Hey, Tyson: What's your Beef with the Beef?

   Perhaps you have heard that Tyson Foods Inc. has stopped purchasing cattle that have been fed Zilmax, a feed additive meant to improve carcass quality.  The subsequent flood of news stories peppered with phrases like “beta-agonists,” “growth promotants,” and “animal welfare” can understandably raise questions from the public.  What are beta-agonists?  Are they safe for animals to consume?  If fed to an animal, is the meat safe for me to eat?  A very comprehensive article published by the American Society of Animal Science’s Taking Stock newsletter explains beta-agonists well.  The entire article can be found at http://takingstock.asas.org/?p=9145.  Here’s a brief summary of this article’s explanation of beta-agonists and what they do:

·         As animals mature, lean muscle is more difficult to produce than fat.  At the finishing stage (the time period before slaughter), beta-agonists encourage the formation of muscle mass rather than fat.  This means more lean meat (about 30 pounds per head of beef) will be available for the consumer.

·         Beta-agonists used for livestock are called ractopamine and zilpaterol hydrochloride; both are approved by the FDA Center for Veterinary Medicine.  While ractopamine can be used for swine and cattle, zilpaterol hydrochloride is only fed to cattle.  Its trade name, as sold by Merck & Co., is Zilmax.

·         Meat from beef cattle fed Zilmax is safe to eat.  Beta-agonists break down quickly before animals are slaughtered, and no human illnesses or ailments have ever been tied to the consumption of meat from Zilmax-fed cattle.

·         Tyson Foods Inc. has cited joint problems for its concern over cattle fed Zilmax with the logic that additional weight gained due to Zilmax would add pressure to joints.  However, no direct connection between Zilmax consumption and the loss of joint integrity has been found (McCurry-Schmidt, 2013).

   So there we are.  Zilmax is FDA-approved, increases the amount of lean muscle on a carcass and does not harm consumer health.  Of course, since the health of animals is a top priority for farmers and processors, the appearance of cattle with obvious joint problems has raised concerns.  According to a recent article in The Wall Street Journal, Merck & Co. will temporarily suspend sales of Zilmax and conduct studies on how the additive affects the health of cattle (Newman & Gee, 2013).  Research into this issue will hopefully reconfirm Zilmax’s safety, identify how it may affect cattle negatively, or reveal a different cause for joint problems.

   Of course, while all cases of endangered animal welfare are important, taking a “guilty until proven innocent” approach can trigger resentment from producers.  Cattle farmers all over the world have accepted the use of Zilmax for the last twenty years, the FDA has approved it in the U.S. since 2007, and documented research has supported its use for over 30 years (Rich, 2013).  Why, then, is the blame for beef cattle walking stiffly being thrown on Zilmax?  The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association CEO Forrest Roberts commented recently that specific additives “can be used responsibly when managed properly,” (Coffeen, 2013).  Providing cattle with the necessities to develop strong skeletons and feeding promotants for only a short time are parts of proper management; overuse of a muscle developer on an animal with a weak skeleton can understandably cause problems. 

   The world’s population is growing and, of course, needs to be fed.  Beef and pork are choice sources of nutrients are being demanded more and more by a growing middle class.  Being able to increase the yield-to-feed ratio for livestock will benefit producers, consumers, and animals as long as the means to do this are safe for all concerned.  To understand how much impact Zilmax or other additives can have on the beef supply, consider this quote from Richard Raymond, a former Undersecretary for Food Safety, USDA:

“If only half of the 24 million head of cattle harvested annually, a conservative estimate to be sure, yielded an additional 30 pounds of meat, this would provide 360 million more pounds of lean beef during a time when drought and high grain prices are forcing a reduction in the size of the American cattle herd. That would equate to 1.4 billion additional quarter pounders to help feed the world’s children, too many of whom go to bed hungry every night,” (Raymond, 2013).

References

Coffeen, Peggy.  (2013).  Tyson no longer taking cattle fed Zilmax.  Retrieved from http://www.agriview.com/news/livestock/tyson-no-longer-taking-cattle-fed-zilmax/article_130e0790-6166-5da2-bc5c-a7888abeee49.html.

McMurry-Schmidt, M. (2013, August 16).  What are beta agonists?  Taking Stock.  Retrieved from http://takingstock.asas.org/?p=9145.

Newman, J. & Gee, K.  (2013, August 18).  What’s ailing America’s cattle?  The Wall Street Journal.  Retrieved from http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323423804579020953889322782.html.

Raymond, R. (2013).  Having agony over the agonists?  Perspective from a former USDA Food Safety official.  Retrieved from http://factsaboutbeef.com/2013/08/02/having-agony-over-the-agonists-perspective-from-a-former-usda-food-safety-official/.

Rich, D. (2013, August 19).  Tyson to ban cattle fed with Zilmax.  High Plains/Midwest Ag Journal.  Retrieved from http://www.hpj.com/archives/2013/aug13/aug19/0813ZilmaxbanDRdbsr.cfm.