If it’s true that you are what you eat, the beef most Americans eat includes chicken feathers, urine, feces, wood chips and chicken saliva, among other foods.
As epidemiologists struggle to figure out how Dairy cows across the Midwest become infected with a strain of highly pathogenic avian flu — a disease that has decimated millions of wild and domesticated birds, as well as thousands of mammals across the planet — they are considering a standard “recycling” practice employed by thousands of farmers across the country: donating food for human consumption. Raised animal waste and parts of livestock.
Michael Hansen, a senior scientist at Consumers Union, said, “It sounds disgusting, but it is a perfectly legal and common practice for chicken litter – the material that accumulates on the floors of chicken-growing facilities – to be fed to cattle. Is fed.”
It is still unclear how the cows became infected – whether through contact with birds, or through feed made from litter waste – but litter has been linked to previous outbreaks of the disease, including botulism,
Cases of bovine bird flu caused by poultry litter are considered “very unlikely, though not impossible,” wrote Veronica Pfaffel in a joint statement from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration.
Poultry litter includes manure, feathers, fallen feed and bedding materials that accumulate on the floors of buildings that house chickens and turkeys. It can contain disease-causing bacteria, viruses (including H5N1), antibiotics, toxic heavy metals, pesticides, and even foreign objects like dead rodents, birds, rocks, nails, and glass.
It is usually mixed with hay or corn to make it palatable to animals.
California has banned the feeding of poultry litter to lactating dairy cows. However, it is legal to sell it as feed for beef and other cattle.
“This is a premium product that is used to help recycle waste into a sustainable product,” said Anja Raudabaugh, CEO of Western United Dairies. She said that although she could not make informed comment about its use outside the state, “its use in California is very low.”
California’s animal feed law – which applies to commercially sold feed – requires that animal waste products sold for feed contain no residues of pathogens, metals, pesticides or antibiotics.
The Department of Food and Agriculture’s FEED program “inspects every California facility that manufactures dry poultry litter and reviews the firms’ treatment verification records,” said department spokesman Steve Lyle.
However, it is unclear whether there are regulations addressing the private exchange or production of poultry litter or other animal waste for feed. Or how widespread the practice of feeding poultry waste to cattle is across the state or country.
“This was a common practice across America for many years,” Lyle said. “It’s not a very common thing in California anymore.”
Under California law, milk-producing dairy cows cannot be fed chicken litter.
(Luis Cinco/Los Angeles Times)
According to Michael Payne, a researcher and outreach coordinator for the Western Institute of Food Safety and Security at UC Davis, there was at least one commercial processor of poultry litter in the state — Imperial Western Products, based in Coachella. That company was purchased in 2022 by Denali Water Solutions of Arkansas – which has recently had a legal dispute with environmental officials. missouri And alabama On the management of animal waste. It is unclear whether Imperial still produces fodder from the litter. An operator at the company directed the call to “corporate” or Denali Water Solutions, which is owned by TPG Growth, a private equity firm. Denali did not provide comments for this story prior to publication.
The federal government does not regulate poultry litter in animal feed, and many states – including missouri, alabama And arkansas – There are no requirements or regulations regarding contamination or processing.
“FDA may take regulatory action if it learns of food safety concerns with poultry litter products intended for use in animal feed in interstate commerce,” Pfaffley said in statements from both USDA and FDA.
One Online guide from the University of Missouri Note that “There are no federal or Missouri regulations governing the use of poultry litter as feed.” However, the guide’s author urges users to use “common sense”.
“Poultry litter should not be fed to dairy cattle or beef cattle less than 21 days before slaughter,” the guide says, citing concerns about “residues of certain pharmaceuticals.”
Most other developed countries, including Canada, the United Kingdom, and European Union countries, have banned the practice. The FDA considered doing so in the US in the mid-2000s.
For livestock farmers, the waste – which contains calcium, zinc and other minerals and vitamins – provides an inexpensive form of protein feed. For poultry farmers, the exchange allows them to divert waste away from landfill or incineration.
In the 1980s, concerns about bovine spongiform encephalopathy – or mad cow disease – took hold across Europe, when cases of the incurable and always fatal neurodegenerative disease of cattle began to be reported. The disease, caused by agents called prions, can spread to people who eat meat from infected cattle. In people, the disease is fatal and is called Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.
Just as cattle are fed poultry waste, chickens are often provided feed that includes cattle waste and renderings – creating a potential route for prions to re-enter the food supply. However, because the FDA has ordered the removal of all tissues shown to carry prions – such as the brain and spinal cord – from poultry diets, the risk has been reduced.
However, other more common pathogens are also found in poultry litter. In a 2019 study of litter Used as fertilizer in farm fields, researchers found that every sample tested from American broiler chickens carried e coli Strains resistant to more than seven antibiotics – including amoxicillin, ceftiofur, tetracycline and sulfonamides.
It is not clear whether the litter was heat treated before planting.
Raudabaugh said all poultry litter feed in California is heated in a furnace and exposed to temperatures that can kill bacteria. e coliand viruses including H5N1.
“Companies are routinely sampling and analyzing finished product for salmonella,” said Lyle, the state Food and Agriculture spokesman.
He said poultry is regularly tested for bird flu and poultry waste from flocks infected with bird flu “cannot leave the premises until it meets CDFA requirements to eliminate the virus.” ,” They said. “The premises are also tested and quarantine is not released until the premises test negative for highly pathogenic avian influenza.”
Lyle said herds of cattle that are “symptomatic” with bird flu infection “can be tested at the California Animal Health and Food Safety Laboratory in consultation with the CDFA Animal Health Branch.”
He said no symptomatic herds have been identified, “although one herd that lost pregnancies was tested and was negative for the virus”.
