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"The Food and Drug Administration
(FDA) has learned from the government of Canada that rendered material
from a Canadian cow that last week tested positive for bovine spongiform
encephalopathy (BSE, also known as “mad cow disease”) may
have been used to manufacture pet food, specifically dry dog food, some
of which was reported to have been shipped to the United States. The
Canadian government prevented the BSE positive cow from being processed
for human food. Therefore, consumers can be assured that their food
does not contain any remnants of the BSE positive cow.
It is also important to stress that there is no scientific evidence
to date that dogs can contract BSE or any similar disease. In addition
there is no evidence that dogs can transmit the disease to humans..."
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Q: What is BSE?
A: BSE is a degenerative neurological disease caused by an aberrant
protein called a prion. It is in the family of diseases--all caused
by prions--referred to as transmissible spongiform encephalophathies,
or TSEs. TSEs include scrapie in sheep and goats, chronic wasting disease
(CWD) in deer and elk, and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, or CJD, in humans.
It is important to note that TSEs are not communicable diseases--they
do not spread easily like viruses.
Q: What are the risks to the U.S. food supply as a result of
this detection?
A: Despite this finding, USDA remains confident in the safety
of the U.S. food supply. The risk to human health from BSE is extremely
low. As is standard practice for downer animals identified prior to
slaughter, the animal's brain, spinal cord, and other related products
were removed and sent to a rendering facility. These so-called “specified
risk materials” present the greatest risk of carrying the BSE agent
and have not entered U.S. food supply channels. The scientific community
believes that there is no evidence to demonstrate that muscle cuts or
whole muscle meats that come from animals infected with BSE are at risk
of harboring the causative agent of the disease.
Q: How does BSE affect humans?
A: A fatal TSE affecting humans, variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease
(vCJD), is believed to be caused by eating neural tissue, such as brain
and spinal cord, from BSE-affected cattle. For this reason, USDA requires
that all nervous system materials be removed from downer cattle identified
at U.S. slaughter facilities. These specified risk materials are removed,
sent to rendering facilities, and do not enter U.S. food supply channels.
We believe this practice effectively safeguards U.S. public health from
vCJD.
Having said that, it is important to clarify the differences between
variant CJD and another form of the disease, referred to as classic
CJD. Classic CJD occurs each year at a rate of 1 to 2 cases per 1 million
people throughout the world, including in the United States and other
countries where BSE has never occurred. It is not linked to the consumption
of neural tissue from BSE-affected cattle—both vegetarians and
meat eaters have died from classic CJD.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC),
no cases of variant CJD have been identified in the United States, the
form of the disease linked to eating neural tissue from BSE-affected
cattle.
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AFS does NOT use, nor has it used, any of the specified risk materials
in product manufacturing or otherwise. Raw materials used in manufacturing
AFS products include select organ meats, beef muscle meat and ground
bone. The raw materials used are obtained from a USDA certified "meat
packing plant" located within the same business complex (definitely
not from any "rendering" facility).
The difference is more than significant, as at risk materials along
with other low end animal parts, must get discarded. But if AFS does
not use them in manufacturing, where do all those low end and at risk
materials go? For many, many years and still in practice today, the
discarded materials habeen consistently sent to "rendering"
facilities, where they are cooked at high temperatures and used in the
making of a popular product called "Meat and Bone Meal." This
end product has been used extensively in the commercial pet food industry!
What does this mean? It means that the at risk materials, along with
other animal parts designated as waste material thoughout the meat processing
industry have would up in the cheap to very expensive dry dog &
cat food (kibble) as "meat and bone meal," as we are reminded
in the above statement from the FDA. (On the light side, there has been
no reported evidence of a dog contracting BSE.)
Note: USDA regulations require any animal showing evidence of
disease (including disorientation/stumbling) must be immediately tested,
and found to be free of any communicable disease in order for the packing
plant to maintain its USDA Certification and licensing.
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