SEATTLE, Feb. 20 (UPI) -- Fifteen companies in Washington state have been cited for failing to comply with a rule the government considers the best defense against mad cow disease.
Most of the Washington companies flagged by the FDA for non-compliance failed to label properly products such as repackaged pet food, hog feed, or poultry feed with the required warning, "Do not feed to cattle or other ruminants," the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported Friday.
Several Washington companies failed to document written procedures on how to clean out equipment, a process designed to avoid cross-contamination when companies handle both banned and non-banned material, records show.
Scientists believe cows contract mad cow disease by eating feed that contains infected bone and meat material from other cows. So monitoring cow feed is the government's main protection against the spread of the disease.
Although a 1997 rule ended the practice of feeding meat and bone meal from cows, goats and other ruminants to those same animals, contamination is a concern because such material can still be used in chicken and hog feeds.
