How proteins have changed

摘要

In November 2000, just before the opening of that year's EuroTier exhibition in Germany, concerns about the potential for ingredients of animal origin to transfer the cattle disease BSE persuaded the European Union to prohibit their use in feeds forboth ruminants and monogastrics. The immediate question by the time of the show was whether replacing meat-and-bone meal and animal fats in Europe's pig and poultry diets could de done successfully without incurring a significant increase in the total cost of raw materials. By general consent, the manufacture of poultry feeds was likely to be hit hardest by the ban. Figures from France served as an example. Three-quarters of the 400 000 tons of meat-and-bone meal used by French compounders in 1999 (thelast full year before animal products were excluded) went into feeds for poultry, but only 80 000 tons into pig recipes. Poultry had also taken about half of the 270 000 tons of animal fats used, compared with a 30 percent share for pigs.