Strange but true, in South Africa some cattle are still being fed the remains of other cattle
Carolize Jansen
Four years after “mad cow disease” shook the cattle-farming world, the South African government still has no laws in place to prevent the syndrome.
The Ministry of Agriculture promised this week it intends legislation banning the use of animal proteins in feed intended for ruminant animals like cattle – a tacit admission that much of the feed in South Africa contains protein and bonemeal from slaughtered animals.
Despite the food-borne disease scares of the 1990s, herbivores like sheep and cattle on many South African farms and feedlots are likely to be fed the sterilised remains of other cattle and sheep – which is how bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or mad cow disease, was transmitted to cattle in the United Kingdom, France and other countries.
There is scant monitoring here of the sources of animal products in animal feed. Etienne Wolmarans, registrar of animal feed at the Department of Agriculture, is loath to admit a link between animal feed and BSE.
However, the agriculture ministry is aware of the inadequacy of current legislation, according to Gay Khaile, the ministry’s media liaison officer, and the matter has been taken up with the animal feed industry.
“Both parties are in favour of a ban,” says Khaile, “and new legislation will now be published in terms of the Animal Diseases Act.”
It’s uncertain when this Act will come into effect and, until then, the high- risk practice of recycling all carcasses into animal feed looks set to continue.
Attached to many abattoirs are sterilising plants where parts of the carcass not deemed fit for human consumption (except for hair, excrement and rejected or infected parts) are heated to 133C and a pressure of three bar for 20 minutes to kill all pathogenic organisms and pharmaceutical products like antibiotics and vaccines. All sterilising plants are registered with the registrar of animal feed at the Department of Agriculture, an annual procedure that involves various architectural and procedural requirements and inspections.
The Fertilisers, Farm Feeds, Agricultural Remedies and Stock Remedies Act of 1947 specifies the nutritional, fat and moisture requirements for farm feeds of animal origin, including whale and seal meal and poultry manure. The approximately 550 feed manufacturers in South Africa also have to register each year by completing a form describing the nutritional make-up of the product – the protein, fat, moisture, vitamin and mineral content. It is not required to specify from which animals the ingredients were derived, which makes it very difficult to tell whether a particular feed contains mammalian protein and bonemeal.
According to Hansie Bekker of the Animal Feed Manufacturers Association, a gentleman’s agreement exists among the association’s members since the United Kingdom’s BSE outbreak not to use bonemeal in feed, although blood and feather meal are unrestricted. Since compliance is up to the discretion of individual feed manufacturers, it is unknown to what extent animal by-products are rendered into animal feed and to which animals it is fed. However, South Africa is a protein-poor country that imports rendered animal products, and rendered animal products are very cheap; before the ban in the UK, such products cost 20 per ton.
South Africa’s only ostrich rendering plant in Oudtshoorn produces ostrich meal for ostriches, even though it’s known that the birds have developed their own form of BSE. Rendered animal products are also widely used in the production of pet food, since cats and dogs were long thought to be immune to BSE – although BSE cases among dogs in Northern Europe are a new cause for concern.
Can the use of animal products in animal feed be 100% safe in light of the sporadic, alarming outbreaks of disease? According to Dr Gideon Bruckner, director of the Directorate of Veterinary Public Health in the Department of Agriculture, there certainly is a danger if animal by-products are not rendered under controlled circumstances, but if sterilising and rendering plants meet the required standards, he says it is safe.
“The BSE incident has created a greater awareness among agricultural sectors in South Africa and the new Meat Safety Act under discussion aims to bring the current law more in line with worldwide regulation, although it’s unclear whether this will include a ban on mammalian protein in feed.”
Worldwide trends are towards a more conscientious handling of animal matter but some scientists contest the possibility of destroying the prions (the protein that causes BSE) by severe heat and believe that all ruminant animals should follow their natural, strictly vegetarian diet.
Major food retailers that make quality their main marketing tool say they won’t buy meat from animals raised on suspect feed. Woolworths inspects feed lots and handling conditions and requires its suppliers to sign a code of conduct guaranteeing that mainly natural products be used in animal feed as well as approved additives and antibiotics. No animal by-products are allowed in its animal feed, except for fish meal in the case of pork (pigs are not ruminants, and they are omnivorous).
Pick ‘n Pay would prefer meat from animals not fattened in feed lots. Malcolm Baxter, national general manager of its butchery division, is trying to move towards free-ranging animals because “we want to be able to develop a product that has no hormones, no steroids and no systematically used antibiotics, be they so-called natural or otherwise”.
Its “country-reared” meat is supplied by SA Natural Beef, the only red meat company in South Africa with ISO 9002 accreditation – which enables its meat (beef and lamb) to be exported to the European Union. Its animal feed contains neither animal by-products nor antibiotics, growth stimulants or hormones.
Says Peter Dooley, SA Natural Beef managing director: “Although veterinarians assure us that there have been no BSE outbreaks in South Africa, we are just not prepared to take that chance.”