We Feed Cows Chicken Poop
By Brad Jacobson
Anyone who pays even scant attention to where our food comes from is likely aware that some pretty unsavory things happen between the farm and your fork (see this months big story in Rolling Stone, for example). But some of these farming methods are more than just unappetizing: they could be deadly. One practice in particular could allow for the spread of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE, the gruesome and fatal neurodegenerative disorder more commonly known as mad cow disease.
The practice in question is feeding whats known as "poultry litter" to farmed cattle. Poultry litter is the agriculture industrys term for the detritus that gets scooped off the floors of chicken cages and broiler houses. Its mainly a combination of feces, feathers, and uneaten chicken feed, but in addition, a typical sample of poultry litter might also contain antibiotics, heavy metals, disease-causing bacteria, and even bits of dead rodents, according to Consumers Union (the policy and action arm of the nonprofit that publishes Consumer Reports).
Aside from the fact that were feeding our cows chicken crap, this practice is worrisome because both the excrement and uneaten pellets of chicken chow found in poultry litter can contain beef protein, including ground-up meat and bone meal. Which meansif you can follow the gruesome flow chart herethat cows could be, indirectly, eating each other.
As the US Department of Agriculture has made quite clear, cows really, really shouldnt be doing that. Meat and bone meal containing infected bovine protein, the USDA says, is the chief culprit behind the spread of mad cow disease. (The closely related illness in humans is called variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.)
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http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2013/12/we-feed-cows-chicken-poop