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Date: September 29, 2018 at 19:22:13
From: Eve, [DNS_Address]
Subject: Mad Cow California: Stop Feeding Cows Chicken Manure |
URL: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-greger-md/mad-cow-disease-california_b_1450994.html |
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More than a decade ago, the World Health Organization called for the exclusion of the riskiest bovine tissues — cattle brains, eyes, spinal cord and
intestine — from the human food supply and from all animal feed to protect against the spread of mad cow disease. Unfortunately, the United States
still allows the feeding of some of these potentially risky tissues to people, pigs, pets, poultry, and fish. Cattle remains are still fed to chickens, for
example, and the poultry litter (floor wastes that include the feces and spilled feed) is fed back to cows. In this way, prions — the infectious proteins
that cause mad cow disease — may continue to be cycled back into cattle feed and complete the cow “cannibalism” circuit blamed for the spread of
the disease.
Because poultry litter can be as much as eight times cheaper than foodstuffs like alfalfa, the U.S. cattle industry may feed as much as a million
pounds of poultry litter to cattle each year. A thousand chickens can make enough waste to feed a growing calf year-round. Although excrement from
other species is fed to livestock in the United States, chicken droppings are considered more nutritious for cows than pig feces or cattle dung.
A single cow can eat as much as three tons of poultry waste a year, yet the manure does not seem to affect the taste of the subsequent milk or meat.
Taste panels have found little difference in the tenderness, juiciness, and flavor of beef made from steers fed up to 50% poultry litter. Beef from
animals fed bird droppings may in fact even be more juicy and tender. Cows are typically not given feed containing more than 80% poultry litter,
though, since it’s not as palatable and may not fully meet protein and energy needs.
The industry realizes that the practice of feeding chicken feces to cattle might not stand up to public scrutiny. They understand that the custom
carries “certain stigmas,” “presents special consumer issues,” and poses “potential public relations problems.” They seem puzzled as to why the
public so “readily accepts organically grown vegetables” grown with composted manure, while there is “apparent reluctance on the part of the
public” to accept the feeding of chicken excrement to cattle. “We hope,” says one industry executive, “common sense will prevail.”
The editor of Beef magazine commented, “The public sees it as ‘manure.’ We can call it what we want and argue its safety, feed value, environmental
attributes, etc., but outsiders still see it simply as ‘chicken manure.’ And, the most valid and convincing scientific argument isn’t going to counteract a
gag reflex.” The industry’s reaction, then, has been to silence the issue.
According to Beef, public relations experts within the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association warned beef producers that discussing the issue publicly
would only “bring out more adverse publicity.” When the Kansas Livestock Association dared to shine the spotlight on the issue by passing a
resolution urging the discontinuation of the practice, irate producers in neighboring states threatened a boycott of Kansas feedyards.
Maybe this new case of mad cow disease will reinvigorate consumer campaigns to close the “no-brainer” loopholes in feed regulations that continue
to allow the feeding of such filthy feed to farm animals.
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15435 |
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Date: September 29, 2018 at 19:24:38
From: Eve, [DNS_Address]
Subject: Mad Cow California: Stop Weaning Calves on Cattle Blood |
URL: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-greger-md/california-mad-cow-disease_b_1450984.html |
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By Michael Greger, M.D.
990
I was still in medical training when I was called to testify in defense of Oprah Winfrey in the infamous “meat defamation” trial. If
you remember, Oprah swore she would never eat another burger again after hearing that cows were being fed the remains of
other cattle. After she tried to remind the audience that cows were supposed to be herbivores, the meat industry representative
defended the practice by stating, “Now keep in mind, before you view the ruminant animal, the cow, as simply a vegetarian —
remember that they drink milk.” The absurdity of the statement aside, it’s not even entirely accurate. In modern agribusiness,
humans drink the milk. Calves typically get milk “replacer.”
Like all mammals, cows can produce milk only after they’ve had a baby. Most newborn calves in the United States are separated
from their mothers within 12 hours — many immediately after birth — so the mother’s milk can be marketed for human
consumption. Though some dairy farmers still wean calves on whole milk, the majority of producers use milk replacer, which too
often contains spray-dried cattle blood as a cheap source of protein.
According to the American Protein Corporation, which boasts to be the world’s largest spray-dryer of blood, the chief
disadvantage of blood-based milk replacer is simply its “different color.” Milk replacer containing blood concentrate typically has
a “chocolate brown” color, which can leave a dark residue on the bottles, buckets, and utensils used to feed the liquid. “For some
producers,” a company official remarked, “the difference is difficult to accept at first, since the product does not look ‘like milk.’”
But the “[c]alves don’t care,” he was quick to add.
The calves may not care, but Stanley Prusiner does. Prusiner won the Nobel Prize in Medicine for his discovery of prions, the
infectious proteins that cause mad cow disease. He was quoted in the New York Times as calling the practice of feeding cattle
blood to young calves “a really stupid idea,” because it could complete the “cannibalistic” circuit blamed for the spread of the
disease.
The European Commission also recommended against the practice of “intraspecies recycling of ruminant blood and blood
products” — the practice of suckling calves on cows’ blood protein. Even excluding the fact that brain matter may pass into the
trough that collects the blood once an animal’s throat is slit, the Commission report concluded a decade ago that “[a]s far as
ruminant blood is concerned, it is considered that the best approach to protect public health at present is to assume that it could
contain low levels of infectivity.” Since then, evidence that blood can be infectious has only grown, yet dairy calves in the United
States are still drinking up to three cups of “red blood cell protein” concentrate every day.
Although the U.S. Food and Drug Administration initially proposed to ban the feeding of blood and blood products to livestock, the
agency ended up reneging on their much touted promise. Let’s hope that the newly reported case of mad cow disease in a
California dairy cow will renew interest in closing the loopholes in feed regulations that continue to allow the feeding of
slaughterhouse waste, blood and manure to farm animals in the United States.
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