FDA Acts, Too Little Too Late, on 'Mad Deer' Feeding

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As we explain in our book Mad Cow USA, billions of pounds of rendered by-product from slaughterhouse waste are fed to livestock each year in the US. This is the practice that spread 'mad cow disease' in British cattle, a disease that has now spread to humans and is killing a growing number each year. The US has its own versions of mad cow-type diseases including chronic wasting disease (CWD) in deer and elk. CWD has apparently been spread across North America the past decade via the exponential growth of game farms and the feeding of rendered by-product as mineral and protein supplement to grow big antlers on both farmed and wild animals. The US has allowed tens of thousands of road kill deer to be rendered annually and fed back to pigs, pets and poultry (and to cows and deer previous to 1997). Finally the FDA is taking a step to limit this practice, but that step remains too little and too late. The FDA takes its lead from the US livestock industry and is protecting the continued feeding of billions of pounds of rendered by-product each year in the US. Until the US implements the same strict ban on feeding rendered by-products that has been imposed in Europe, the threat remains of CWD and other US mad cow-type diseases spreading to livestock and people. To follow this issue visit MadDeer.org.