United States Government Publishing Office publisher pbl distributor dst United States Government Accountability Office Resources, Community, and Economic Development Division author aut Government Organization text government publication eng GAOREPORTS Legislative Agency Publications gao legislative 2010-08-12 U.S. Government Printing Office 2000-09-22 monographic deposited born digital 32 p. GA 1.13:RCED-00-255 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-RCED-00-255 P0b002ee180386ee9 f:rc00255 DGPO 2010-08-12 2011-03-28 GAOREPORTS-RCED-00-255 machine generated eng fdlp REPORT GAOREPORTS-RCED-00-255 RCED-00-255 Feed industry Safety regulation Health hazards Safety standards Quality control Product safety Contaminated foods Livestock products FSIS Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point System FDA: Feed Contaminant's Program FDA: Medicated Feeds Program Letter Report RCED Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the risks to human health posed by unsafe feed consumed by food-producing animals, focusing on the: (1) extent to which unsafe feed has been linked to human health problems in the United States; and (2) actions Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Department of Transportation (DOT) are taking to ensure the safety of animal feed.<p/>GAO noted that: (1) in the United States, only a relatively few incidents of human illness have been traced to contaminated animal feed; (2) even when public health officials are able to trace the source of a disease to a food product, such as eggs, they cannot usually determine if the original source of the contamination is the animal feed, the improper handling of the product, or another factor; (3) while livestock or poultry may in some cases be immune to the contaminants themselves, the food product from these animals can cause human illness; (4) with respect to bovine spongiform/encephalopathy (BSE) in the United States, health officials haven not identified any illness in livestock or in humans caused by this disease; (5) however, the Department of Agriculture has several studies underway to test sheep from three Vermont farms suspected of having bovine spongiform encephalopathy BSE; (6) no reported incidents of human illness from chemically contaminated animal feed have been identified in the United States; (7) however, illnesses from this source can take years to develop and would be difficult to link to animal feed; (8) FDA has taken some actions to better ensure the safety of animal feed, but problems such as lack of awareness of FDA's regulation, delays in issuing a new FDA regulation to strengthen controls over the bacterial contamination of feed, and DOT's failure to issue regulations for the safe transport of animal feed could lead to human illnesses; (9) in 1997, FDA issued a regulation to prevent BSE in the United States; (10) to assess compliance with this regulation, FDA and state inspectors have visited over 9,100 firms, such as farms that produce their own feed and rendering plants that process meat scraps for animal feed; (11) inspectors found that, 1,700 firms were not aware of the regulation and thus could produce or use animal feed that was not in compliance; (12) FDA officials also told GAO that the agency is developing a regulation to further strengthen controls over bacterial and other contaminants by, among other things, directing feed manufacturers to determine which hazards pose the greatest risks to the safety of their products and to establish controls to minimize these risks; (13) DOT has not issued regulations to ensure the safe transportation of animal feed, as directed by the Sanitary Food Transportation Act of 1990; and (14) according to DOT officials GAO spoke with, the Department has pursued a number of regulatory, administrative, and legislative initiatives to address the statutory mandate. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-RCED-00-255/html/GAOREPORTS-RCED-00-255.htm https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-RCED-00-255/pdf/GAOREPORTS-RCED-00-255.pdf GAO/RCED-00-255 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-RCED-00-255 Letter Report GAO/RCED-00-255; Food Safety: Controls Can Be Strengthened to Reduce the; Feed industry Safety regulation Health hazards Safety standards Quality control Product safety Contaminated foods Livestock products FSIS Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point System FDA: Feed Contaminant's Program FDA: Medicated Feeds Program