Exclusive: Video of 'Lame' Cattle Stirs New Concern Over Growth Drugs

[Hissyspit]

Source: Reuters

Exclusive: Video of 'lame' cattle stirs new concern over growth drugs

By P.J. Huffstutter and Lisa Baertlein

Tue Aug 13, 2013 12:09am EDT

(Reuters) - At a beef industry conference in Denver last week, the animal health auditor for meat producer JBS USA presented a video showing short clips of cows struggling to walk and displaying other signs of distress. The animals appeared to step gingerly, as if on hot metal, and showed signs of lameness, according to four people who saw the video.

The people in attendance said the video was presented by Dr Lily Edwards-Callaway, the head of animal welfare at JBS USA, as part of a panel discussion on the pros and cons of using a class of drugs known as beta-agonists - the additives fed to cattle in the weeks before slaughter to add up to 30 pounds to bodyweight and reduce fat content in the meat.

Edwards-Callaway told the audience the cattle had been fed a beta-agonist, but did not identify which brand. She also said various factors - including heat, transportation, and animal health - may have contributed to the behavior seen on the video, according to JBS spokesman Cameron Bruett. He said the video showed cattle were "reluctant to move," and told Reuters JBS wanted feedback from animal welfare experts, who were among those attending, on what JBS's own staff had been seeing.

Reuters was unable to determine what feedback was received. Edwards-Callaway did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

The video was shown on the same day the nation's largest meat producer, Tyson Foods Inc, declared it would no longer accept cattle that had been fed the most popular brand of the feed additive, called Zilmax, a powerful and fast-selling product from pharmaceutical company Merck & Co. Tyson, in a letter to its cattle suppliers, said the decision resulted not from food-safety questions but its concerns over the behavior of animals that animal health experts said could be connected to the use of Zilmax.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSBRE97C02M20130813

[Jesus Malverde]

1. Welfare focus at JBS

During the Academy of Veterinary Consultants conference last week in Norman, Oklahoma, Lily Edwards-Callaway, PhD, discusses animal-welfare programs at meat packer JBS. Edwards-Callaway studied under Temple Grandin and now oversees the company's welfare practices, conducting continuous audits to educate employees and enforce standards that exceed government and industry standards.

[Indi Guy]

2. This clip appears to be pure propaganda...

If the dialog doesn't give it away, the "Drovers Cattle Network" logo in the lower left of the screen sure does..

[Jesus Malverde]

3. She works for JBS, is mentioned in the op...nt

[Jesus Malverde]

4. Warning propaganda - Beef Booster

Here is the marketing guy for Zilmax, the suspect drug Dr Lily Edwards-Callaway was referring to.

[Berlum]

5. Don't help that they feed cows the GMO mutant glop leftovers from biofuel production

Our steaks and burgers thus come from the meat formed from the mutant waste crud of the biofuels industry.

Hurl worthy...

[Ed Suspicious]

6. The drug must really mess animals up if Tyson will not accept it. It must be painfully obvious how

painful it is.