Animal Byproducts Used in Livestock Feed

Although the U.S. is tightening regulations for using animal byproducts in cattle feed, critics contend there are too many opportunities for error. The culprit appears to be diseased organs and other animal byproducts sometimes introduced into livestock feed. U.S. animal feed regulations have become more stringent, but critics claim this issue needs more attention. If you've heard of Mad Cow Disease, you probably know that some illnesses can be transferred between species; in this case, through human consumption of infected beef.

  1. Feed

    • For thousands of years, livestock has been fed by grazing on cultivated or wild grasses and organs. With the decrease of grazing land and the increase of factory farming, livestock feed has become big business. Typical livestock feed today contains a variety of plant matter, animal matter, vitamins, minerals and chemicals. Plant matter includes alfalfa, barley, beets, carrots, different grasses and hays, molasses, oats, peanuts, potatoes and sorghum. Municipal garbage and restaurant food waste is also sometimes added. Chemicals and minerals, like hormones, ammonium sulfate, deflourinated phosphate, dicalcium phosphate and ground limestone may also be present.

    Byproducts

    • Over the last 50 years, factory farming has led to cost-cutting measures intended to drive up profits, including the use of the cheapest livestock feed available. This cheap feed often uses waste and inert materials as filler. In addition to plant matter, human food waste and chemical additives, livestock feed can be composed of a variety of animal byproducts. Animal byproducts are defined as any part of an animal carcass not intended for human consumption and can include chicken fat, bone meal, meat meal, blood and organs from other livestock, feathers, hooves, as well as dried poultry and cattle manure. The suspected origin of Mad Cow Disease was the slaughterhouse waste of cattle infected with the disease, especially the brains and spinal cords of these animals.

    Mad Cow Disease

    • In 1996, Britain issued a warning that a sizable portion of UK cattle were infected with Mad Cow Disease and then announced the disease now affecting humans. In 2003, the USDA identified a cow in Washington state with Mad Cow Disease, also known as Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE). BSE is a debilitating, deadly disease contracted by eating the meat of infected animals. If organs, meat meal or blood from livestock infected with BSE is introduced into the feed of livestock meant for human consumption, the risk for contracting BSE is passed along to the human consumer.

    Regulation

    • The regulating agency for livestock feed in the United States is the Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM), which operates under the auspices of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). CVM is paying close attention to the inclusion of animal byproducts in livestock feed in an attempt to eliminate the risks of BSE and other diseases transmitted from livestock to humans. Europe banned the use of animal byproducts in feed for all animals in 2002, but it is still allowed in some instances in the United States.

    Warning

    • Ways that animal byproducts explicitly restricted from cattle feed can be introduced via other routes are expired pet food that may contain slaughterhouse waste, slaughterhouse waste from pigs and poultry that can legally be fed cattle byproducts, and fat and blood from rendered cattle meat. You can reduce the risks of eating beef fed with animal byproducts by choosing "grass-fed" or "not fed with animal byproducts" meat at your grocery store. Another option is to eat soy or garden burgers.