|
 FDA
Ban on Poultry Litter Feed Challenging but Not Catastrophic, Expert
Says
Auburn, Jan. 28, 2004
--- While
the Food and Drug Administration’s proposed ban on the feeding of
poultry litter to cattle will mean an added inconvenience for many
Alabama cattle producers, it will not present serious problems,
according to one expert.
On Jan. 26, Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson
announced several new public health measures to strengthen safeguards
to protect consumers from the agent thought to cause bovine spongiform
encephalopathy, so-called mad cow disease. This includes a
prohibition on using poultry litter as a cattle feed.
Despite the hardship this will cause some cattle producers, there is
some good news. Only about 5 percent of the poultry litter generated
by thousands of poultry houses throughout the state is used for cattle
feed. Virtually all the rest is disposed of through land application,
according to Ted Tyson, an Alabama Cooperative Extension System
biosystems engineer and Auburn University professor of biosystems
engineering.
Only a small percentage of cattle are fed litter.
Tyson also perceives one other silver lining in the dark cloud. He
predicts many of the dry stack facilities cattle producers built years
ago to feed litter to livestock could be converted into convenient
distribution points for certified waste vendors who provide cattle
produces with the litter. All of the litter used for livestock
feeding will be used for land application, he predicted.
“The biggest problem we’ve had in
Alabama
with poultry litter for the last few years is cost of transportation,”
Tyson said. “Lots of folks in the Black Belt could use it. Lots of
people in the Tennessee Valley could, too. The problem has been
getting it there.”
“The good news is that dry stack facilities out there that no longer
can be used for cattle feeding can be used to store litter. In the
end, it may help resolve some of the transportation problems
encountered in the past,” he said.
While the FDA’s ban on poultry litter was sudden, Tyson said it was
not unexpected.
“We’ve really been expecting this ban for years,” he said. “We always
knew in the back of our heads that it was coming and that we would
have to learn to deal with it.
“Yes, there are a handful of cattle producers who have depended a lot
on poultry litter as a feed supplement, and these will be hurt the
worst. But, generally speaking, it’s something that can be handled
and generally will not cause a problem.”
The FDA’s decision to ban poultry litter as a feed source stems from
the fact that poultry are fed ground feed made from slaughtered
cattle. There was concern that some of this uneaten feed would end up
in the poultry litter and be fed back to the cattle. The feeding of
infected cattle tissue to cattle is the presumed cause of the BSE
outbreak in
Europe several years ago.
The litter ban is only one of several measures outlined in the FDA’s
new BSE safeguards. Meat from so-called downer cattle too sick to
walk to slaughter also will be banned from canned soups, pizzas,
dietary supplements and cosmetics. Also, blood from slaughtered
cattle, which research has recently identified as a possible carrier
of the BSE agent and that is fed as an alternative protein source to
calves in lieu of milk, will be prohibited.
[Source:
Ted Tyson, Extension Biosystems
Engineer, (334) 844-3542; Writer:
Jim Langcuster, Extension News and Public Affairs Specialist,
(334) 844-5686.]
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