Chicken litter in livestock feed comes under scrutiny in US

The practice of feeding chicken litter to cows in large-scale feedlots and dairies is banned in the UK and in Canada. Photo: Canva

Concerns about the spread of avian influenza to dairy cows in the US has prompted a US Senator to introduced legislation aimed at eliminating the factory farm practice of adding animal excrement to livestock feed.

US Democrat Senator Cory Booker (New Jersey) recently introduced the No Stools in Herds’ Troughs Act, which specifically targets the practice of feeding chicken litter to cows in large-scale feedlots and dairies.

Practice banned in UK & Canada

The routine factory farming practice is banned in the UK following the Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) epidemic, and in Canada, but is allowed in the US, although the practice has raised public health alarms due to the risk of spreading disease from chickens to cows.

On animal health and welfare grounds, NO SHT Act would:

Prohibit the intentional adding of excrement to animal feed
Prohibit the manufacture or introduction into interstate commerce of animal feed containing excrement.

We must put an end to unsanitary factory farming practices that prioritises profits over public health, including the feeding of poultry litter to cattle. Feeding animal waste to livestock is irresponsible and cruel. A healthy food system cannot contain these types of practices that pose a danger to human and animal health.”

^{US Democrat Senator Cory Brooker (New Jersey)}

Brooker was backed by a range of scientific experts:

Dr Steve Van Winden, associate professor in Population Medicine at the UK’s Royal Veterinary College, said: “In the US, the feeding of poultry litter to beef cows is a known factor in the cause of botulism in cattle and a risk in the case of H5N1.”
Dr Brian Ferguson, associate professor of Immunology at the University of Cambridge, added: “The flu can be spread by fecal-oral routes, and so it is not an impossible scenario that chickens who are infected with H5N1 can shed live virus through faeces, which the cattle then consume. It is a potential mechanism of transmission, although there are other possible explanations for the current outbreak in dairy herds.”
Bill Bullard, CEO of RCALF, said feeding excrement simply had to stop: “It’s a shame the US have to pass laws to forbid what we already know to be wrong and a potential risk to cattle and humans, but apparently we do.”
And Michael Kovach, president of Pennsylvania Farmers Union, added: “The practice of intentionally feeding cattle – even a little – “chicken litter” is awful in the best of times. Given the current outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza, and its well documented ability to cross species to bovines and humans, it is an even more egregious and ill-advised practice.”