Who Will Slaughter Cattle Over 30 Months Of Age?
US - The day is fast approaching when some abattoirs may refuse to process older cattle because of the costs associated with separating specified risk materials
16 April 2007
2 minute read
By mid-May, or perhaps earlier, some producers will find that their local abattoirs won’t kill cattle over 30 months of age any longer, warns the Ontario Independent Meat Processors (OIMP).
Specified risk materials (SRMs) from older cattle must be segregated from the rest of the cattle packing industry’s waste stream and, for some abattoirs, the cost will be prohibitive, says Dave Tiller, the OIMP’s technical director.
On July 12, Canada will invoke “enhanced” feed rules for dealing with rendered materials in order to fulfill obligations made to the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE). Meat and bone meal made with SRMs won’t be allowed in pig or poultry rations, nor in fertilizer or pet foods. The July deadline is “immovable,” warns Paul Stiles, assistant general manager of the Ontario Cattlemen’s Association.
The deadline for processors is sooner. Packing plants must begin segregation by May 12. Renderers say it will take two months to get the old rendered material through their systems.
Specified risk materials include the skulls, brains, eyes, tonsils and spinal cords of cattle aged 30 months or older, and part of the small intestines of cattle of all ages. Deadstock will also be directed into the SRM stream as well.
The issue is staring the processing industry squarely in the face. The federal government set aside $8 million last year to deal with the issue, but nothing has been done with the money so far. “There is no infrastructure or logistics existing right now,” says Tiller, and the industry is at the “eleventh hour.”
