"Most Livestock Producers Don't Oppose 'No Downer' Policy"

Food Chemical News (October 19, 1998)

"Ban on downed cattle not opposed by most livestock producers, says researcher"

A scientific national opinion survey shows that most livestock producers consider the transport of downed animals to be a problem for their industry and would not oppose legislation banning the marketing of downed animals, according to Ted Friend of Texas A&M University's Department of Animal Science.

Banning the slaughter of downed animals for human food would greatly reduce the number of downers entering the marketing channels; it would also provide increased incentive to improve care and handling during the transport of livestock to slaughter plants to minimize the possibility of cattle becoming downers, Friend told FDA in an Aug. 31 letter. Results of the study that are applicable to the downer issue were presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Society of Animal Science, Friend noted, adding that some of the findings are directly applicable to a March 4 citizen's petition. The petition was filed by the Farm Sanctuary, a nonprofit organization, and Michael Baur, a consumer concerned about the safety of beef produced in the U.S. It requested that FDA and USDA immediately promulgate legislation that will ban all downed cattle from the U.S. food supply to protect consumers from the potential spread of bovine spongiform encephalopathy. Data from the survey - which involved opinions from 715 adults carefully selected from each of four groups, including livestock producers, agricultural extension agents, animal activists and the general public - are considered to be highly reliable, Friend said. The percentage of livestock producers who wold support legislation making the transport of downer livestock to livestock markets illegal was 51%, he noted. Twenty-six percent said they would oppose such legislation and 23% were neutral, he said. "The high support among livestock producers is especially interesting because they are the interest group that would be subject to regulation and lose potential income. Historically, livestock producers have taken a strong position against any type of regulation. Their support for banning downers comes from a belief that marketing downed livestock is wrong because of the pain suffered by the animal, possible drug residue problems, and also because of the very ban impact the marketing of downed animals has on the image of animal agriculture," Friend wrote.The National Pork Producers Council's position on swine handling is that 'any swine that are unable to walk or that are ill and will not recover should be humanely euthanized on the farm and not transported to market channels," he noted. Friend said the drug residue issue is of particular concern t ranchers and dairy farmers because "when an animal 'goes down', she (usually cows) is often kept on the farm for a while to see if she recovers. During that time, farmers and (or) veterinarians will try a range of therapy to assist the cow. Once it is decided that a cow will not recover and if she is not euthanized on the farm, she may be immediately taken to market so that some salvage value can be obtained. In reality, the salvage value obtained from downed animals is so small that it may not even cover the costs of taking the animal to market. Observation of drug withdrawal times in this situation is problematic."