Dear List,
I am forwarding this from the intestinal health list.
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Resent-Date: Thu, 22 Jan 1998 23:32:04 -0700
Date: Fri, 23 Jan 1998 01:21:16 -0500 (EST)
Mail-For: <[log in to unmask]>
Are humans endangered if cattle dine on chicken manure? August 23, 1997
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U.S. News & World Report Web posted at: 1:52 p.m. EDT (1752 GMT)
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- As federal food safety inspectors search for the
source of E. coli bacteria that contaminated ground beef from a Nebraska
processing plant, a serious new threat to the U.S. beef supply is being
overlooked, according to an upcoming article in U.S. News and World
Report.
Increasingly, American cattle farmers feed their herds chicken manure,
which health officials warn could contain dangerous bacteria that ends
up in ground meat eaten by humans, the magazine reports in its September 1
issue. The waste that is mixed with livestock feed is a less expensive
alternative to using grains and hay.
The practice is increasingly being used by cattle farmers in regions
where there are large poultry operations-and thus a ready supply of cheap
manure-such as California, the South and the mid-Atlantic states.
The U.S. News article cites as an example Dardanelle, Arkansas, farmer
Lamar Carter, who recently bought 745 tons of manure from local chicken
houses to feed his 800 head of cattle.
"My cows are as fat as butterballs," Carter said. "If I didn't have
chicken litter, I'd have to sell half my herd. Other feed's too expensive."
Heating manure to 160 degrees kills bacteria Chicken manure often contains
campylobacteria and salmonella bacteria, which can make humans sick.
Intestinal parasites, veterinary drug residues and heavy toxic metals such as
arsenic, lead, cadmium and mercury are also often present in the waste, the
article says. The article points to a scientific study, soon to be published
in the
journal Preventive Medicine, that warns about the potential dangers of
recycling chicken waste by feeding it to cattle. "Feeding manure that has not
been properly processed is supercharging the cattle feces with pathogens
likely to cause disease in consumers," Dr. Neal Barnard, author of the study,
warns in the U.S. News article. While it may sound distasteful, this can be
safe if the manure is heated to 160 degrees to kill the bacteria. But, the
study says many farmers don't take that precaution. There are no accurate
statistics on how common the practice of feeding chicken manure to cattle
is, the magazine report says, but with a recent ban on the use of
slaughterhouse byproducts-imposed because of the "mad cow" disease
scare-there is a shortage of cattle feed filler.
Until the ban, about 75 percent of the 90 million cattle in the United States
were fed slaughterhouse wastes that included blood, bones and viscera.
Millions of euthanized cats and dogs, collected from veterinarians and animal
shelters, have long been rendered into livestock feed each year, the article
says.
http://www.cnn.com/US/9708/23/chicken.manure/index.html
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Kind Regards,
Sheila Shea
Tucson AZ------------------
Interested in Intestinal Health and Colon Hydrotherapy issues.
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