The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced the availability of a draft guidance for industry entitled, “Use of Material from Deer and Elk in Animal Feed.” It is similar to the guidance issued last year. When finalized, the guidance document will describe FDA’s recommendations regarding the use of all material from deer and elk that are positive, or at high risk, for chronic wasting disease (CWD), a neurological disease of farmed and wild deer and elk that belong in the cervidae animal family. The draft guidance recommends that any material from CWD-positive animals, or deer and elk considered to be at high risk for CWD, not be used in any animal feed or feed ingredients. Presently, under FDA’s bovine spongiform encephalopathy feed regulation (21 CFR 589.2000), most material from deer and elk is prohibited for use in feed for ruminant animals. FDA anticipates finalizing the document in late August, prior to the start of the next deer hunting season.
According to the document, the potential risks from CWD to humans or non-cervid animals such as poultry or swine are not well understood. However, because of recent recognition that CWD is spreading rapidly in white-tailed deer and because the disease’s route of transmission is poorly understood, the FDA is making the additional feed ban recommendations.
The FDA Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM) hosted a daylong meeting in May 2003 that included representatives from the National Renderers Association (NRA), federal and state regulatory officials from the FDA, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Department of Interior, Environmental Protection Agency, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, New Mexico, Wisconsin, and Wyoming, along with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. The purpose of the meeting was to review the missteps that were taken in the fall of 2002 regarding CWD.
According to CVM Director Stephen Sundlof, the agency wanted to make the 2003 hunting season smoother. Key issues discussed were rendering, state surveillance programs, and improper disposal. Representing the NRA were Second Vice Chairman Dave Kaluzny II, Immediate Past Chairman Mike Langenhorst, Mark Myers and David Kirstein, both of National By-Products, Inc., Ross Hamilton and Matt Taylor, both of Darling International, Inc., and NRA staff members Tom Cook and Dr. Peter Nersessian.
Copies of the draft guidance document are available on the CVM home page at www.fda.gov/cvm, or from the Dockets Management Branch Web site at www.fda.gov/ohrms/dockets/default.htm.
August 2003 Render