Alcimed, a consulting company specialised in decision-making support, explained this EU decision.
Following the ‘mad cow disease crisis’, or Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE), the use of animal meal has been banned from the diet of all farm animals (cattle, pigs and poultry) and fish since 2001.
This ban was slightly revised in 2008: fishmeal was permitted once more in feed for pigs, poultry and fish, whilst avoiding cannibalism among the same species.
On 14 February, the European Commission announced that meal from monogastric animals in the form of ‘processed animal protein’ may be reintroduced in the diet of farmed fish and other aquaculture animals. The member states’ experts approved this reauthorisation in July 2012.
The lifting of the ban can be explained by the willingness to offer alternatives to the currently used fishmeal, which is a scarce resource in a context of animal protein shortage.
The European Commission is expected to ratify the use of poultry meal in pig feed and pork meal in poultry feed, as a next step; although this reauthorisation should not occur before 2014.
However, no changes to the laws regarding cattle feeding or preventing animals being fed meal from creatures of their own species (‘cannibalism’ such as poultry meal consumption by poultry for example) are expected, as these exclusions are an overriding principle in Europe.
Source: Alcimed
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