Pet Food Regulations

Your Tax Dollars at Work

The Center for Veterinary Management is a sub-category of the FDA; as the name implies the CVM handles animal issues of the FDA. With the on-going concern of Mad Cow Disease spreading in the US, the CVM thought it important to educate truck drivers (yes, truck drivers). See your tax dollars at work.

Susan Thixton

Published

March 25, 2009

Mad Cow Disease is a serious issue. The deadly disease can spread quickly and can kill humans as well as animals. The FDA/CVM classifies materials at risk of spreading Mad Cow Disease as SRM’s – Specified Risk Materials. Specified Risk Materials are the brain and spinal column of suspect cattle, typically animals over 30 months of age. While it should seem to be common sense NOT to feed cattle bits and pieces of other cattle (after all, they are grazing animals not carnivores), in our world of animal feed containing every bit of garbage that could possibly make a nickel profit, cattle were fed rendered cattle. Science discovered that this could be a method of transferring Mad Cow Disease to other cattle; in turn, Federal Regulations prohibited rendered Specified Risk Materials into the feed of ruminants (cattle, sheep, horses).

Despite Federal regulations prohibiting Specified Risk Materials in ruminant feed, this ‘stuff’ continued to be rendered and placed into other animal feeds (all SRM material is supposed to be prohibited for use in any animal feed in April 2009…supposed to). The Center for Veterinary Management discovered that even a tiny gram of rendered SRM (meat and bone meal) left in a trailer hauling the material, could contaminate the next shipment of animal feed with Mad Cow Disease. Instead of developing a regulation to completely prohibit any handling of SRM, the Center for Veterinary Management decided to make a video to educate truck drivers on how to clean their trailers between shipments.

“The video, titled “Preventing the Spread of BSE,” provides a short, to the point presentation that can be viewed by truck drivers waiting for their trucks to be unloaded at a feed mill. The video describes the situation and explains why truck operators need to properly clean out their trucks when hauling feed material.” The video is available on the FDA website here: http://www.fda.gov/cvm/bseOtherInfo.htm

If you watch the short video, you’ll learn that the CVM encourages truck drivers to sweep their trailers clean in between shipments; sweeping is the recommended method. The video points out that only a tiny gram of contaminated Specified Risk Material, left in the trailer, can contaminate an entire shipment of animal feed; the next load hauled by that driver. The video shows, in the palm of a hand, the tiny portion that could be responsible for spreading Mad Cow Disease to hundreds of new animals and in turn people.

If you’ve ever swept a kitchen floor or patio, you’re fully aware that tiny bits of debris remain no matter how particular you are about sweeping. Pull out the vacuum cleaner and run it over your kitchen floor, you can guess that more than a gram of pet hair or dirt will be missed no matter how thorough you are.

So why would the CVM go to the expense of producing a video instructing truck drivers on how to properly clean their trailers of deadly Mad Cow Disease rendered materials? Have these regulatory veterinarians ever swept a floor in their life? Can’t they understand that a tiny gram of this risk material could easily remain in a trailer and contaminate tons of animal feed and in turn contaminate hundreds of animals and humans? Wouldn’t it have made more sense to just stop rendering this risk material in the first place?

An extremely conservative guess at the production costs for the CVM truck driver educational video is over $100,000.00; taxpayer money to teach truck drivers how to sweep their trailers when in reality sweeping or vacuuming wouldn’t guarantee there is less than a gram of risk material remaining in the trailer. Taxpayer money uselessly spent when this risk garbage should be destroyed on sight (slaughter and livestock facilities) instead of being transported anywhere. If the FDA/CVM is truly serious about the health and welfare of US Consumers and their pets, rendered risk materials would have been prohibited for use in anything years ago.

Thank you FDA/CVM, for spending our tax dollars in such a reckless manner. By the way, animals sick from all other diseases remain acceptable for use in animal feeds by the CVM. ONLY Mad Cow Disease suspect materials, after April 2009, will be prohibited for use in human and animal feeds. Every other disease and diseased animal is welcome to be rendered into pet foods by the FDA and CVM, despite Federal Laws that should prohibit it (that the FDA and CVM ignore).

Wishing you and your pet(s) the best,

Susan Thixton
Pet Food Safety Advocate
Author, Buyer Beware
Co-Author Dinner PAWsible
TruthaboutPetFood.com
PetsumerReport.com

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