abstract:The term Feed ban is usually a reference to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulations that since 1997 have prohibited the feeding of most mammalian-derived proteins to cattle as a method of preventing the spread of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE). Feeding of infected ruminant material back to ruminants is believed to be the most likely means of transmission of the disease.
The EU has recently imposed an universal testing scheme on animals older than 30 months destined for the food chain as well as a six-month ban on meat-based livestock feed.
In a move with implications for the sale of T-bone steaks, he said he would make a proposal in the coming weeks, sticking "as closely as possible" to scientific advice that the vertebral column should be removed in countries where it could be shown that a ban on meat-based animal feed was not strictly enforced.