EU lifts ban on animal protein for feeding pigs and poultry

Recently, "Lianhe Zaobao" reported that the EU will lift the ban on animal feed for human consumption next week. Twenty years ago, the European Union banned livestock producers from feeding certain types of livestock with animal meat and bone meal due to food panic caused by "mad cow disease". Consumers and farmers still pay close attention to this issue.
According to Agence France-Presse, in May this year, EU member states voted to amend relevant regulations. Except for Ireland and France, all other member states voted in favor of allowing processed animal protein (PAP) to be used in pig and poultry feed.

According to reports, the new regulations will take effect on September 6, local time.
In 2001, with the full emergence of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), that is, mad cow disease, the European Union banned the use of PAP in the feed of all farmed animals.
The disease spreads widely through farmers feeding cattle with meat and bone meal from dead and infected animals. Then, people died after being infected with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) caused by the variant. It is understood that Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease is spread by eating infected beef.
In 2013, the European Union decided to allow PAP to be used again in fish feed because data showed that scientific opinions showed that the risk of BSE spreading between non-ruminant animals was negligible.
The current PAP ban still applies to ruminants such as cattle, goats, and sheep. Lifting the ban on PAP for feeding pigs and poultry will enable European farmers to use cheap animal protein again.
The head of the French swine industry association FNP said: "70% of our costs are feed costs."

Currently, the ban still applies to ruminants such as cattle, goats and sheep.
However, critics worry that some member states' relaxation of EU standards may open the door to possible cannibalism, for example, pig carcasses will enter pig feed.
Wolfschmidt, Director of International Activities at Foodwatch International, said, “The control by the competent authorities of member states is weak, and the PAP is illegally fed to herbivores, and the risk of being used by'cannibalism' is more dangerous. Come bigger."
Like Ireland, France voted to abstain from voting on regulatory changes in May, and officials seem to be cautious about the new partial lifting of the ban.
Anne Richard of the French National Poultry Breeding Association said, "In order to reassure consumers, there are many regulations that prohibit the use of animal protein powder. This is not unchangeable, but the topic has not been collectively discussed."
The Confederation Paysanne, which opposes industrialized animal farming, believes that reapproving PAP in certain animal feeds will open the door to abuse. Its spokesperson Girod asked, "What can prevent a company that wants to make quick profits from bypassing these regulations? What causes the mad cow disease? It is the pursuit of profit, quantity, and productivity."
But no matter what, the new regulations have already been implemented today.