November 7, 2013
EU releases material to facilitate implementation of PAPs in fish feed
The EU Joint Research Commission is releasing reference material, IRMM-AD482,thus facilitating the implementation of the new Commission regulationwhich re-authorised the use of processed animal proteins (PAPs), derived from non-ruminant farmed animals, in fish feed earlier in 2013.
The new reference material will facilitate the implementation of a testwhich detects the presence of ruminant PAPs in feed material obtained from non-ruminants. This will once more allow the feedingof farmed fish and other aquaculture animals with non-ruminant PAPs. The re-authorisation will improve the overall sustainability of the aquaculture sector, since these PAPs could be a valuable substitute for fishmeal, which is a scarce resource.
Animal by-products are derived from parts of slaughtered animalswhich are, in principle, fit for human
consumption but are not used for
food production of food. If properly sterilised, these products,known processed animal proteins (
PAP), are considered to bea valuable protein source in animal nutrition.
Improperly heated animal by-products, fed to cattle, were identified as the root-cause for mad cow disease. Therefore, in 2001, all animal by-products were banned as
feedingredients in orderto eradicate the mad cow (bovine spongiform encephalopathy, BSE) disease.
The European Commission''s Strategy paper on Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies for 2010-15 emphasised that a partial lifting of the PAP ban to allow their re-introduction for certain animals should be primarily driven by scientific evidence.
In 2009, the JRC''s Institute for Reference Materials and Measurements contributed to the TSE Road map by developing a specific marker for PAPs obtained from diseased animals or specified risk materials (such as bovine brain and spinal cord)whichare prohibited fromthe feed-food chain.This tool makes itpossible to re-authorise PAPs derived from healthy non-ruminant farmed animals (i.e. mainly
pigs and
poultry) to be used in fish feed as of June 2013.
In collaboration with the EU Reference Laboratory for animal proteins in feeding stuffs (EURL-AP), which is hosted by the Walloon Agricultural Research Centre (CRA-W), the JRC contributed to the validation of new diagnostic spectroscopic and DNA-based methods for identifying PAPs coming from different animal species.
The new Regulation includes these validated methods, which are based on the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for the detection of animal constituents in feed. The PCR methods have been designed to target DNA fragments of ruminant origin (e.g. beef-cattle, sheep, and goats), which can be detected even in heavily processed feed samples.
More than a decade ago,the lack of measurement methods hascontributed to thecomplete ban of PAPs. JRC scientists have since developed new quality assurance tools whichhelps tolift the ban.