russia and Lebanon refuse to
accept meat that comes from cattle exposed to meat and bone meal.

Unseth said 33 sheep and five goats that ate the feed will be placed under
similar transport controls. The food inspection agency refused to identify
the farms that used the feed for privacy reasons.

Agribrands Canada spokesman Rob Meijer said the company voluntarily recalled
the feed produced at its plants at Addison near Brockville in eastern
Ontario and Drummondville, Que., east of Montreal.

Meijer said the company disposed of the feed at landfill sites and replaced
it with cattle feed that did not contain meat and bone meal.

''Feed ingredients come in bulk rail car shipments and there is a cleanout
procedure when you are unloading and loading,'' Meijer said. ''Our suppliers
are supposed to bang on the cars with rubber mallets to shake loose any
material that may be caught in corners and then wash the hopper cars.

''Unfortunately in this case the cleaning may not have been done thoroughly
enough. Out of respect for domestic and international sensitivity on this
issue, we wanted to make sure that there was no potential for human or
animal concerns. We produced the feed and we take 100-per-cent
responsibility for this issue.''

Unseth said the cattle ate the feed for up to two weeks but there is no
evidence that the feed is a threat human health.

Canada has a partial ban on adding animal byproducts to cattle feed. In
1997, the government banned the feeding of cattle remains back to cattle and
other ruminants, but it still allows cattle remains to be used in feed for
chickens, hogs and pets.

The food agency is investigating because the production of cattle feed that
includes meat, bones and some other byproducts violates government feed
regulations and carries a maximum possible penalty of a $250,000 fine and
two years in prison.

There is concern and scientific evidence that cross-contamination of animal
feed streams can contribute to the spread of the infectious and persistent
prions that cause brain-wasting bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), also
known as mad cow disease.

James Atkinson, a University of Guelph animal nutritionist, said meat and
bone meal is added to pig and poultry feed as a source of calcium,
phosphorus and protein.

Ottawa Citizen

CanWest News Service 2006

[animo-aequoanimo 0]

Un risque négligeable ne signifie pas l'absence de tout risque.

[Animal 0]

Exactement ! As-tu remarqué qu'on n'en parle pas trop dans les nouvelles...

[animo-aequoanimo 0]

C'est quand même grave de laisser la population dans l'ignorance de ces faits. Mais quant à nous ... on ne court pas trop de risques avec cette consommation

[Animal 0]

non, mais nos animaux oui ....

[animo-aequoanimo 0]

Mais en ce qui concerne les animaux, on sait à quel point le gouvernement n'en a cure !!!

[Animal 0]

et comment !