TELL THE FDA TO STOP RISKING ANIMAL HEALTH In January, after the
discovery in the U.S. of a cow infected with BSE (bovine
spongiform encephalopathy or “mad cow” disease), the Food and
Drug Administration (FDA) promised to tighten rules governing
what farmers can feed to cows and other ruminant animals.
Feeding these natural herbivores ground-up body parts containing
infectious prions (the agents associated with BSE) is a key way
the brain-wasting disease is spread. Since 1997, FDA has
prohibited feeding most mammalian protein to ruminants, but the
ban is weakly enforced and riddled with loopholes – allowing
things like blood, used poultry litter (which includes spilled
feed, feathers and feces), and plate waste (uneaten meat and
other scraps from restaurants) to be fed to ruminants. So it was
good news when FDA announced on Jan. 26 that it would no longer
allow these risky practices, effective “immediately upon
publication” of an interim final rule. Unfortunately, FDA never
published this rule. Instead, in Ju