# Ignoring the obvious



## sadocf1 (Mar 10, 2002)

Infected feed could spread CWD

http://www,org/obvious.html


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## Mad (Jul 13, 2002)

I think you meant 
http://www.maddeer.org/obvious.html from
http://www.maddeer.org/


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## sadocf1 (Mar 10, 2002)

while you are there 
Mad Cows, Mad Deer and Mad Bureaucrats;

http://www.org/madmadmad.html


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## Fierkej (Dec 21, 2001)

http://www.maddeer.org/madmadmad.html


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## sargent (Oct 1, 2001)

the Author makes a good point.

I saw a show on TV about a disease in New Guinea that affected people who cannibalized their dead relatives. It rendered them weak and eventually killed them. Once this practice was outlawed the disease stopped being seen in the population.


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## Pinefarm (Sep 19, 2000)

To make sure we cover our bases, it's obvious that we should ban all deer feeding, so we eliminate any chance of infected feed.


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## Tom Morang (Aug 14, 2001)

Do renderers follow rules?

Concerns raised about compliance

By Mike Irwin
Special to The Capital Times
July 20, 2002

A deer mineral supplement blender and supplier near St. Croix Falls says it has never used ruminant byproducts in its 13 years of formulating minerals.

A spokesman said his firm has found more palatable alternatives. But it also avoids using meat and bone meal from renderers because, despite a ban on the ruminant byproducts, it's "hard to guarantee" that renderers are observing the ban and his firm "doesn't want to take any chances."

This supplier may have done his homework. A U.S Government Accounting Office report dated January 2002 seriously questions both rendering industry compliance and the enforcement by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration of the 1997 ruminant-to-ruminant feeding ban. Though the report focuses on feeding cattle parts to cattle, the ban language itself is more sweeping.

It includes banning the feeding of all ruminants - specifically including deer - any rendered ruminant feeds including meat and bone meal. You simply can't legally feed rendered deer, sheep or cattle parts to deer, for example. And you must label your products containing ruminant parts: Do Not Feed to Ruminants.

The GAO said the compliance of renderers, feed makers and blenders with the ban is inconsistent and that products are frequently not labeled. It criticizes the FDA for sloppy inspection interviews and record-keeping as well. "The (FDA) database is so severely flawed it should not be used to assess compliance" with the 1997 ban, the GAO report says.

But Wisconsin's Eric Nelson, the feed program manager for the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection, gave Wisconsin's renderers a clean bill of health in an interview Friday.

"We regulate the rendering industry products going into the stream and out of the rendering industry facilities. Those facilities are 100 percent in compliance," he said.

Nelson, who has two assistants and a compliance section totaling 15 inspectors around the state, also is the chairman of the Animal Association of America Feed Control Task Force that is spearheading a national effort to provide uniform national preventive programs against mad cow disease and other TSE infections, which include chronic wasting disease.

TSEs are transmissible spongiform encephalopathies, fatal brain diseases caused by microscopic prions.

Even if an infected carcass should find its way to a rendering plant, he said, "the rendering process does deactivate a good portion of infectious material. There is no reason to believe that feed has TSEs in it."

There are five major rendering companies in Wisconsin registered as members of the National Renderers Association. The April 2002 issue of Render, its trade magazine, reports that four of these firms informed their associates in the industry that they produce meat and bone meal. Two of them are located in Green Bay, and one each in Berlin and Kenosha.

Nelson and other state officials say ruminants are no longer being rendered. But with packers and literally scores of local slaughterhouses situated all around the cities where the renderers are located, where do the ruminants' offal and body parts go?

The issue of chronic wasting disease does not appear to have the attention of the industry. A review of the quarterly Render magazine from the mid-1980s through June 2002 yielded not a single reference to CWD.

Published: 6:58 AM 7/20/02


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## sadocf1 (Mar 10, 2002)

The following- Report from Ground Zero would tend to indicate an official attempt has been made to "cover up'' the obvious

http:/www.maddeer.org/http://www.madison.com/captimes/news/local/29332.php

Could one dare to speculate that perhaps Michigans '(and all other states as well) wild and captive deer also had acess to ruminant protein and bone meal before the 1997 ban, and possibly since ?

What hath QDM and Pope and Young accomplished for the wild deer of Wisconsin ?

Our efforts to change Mother Nature quite often backfire, but we keep on trying, dont we ?


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## jamie7117 (Aug 15, 2001)

what hath crooked renderers, feed makers and blenders who failed to comply with the 1997 ruminant-to-ruminant feeding ban unleashed upon the deer of wisconsin?

place blame where it belongs.


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## Beagle (Dec 27, 2001)

"Thirty-five years of scientific study show that epidemics of the fatal brain diseases of the class known as transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) have been largely bred by human behavior and spread by animal behavior. "

"In the 1994-95 fiscal year alone, just under 26,500 road-killed or seized white-tailed deer were picked up statewide by contractors for disposal at rendering facilities, according to 1995 DNR Bureau of Law Enforcement statistics. "

http://www.madison.com/captimes/news/local/29332.php

I reposted the link to Sadocf1's article. It was not obvious how to get there.

At this point playing the blame game back and forth is pointless and fruitless. Let's take a hint from the Japanese. If they find a problem they deal with it. Pointing fingers is just wasted energy.

If the facts of this story are true, it is would be IMHO some very compelling evidence...chilling even! They tested some of the suppliments. But testing supliment for the CWD prion seems like looking for a needle in a haystack. Unless you find the exact infected particle you are not going to detect it. It's not bacteria that will spead or a living being to spread itself. Seems that the prion could be in a bag and you test the bag and might not find it.

I hope this word gets around. I hope MI officials are paying attention. Just as some of us have lobbied against baiting, questioned deer scent, questioned captive herds...seems now suppliments should be on that list, even jump to the front (if the facts in that article are true).

I have never personally used a suppliment. I have baited but will not be any more. I really hope people think twice before they drop that bag of suppiment or mineral block in the woods. Seems to me way too many unknowns to take the risk.

Rob


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## Beagle (Dec 27, 2001)

This goes a little into conspiracy theory and pointing fingers...just food for thought...but how could suppliment feeding bring CWD to Wisconsin? Here is a theroy:

How many herds have been eradicated out West because of CWD? What did they do with all the carcasses? Here is the formula.

==> Crooked renderer looking for cheap raw material. 

Plus

==> Careless worker/beaurocrat looking to get rid of carcasses and save money and effort. 

Equals

CWD infected suppliments. 

How did we end up with illegally created hazardous waste dumps all over the country? Same formula. The mighty dollar has caused many a person to look the other way.

I am sure that tracking in the rendering industry is even worse than with the live animal trade, so there will be no clear path EVER established back to this as the agent for transfer of CWD accross the Mississippi. Just speculation!


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## jamie7117 (Aug 15, 2001)

no use crying over spilled milk. we must concentrate on keeping CWD out of the state and reducing factors contributing to transmission.


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