Cantwell and Washington Agriculture Leaders Urge FDA to Close Mad-Cow Feed Ban Loopholes

Press Release

Just days from the one year anniversary of the first discovery of mad cow disease in the United States, U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) and Washington agriculture leaders are urging the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to close loopholes in the mad cow feed ban that the agency promised to close last January but has still left open. In a letter to Acting FDA Commissioner Lester Crawford and Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson, Cantwell called on the FDA to impose the new rules that it announced over 10 months ago in order to maintain international confidence in U.S. beef.

"The beef industry and other federal agencies have worked overtime to restore confidence in the world's safest beef supply, but the FDA has failed to act on its promise to close loopholes in the mad cow feed ban," Cantwell said. "After nearly a full year of empty promises, the time has come for the FDA to provide more than lip service. We produce the world's safest beef, but in order to reopen international markets and fully maintain public confidence, we must demonstrate beyond a shadow of doubt that they can continue to rely on the safety of our beef supply. Closing these loopholes is one important step towards accomplishing that goal."

Cantwell said there are three key reasons that the FDA should follow-through on its promise to close the mad-cow loopholes (also see "Loopholes At-A-Glance" below):

1. Reduce the risk of mad-cow disease : Closing these loopholes is an important part of reducing the risk of exposing cattle to the proteins which cause mad cow disease in the first place. As the FDA itself said when it announced the rules on January 26, 2004, the rules "lower even further the risk that cattle will be purposefully or inadvertently fed prohibited protein. It was the feeding of such protein to cattle that was the route of disease transmission that led to the BSE epidemic in United Kingdom cattle in the 1980's and 1990's." In addition, in a July 14 agency publication, the agency stated that "FDA believes the measures previously announced would serve to reduce the already small risk of BSE spread through animal feed." The Mabton cow was proven to have been infected from contaminated feed.

2. Reassure international markets : Following through on the federal government's promise to close the loopholes will help reassure international markets. 55 international markets remain closed or partially closed to Washington state beef. As of September 2004, exports from Washington have fallen by 96% compared to 2003 - a market loss of over $260 million.

3. Maintain consumer confidence : Consumers in the United States should have confidence that the federal government is doing everything possible to maintain our position as the world's safest producer of beef. The FDA promised nearly one year ago to implement these new rules and the time to act has long since passed. Consumer confidence is critical to the health of the beef industry. According to USDA's Food Safety Inspection Service, "Failure to assure consumer confidence in the U.S. beef supply could easily reduce cash receipts to the cattle sector by $5 to $10 billion annually. Net farm income could decline by $3 to $6 billion annually."

The loophole closures were endorsed by an international panel of expert scientists convened by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis at the Harvard Center for Public Health, the World Health Organizations, and organizations such as the Food Marketing Institute, the National Restaurant Association, and the Consumers Union.

"The FDA shouldn't waste any more time enacting these long-promised rules," said Valoria Loveland, director of the Washington State Department of Agriculture. "We've come such a long way in the last year toward improving our food safety procedures. It just doesn't make sense to leave an important detail like this unresolved."

On January 26, 2004, then FDA Commissioner Mark McClellan and HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson told reporters that the FDA would issue an interim final rule closing the loopholes. However, despite its promises, the FDA took no action.

In April, Senator Cantwell challenged the FDA to keep its promise and close the loopholes. At the time, the Seattle Times editorial page opined that "the agency's foot-dragging at putting the rules into effect is not helping the difficult task of restoring the confidence of about 50 foreign countries that banned U.S. beef after the infected Mabton Holstein was discovered in December."

As of December 14, 2004, the FDA still has not closed the loopholes. In fact, in July, the FDA publicly changed its tune - albeit buried deep in an Advanced Notice of Public Rulemaking. "FDA decided not to issue an interim final rule with the changes to the feed ban described in the January 26 announcement."

In addition to urging FDA to enact its rules, Senator Cantwell has introduced legislation in the Senate (S.2051, The Animal Feed Protection Act) that would close the loopholes.

"Loopholes At-A-Glance"

In January, the FDA announced that it would issue an interim rule that was " designed to lower even further the risk that cattle will be purposefully or inadvertently fed prohibited protein. It was the feeding of such protein to cattle that was the route of disease transmission that led to the BSE epidemic in United Kingdom cattle in the 1980's and 1990's."

Of course, the interim rule was never imposed. Nonetheless, in the FDA's words:

1. "This interim final rule will implement four specific changes in FDA's present animal feed rule. First, the rule will eliminate the present exemption in the feed rule that allows mammalian blood and blood products to be fed to other ruminants as a protein source. Recent scientific evidence suggests that blood can carry some infectivity for BSE."

2. "Second, the rule will also ban the use of "poultry litter" as a feed ingredient for ruminant animals. Poultry litter consists of bedding, spilled feed, feathers, and fecal matter that are collected from living quarters where poultry is raised. This material is then used in cattle feed in some areas of the country where cattle and large poultry raising operations are located near each other. Poultry feed may legally contain protein that is prohibited in ruminant feed, such as bovine meat and bone meal. The concern is that spillage of poultry feed in the chicken house occurs and that poultry feed (which may contain protein prohibited in ruminant feed) is then collected as part of the "poultry litter" and added to ruminant feed."

3. "Third, the rule will ban the use of "plate waste" as a feed ingredient for ruminants. Plate waste consists of uneaten meat and other meat scraps that are currently collected from some large restaurant operations and rendered into meat and bone meal for animal feed. The use of "plate waste" confounds FDA's ability to analyze ruminant feeds for the presence of prohibited proteins, compromising the Agency's ability to fully enforce the animal feed rule."

4. "Fourth, the rule will further minimize the possibility of cross-contamination of ruminant and non-ruminant animal feed by requiring equipment, facilities or production lines to be dedicated to non-ruminant animal feeds if they use protein that is prohibited in ruminant feed. Currently, some equipment, facilities and production lines process or handle prohibited and non-prohibited materials and make both ruminant and non-ruminant feed -- a practice which could lead to cross-contamination."

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