In a speech to the International Congress on Meat Science and Technology on August 8th, FDA Commissioner Dr. Lester Crawford indicated that the ban on Specific Risk Materials (SRM) proposed in July, 2004 was still under development. This rule prohibiting the use of SRMs in all animal feeds is an expansion of the current rule banning these materials in ruminant feeds to minimize the spread of the agent (prions) which causes BSE, or Mad Cow Disease, in cattle.
According to Dr. Crawford, this expanded ban is "designed to address continuing questions about the potential for infectious material getting into cattle feed". He indicated that "during an inspection of approximately 4000 firms handling SRMs conducted in June of this year, only 10 were cited for lack of compliance in record keeping or processing and contamination-prevention procedures". Exactly which SRMs would be included in this ban is unclear. During his speech he mentioned the ban "could include for instance, brain and spinal cord of cattle 30 months of age and older". However, the list of potential SRMs includes: (1) Material from non-ambulatory, disabled cattle; (2) Material derived from mechanically separated beef; (3) Material from cattle not inspected and passed for human consumption; (4) Brain, skull, eyes, trigeminal ganglia, spinal chord, vertebral column, and dorsal root ganglia from cattle 30 months of age or older; and, (5) the tonsils and the distal ileum of the small intestine from ALL cattle regardless of age.
There was no discussion in his prepared statement about how this material could be disposed of if not fed to animals. Some estimates indicate that a ban on tissues designated as SRMs would amount to approximately 88.5 pounds per adult cow. That equates to 1.4 billion pounds of material that is currently rendered into approximately 355.8 million pounds of fats and proteins according to an environmental assessment report by FDA-CFSAN in July, 2004.
What does this mean to swine producers? Meat and bone meal (MBM), of which SRMs are a component, make up approximately 5% of swine rations. The average hog will consume approximately 27.5 pounds of MBM during its lifetime. According to an analysis published by Sparks (now Informa Economics) in June, 2001, the swine industry consumes 13% of the MBM produced and a ban on SRMs could cost hog producers as much as $3.22 per head.
Sources: FDA: http://www.fda.gov/oc/speeches/2005/international0808.html and http://www.fda.gov/OHRMS/DOCKETS/98fr/04n-0081-ea00001.pdf