Subject: US News & World Report article on U.S. Meat Contamination >US NEWS & WORLD REPORT Sept. 1, 1997 > > >The next bad beef scandal? > > >Cattle feed now contains things like manure and dead cats > >BY MICHAEL SATCHELL AND STEPHEN J. HEDGES > >It was about as exciting as things get in quiet Columbus, Neb. Last >week, just a few days after their arrival, a SWAT team of agricultural >inspectors forced the closing of the town's Hudson Foods Co. plant, >declaring that a jumbled record system and questionable procedures made >it difficult, if not impossible, to determine how E. coli bacteria had >tainted the hamburger patties fashioned there. The bad meat, the >inspectors found, came from one of seven slaughterhouses that supplied >Hudson on June 5. Just which one wasn't immediately clear. Hudson >recalled 25 million pounds of its meat, and Agriculture Secretary Dan >Glickman offered assurances that the plant would not open until "far >more stringent safety standards" had been adopted. "All evidence at this >point," he added, "indicates that we have contained the outbreak." > >Glickman's declaration may have been a tad premature. The true extent of >the Hudson hamburger contamination will remain a mystery until >inspectors know exactly which plants supplied the beef. From there, they >will have to investigate further to determine if Hudson's suppliers also >sent bad meat to other food companies. What is indisputable, however, is >that the problems at Hudson represent only one of many threats to the >nation's meat supply. > >Bargain breakfast. Agriculture experts say a slew of new and >questionable methods of fattening cattle are being employed by farmers. >To trim costs, many farmers add a variety of waste substances to their >livestock and poultry feed--and no one is making sure they are doing so >safely. Chicken manure in particular, which costs from $15 to $45 a ton >in comparison with up to $125 a ton for alfalfa, is increasingly used as >feed by cattle farmers despite possible health risks to consumers. In >regions with large poultry operations, such as California, the South, >and the mid-Atlantic, more and more farmers are turning to chicken >manure as a cheaper alternative to grains and hay. > >Lamar Carter is one such cattle farmer. Carter recently purchased 745 >tons of litter scooped from the floors of local chicken houses, stacking >it 12 feet high on his farm near Dardanelle, Ark. After allowing the >protein-rich excrement to heat up for seven to 10 days, Carter mixes it >with smaller amounts of soybean bran, and feeds this fecal slumgullion >to his 800 head of cattle. "My cows are fat as butterballs," Carter >says. "If I didn't have chicken litter, I'd have to sell half my herd. >Other feed's too expensive." > >Health officials are not as enthusiastic. Chicken manure often contains >campylobacter and salmonella bacteria, which can cause disease in >humans, as well as intestinal parasites, veterinary drug residues, and >toxic heavy metals such as arsenic, lead, cadmium, and mercury. These >bacteria and toxins are passed on to the cattle and can be cycled to >humans who eat beef contaminated by feces during slaughter. A scientific >paper scheduled for publication this fall in the journal Preventive >Medicine points to the potential dangers of recycling chicken waste to >cattle. "Feeding manure that has not been properly processed is >supercharging the cattle feces with pathogens likely to cause disease in >consumers," says Dr. Neal Barnard, head of the Washington, D.C.--based >health lobby Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, an author of >the article. > >The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta estimates >there may be as many as 80 million incidences of food-borne illness each >year in the United States, and about 9,000 deaths. Salmonella accounts >for 4 million cases, of which 500 to 1,000 are fatal. Campylobacter, >which causes acute gastroenteritis, afflicts between 4 million and 6 >million people annually, killing about 100. E. coli, the bacteria that >was found in the tainted Hudson Foods beef, causes up to 250 fatalities >and triggers serious illness in up to 20,000 people annually. At least >17 people have fallen ill from eating contaminated Hudson beef. > >Agricultural refuse such as corncobs, rice hulls, fruit and vegetable >peelings, along with grain byproducts from retail production of baked >goods, cereals, and beer, have long been used to fatten cattle. In >addition, some 40 billion pounds a year of slaughterhouse wastes like >blood, bone, and viscera, as well as the remains of millions of >euthanized cats and dogs passed along by veterinarians and animal >shelters, are rendered annually into livestock feed--in the process >turning cattle and hogs, which are natural herbivores, into unwitting >carnivores. > >The kitchen sink. Animal-feed manufacturers and farmers also have begun >using or trying out dehydrated food garbage, fats emptied from >restaurant fryers and grease traps, cement-kiln dust, even newsprint and >cardboard that are derived from plant cellulose. Researchers in addition >have experimented with cattle and hog manure, and human sewage sludge. >New feed additives are being introduced so fast, says Daniel McChesney, >head of animal-feed safety for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, >that the government cannot keep pace with new regulations to cover them. > >No accurate statistics exist on how many farmers feed poultry waste to >their cattle. Roger Hoestenbach, former president of the Association of >American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO), which sets standards for the >animal-feed industry, estimates it occurs to some degree in half to >three quarters of the states. Regulating the safety of the nation's >animal feed is the FDA's responsibility, but the agency only monitors >interstate commerce. Waste products are rarely shipped over long >distances, because transportation costs wipe out the savings from using >cheaper materials. Manure is not used by the large, commercial >livestock-feed manufacturers because they would be required to perform >expensive tests to detect pathogens and toxins. But farmers don't have >to use commercial feed; they are free to feed their animals anything >they choose, and many use poultry litter. > >Distasteful as it may seem, chicken and turkey droppings can be fed >safely if handled properly. This involves correctly stacking the manure >for four to eight weeks while the naturally generated heat raises >temperatures to 160 to 170 degrees Fahrenheit, high enough to destroy >bacteria and toxins. However, farmers rarely--if ever--check the >temperatures of manure piles or test to make sure the waste is pathogen >free, according to interviews with university extension experts, state >and federal agriculture officials, livestock feed-industry regulators, >and beef growers in large poultry producing states. Some farmers say >they feed chicken manure raw to cattle straight from the broiler house, >which virtually ensures problems. Others "go by the smell" to judge when >it is ready. > >Studies of manure-feed safety, argue the authors of the Preventive >Medicine report, have been conducted largely in controlled environments, >not in the casual, unregulated conditions on most farms. Few studies >address public health aspects, and there is an overall dearth of >published information. "Feeding manure may not be aesthetically >pleasing, but it is safe if you process it properly," says the FDA's >McChesney. "If you don't, it's like playing with matches around >gasoline." Rodney Noel, secretary of the AAFCO feed-standards group, >agrees there is a serious regulatory gap. "There should be some decent >production oversight of these types of byproducts," he says, >"particularly when there is a possibility of contamination." > >Mad cows. The contents of animal feed are attracting more attention as a >result of the outbreak of so-called mad cow disease in Great Britain and >concern that similar problems could occur here. More than a dozen >Britons died after eating beef from cattle infected with bovine >spongiform encephalopathy (BSE). The cattle are thought to have >contracted the disease by eating rendered brains and spinal cords of >sheep infected with a condition called scrapie. While scrapie is far >less common in the United States, on August 4 the FDA ordered a halt to >feeding all slaughterhouse wastes to U.S. cattle and sheep as a BSE >safety precaution. Seventy-five percent of the nation's 90 million >cattle had been eating feed containing slaughterhouse byproducts, so the >ban raises the possibility that more farmers and feed manufacturers will >turn to cheap additives like manure and other questionable waste >products. > >The Department of Agriculture recently instituted a high-tech regime of >meat inspections to catch bacteria like E. coli, but those procedures >are still being introduced into packing plants. In addition, the >department is hobbled by old laws, as it was in the Hudson Foods case: >It couldn't legally close the company's Columbus plant once problems >were discovered but could only recommend the company suspend operations. >Hudson complied, but the department's inability to act unilaterally, >Glickman said, was a frustration. "One of the biggest loopholes out >there is the fact that I do not have authority to order a recall of bad >product or bad meat," he said. That may change if the administration >succeeds in pushing through a legislative fix this fall. Consumers, >meanwhile, who generally know little or nothing about what happens to >meat on its way to their table, also have no way to learn if their beef >has been fattened on chicken droppings. And maybe they don't want to >know. > >With Linda Kulman > > > >(C) Copyright U.S. News & World Report, Inc. All rights reserved.