Renderers and feed producers face BSE Inquiry

27 April 1998

Renderers and feed producers face BSE Inquiry

By FWi staff

FEED producers and renderers come under the spotlight at the BSE Inquiry this week. The inquiry plans to question 27 witnesses and civil servants about feeding practices and rendering methods.

Animal remains and bonemeal were fed to cattle before anti-BSE measures were introduced in 1988. It is widely thought that their use as animal feed enabled the disease to spread rapidly throughout the UK cattle population.

The feed producers are expected to acknowledge that feeding animal by-products to other animals was common practice. But the renderers are expected to reject allegations that a relaxation of the law meant bonemeal was not properly decontaminated.