Cattle Feed

Feces in cattle feed: In some editions of Saturday's Business section, an article about a campaign to ban chicken feces in cattle feed mistakenly omitted the word "banned" in the following sentence: "California allows the practice with one exception: Poultry litter is banned in feed for lactating dairy cows."

The worst drought in decades has destroyed more than half the U.S. corn crop, pushing prices to record levels and squeezing livestock owners as they struggle to feed their herds. To cope, one Kentucky cattle farmer has turned to a child-tested way to fatten his 1,400 cows: candy. "It's so hard to make any money when corn is eight or nine dollars a bushel," said Nick Smith, co-owner of United Livestock Commodities in Mayfield, Ky. The chocolate and other sweet stuff was rejected by retailers.

Borden Inc., the world's largest dairy company, said it pulled its products from the shelves in two Southern states today after finding milk with traces of a toxic substance from contaminated feed. Borden spokeswoman Chris Tilton said it was not known if any of the contaminated products had been purchased, adding, "There should be no ill effects if the products have already been consumed." Borden pulled ice cream, milk, and other liquid dairy products from stores throughout Mississippi and in the northern two-thirds of Louisiana, she said.

Mad cow disease has the power to terrify, but at this point, U.S. consumers have far more to fear from other sources of food poisoning. There have been no human deaths from eating mad-cow-tainted beef in this country. Meanwhile, other food-borne illnesses kill 3,000 Americans a year; close to 400 die from salmonella alone, according to a 2011 report by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. That said, there's still reason for concern about this country's efforts to prevent mad cow - formally known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy - despite federal officials' rosy statements after a California dairy cow was discovered to have the disease.

FRESNO - The first confirmed case of mad cow disease in the U.S. since 2006 surfaced in California's Central Valley on Tuesday, triggering concerns about food safety. But health officials stressed that the diseased animal never entered the human food chain and that U.S. beef and dairy products are safe. The diseased cow "was never presented for slaughter for human consumption, so at no time presented a risk to the food supply or human health," John Clifford, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's chief veterinarian, said in a statement.

Mad cow disease has the power to terrify, but at this point, U.S. consumers have far more to fear from other sources of food poisoning. There have been no human deaths from eating mad-cow-tainted beef in this country. Meanwhile, other food-borne illnesses kill 3,000 Americans a year; close to 400 die from salmonella alone, according to a 2011 report by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. That said, there's still reason for concern about this country's efforts to prevent mad cow - formally known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy - despite federal officials' rosy statements after a California dairy cow was discovered to have the disease.

Federal investigators said Monday that a Washington state Holstein diagnosed with "mad cow" disease was born in Canada in April 1997, months before implementation of a U.S.-Canadian ban on cattle feed containing animal parts. The assessment, based on the records of the Washington state farmer who bought the cow, came as officials announced they were trying to trace 81 other cows that had entered the U.S. from Alberta, Canada, in August 2001 with the Holstein to determine whether any of them also were infected.

The Food and Drug Administration will decide within two weeks whether to ban the use of sheep tissue in cattle feed because of its links to "mad cow disease." Mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, caused public panic when the British government last week said a few cases of a fatal human brain illness might have been caused by eating infected beef.

A fight is brewing over the practice of feeding chicken feces and other poultry farm waste to cattle. A coalition of food and consumer groups that includes Consumers Union and the Center for Science in the Public Interest has asked the Food and Drug Administration to ban the practice. McDonald's Corp., the nation's largest restaurant user of beef, also wants the FDA to prohibit the feeding of so-called poultry litter to cattle. Members of the coalition are threatening to file a lawsuit or to push for federal legislation establishing such a ban if the FDA doesn't act to do so in the coming months.

Responding to concern over the nation's first case of "mad cow" disease, Japan banned the domestic distribution of cattle feed made with recycled cow parts. Imported meat-and-bone meal had previously been banned. The move, which takes effect Thursday, also bars the use of domestic and imported meat-and-bone meal in fertilizers, the Agriculture Ministry said. A cow in central Japan was found last month to have bovine spongiform encephalopathy.

FRESNO - The first confirmed case of mad cow disease in the U.S. since 2006 surfaced in California's Central Valley on Tuesday, triggering concerns about food safety. But health officials stressed that the diseased animal never entered the human food chain and that U.S. beef and dairy products are safe. The diseased cow "was never presented for slaughter for human consumption, so at no time presented a risk to the food supply or human health," John Clifford, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's chief veterinarian, said in a statement.

Feces in cattle feed: In some editions of Saturday's Business section, an article about a campaign to ban chicken feces in cattle feed mistakenly omitted the word "banned" in the following sentence: "California allows the practice with one exception: Poultry litter is banned in feed for lactating dairy cows." Nonprofit's wealthy owners: An article in Monday's Section A about a nonprofit company, Social Vocational Services, run by a Palos Verdes couple included a garbled sentence that should have read, "In 1999, the Dawsons arranged to sell SVS to ResCare Inc., a for-profit company headquartered in Kentucky."

A fight is brewing over the practice of feeding chicken feces and other poultry farm waste to cattle. A coalition of food and consumer groups that includes Consumers Union and the Center for Science in the Public Interest has asked the Food and Drug Administration to ban the practice. McDonald's Corp., the nation's largest restaurant user of beef, also wants the FDA to prohibit the feeding of so-called poultry litter to cattle. Members of the coalition are threatening to file a lawsuit or to push for federal legislation establishing such a ban if the FDA doesn't act to do so in the coming months.

A hardy, pedestrian plant is doing triple duty in California's agricultural heartland. Farmers, water managers and agriculture researchers are watching an experiment using canola plants to absorb the salt from soil and water. The seeds are then crushed to extract oil for blending into environmentally friendly biodiesel. If that were the end of the story, it would be just another case of farmers turning food into fuel.

Federal investigators said Monday that a Washington state Holstein diagnosed with "mad cow" disease was born in Canada in April 1997, months before implementation of a U.S.-Canadian ban on cattle feed containing animal parts. The assessment, based on the records of the Washington state farmer who bought the cow, came as officials announced they were trying to trace 81 other cows that had entered the U.S. from Alberta, Canada, in August 2001 with the Holstein to determine whether any of them also were infected.

Responding to concern over the nation's first case of "mad cow" disease, Japan banned the domestic distribution of cattle feed made with recycled cow parts. Imported meat-and-bone meal had previously been banned. The move, which takes effect Thursday, also bars the use of domestic and imported meat-and-bone meal in fertilizers, the Agriculture Ministry said. A cow in central Japan was found last month to have bovine spongiform encephalopathy.

A hardy, pedestrian plant is doing triple duty in California's agricultural heartland. Farmers, water managers and agriculture researchers are watching an experiment using canola plants to absorb the salt from soil and water. The seeds are then crushed to extract oil for blending into environmentally friendly biodiesel. If that were the end of the story, it would be just another case of farmers turning food into fuel.

The Food and Drug Administration will decide within two weeks whether to ban the use of sheep tissue in cattle feed because of its links to "mad cow disease." Mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, caused public panic when the British government last week said a few cases of a fatal human brain illness might have been caused by eating infected beef.