Do you ever wonder what it means on a package of chicken when it says No Animal By-Products in Feed? What is an animal by-product anyway? In the poultry industry, all parts of the chicken are utilized in some way, including the things we might not normally think about like carcasses, organs and blood. These items are most often sold to companies that manufacture feed ingredients for animals. Often times, low-cost animal by-products for feed can include same species meat, feather, hair, skin, hooves, blood, manure and other animal waste, drugs and chemicals.
Why is what we feed our chickens so important to us? Chickens by nature will eat anything they come across, good or bad. If we are unable to control what our chickens are eating, we don’t know what our customers are eating, and that’s a risk we do not want to take!
At Springer Mountain Farms, we feed our chickens a diet of American-grown, pesticide-free corn and soybean meal plus vitamins and minerals that NEVER include any antibiotics, hormones, steroids or animal by-products, EVER! Our feed is carefully formulated by staff veterinarians and expert nutritionists to provide the optimum amount of nutrients for the health and well-being of our chickens. Lower quality feed ingredients may lead to health issues which could possibly require antibiotic treatment. We take extra steps to create to create a healthy, low stress environment for our chickens so that use of antibiotics aren’t necessary, including providing our chickens with a healthy diet without the use of any animal by-products in their feed, EVER!
Sources:
Safely Distributing Unused Human Food for use as Animal Food: https://www.fda.gov/media/136521/download
FSMA Final Rule for Preventive Controls for Animal Food: https://www.fda.gov/food/food-safety-modernization-act-fsma/fsma-final-rule-preventive-controls-animal-food
National Library of Medicine: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1867957/
Association of American Feed Control Officials: https://talkspetfood.aafco.org/whatisinpetfood#rendered
https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-21/chapter-I/subchapter-E/part-582
https://www.fda.gov/animal-veterinary/animal-food-feeds/product-regulation
https://www.fda.gov/animal-veterinary/animal-health-literacy/safe-animal-feed
