Meat in poultry feed

[saysfaa]

I'm looking for regulations in the US about meat in poultry feeds. Either state or federal. I assumed it was not allowed but in a short search, I'm finding regulations that ban meat limit the ban to only ruminants. I hoped someone might have a reference handy.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Meat absolutely IS allowed in poultry feeds here in the US, @saysfaa (at least, at the federal level) - as you and I both know, its very difficult to make a nutritionally complete feed without using some animal source - porcine blood meal, chicken by-product meal, fish meal, crab or shrimp meal, insect meals, even (properly processed) feather meals. The use of "meat scraps" has been banned by the FDA - but "meat scraps" is a far more generic, far less "certain" descriptor of contents.

Its probably more accurate to think of it not as the FDA banning "meat scraps", but rather more tightly defining what can and can not be included. Largely, I suspect, for reasons associated with transmission of food born illness.

I've not dug deeply into the Federal Register, but this is a decent place to start in layman's terms, with links to similar resources.

This is the Harvard Law PDF it mentions

And this is the relevant Statute (the 2011 Food Modernization Act)[Summary]

[Full Text]

And the FDA's page on Animal Feed

Hope these help - I need to get to work on the farm today. back this evening.

 

[LizzzyJo]

NOT as entertaining as watching what our little dinosaurs will do to a mother mouse and her babies when she and they are startled away from a feed bag.

Possibly the only time my chickens were uninterested in the hole in the feed bag.

But "frog popping" is a near third. I like "snake stomping" for second. Tastes vary.

mouse massacre lol and gross.

Years after I got chickens I rewatched Jurassic Park and I was like "OMG look how they made their faces and bodies move - they are 100% chickens"

 

[3KillerBs]

I'm looking for regulations in the US about meat in poultry feeds. Either state or federal. I assumed it was not allowed but in a short search, I'm finding regulations that ban meat limit the ban to only ruminants. I hoped someone might have a reference handy.

I know nothing about the regulations, but every time I see the label on a certain popular brand of higher-priced grocery store eggs where it says "fed an all-natural vegetarian diet" I think "There is nothing natural about a vegetarian chicken."

 

[Kiki]

I'm looking for regulations in the US about meat in poultry feeds. Either state or federal. I assumed it was not allowed but in a short search, I'm finding regulations that ban meat limit the ban to only ruminants. I hoped someone might have a reference handy.

Have you read this yet?
https://poultry.extension.org/artic...ry-feeds/meat-and-bone-meal-in-poultry-diets/

 

[Kiki]

This isn't what you're asking for either but it's interesting.
https://www.allaboutfeed.net/home/meat-and-bone-meal-back-on-the-menu-please/

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Chickens are definitely not vegetarians by choice. They are little velociraptors who would choose beef chili over oatmeal every day of the week. A varied diet including animal protein is good for them. Have you ever seen them swallow a frog whole?

NOT as entertaining as watching what our little dinosaurs will do to a mother mouse and her babies when she and they are startled away from a feed bag.

Possibly the only time my chickens were uninterested in the hole in the feed bag.

But "frog popping" is a near third. I like "snake stomping" for second. Tastes vary.

 

[FeatheredFriends&Horses2]

Meat and bone meal, blood meal, feather meal, and fish meal are all very commonly used in non-vegetarian commercial diets in the US. Most of these products are kept to 15% or less of the diet, not for legal reasons, but for the taste and quality of the finished meat or egg. Where some of the confusion of their legality may come from is that beef mbm is not allowed to be fed to beef. Beef cattle may however consume mbm made from the offal of poultry or pork. This is due to the potential for an outbreak of BSE (mad cow) which is a prion disease that may be contracted by beef cattle eating offal from beef plants. Eating the meat of cattle infected with BSE may lead to humans suffering from Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.

 

[LizzzyJo]

Chickens are definitely not vegetarians by choice. They are little velociraptors who would choose beef chili over oatmeal every day of the week. A varied diet including animal protein is good for them. Have you ever seen them swallow a frog whole?

 

[K0k0shka]

I know nothing about the regulations, but every time I see the label on a certain popular brand of higher-priced grocery store eggs where it says "fed an all-natural vegetarian diet" I think "There is nothing natural about a vegetarian chicken."

Vegetarian chickens, grass-fed beef, grain-free dog food, etc. are all marketing tricks aimed at people who don't understand animals but want to feel better about themselves. Feeding a cow grain only is a problem, but the solution isn't to feed it only grass. From one extreme to the other. And yeah chickens aren't vegetarian at all, and dogs aren't true carnivores either.