About the new Dominican abattoir

I was watching a television interview with a Lucilla Lewis (Consultant), reporting on the great idea of the new Dominican abattoir. Ms Lewis was addressing the cost of animal feed and how this affects the overall price of the product to the consumer so, I decided to research the subject online, to see what useful information I could contribute to the conversation.

Here is what I found: so long as food safety management procedures and food hygiene regulations are in place you are good to go. Areas of concern pertain to GM material in animal feed and Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE), commonly known as 'Mad Cows Disease'. BSE 'is most often transmitted to animals through manufactured high-protein feed that contains the brain or spinal cord remnants of infected animals', according to the website "Howstuffworks" (health.howstuffworks.com/wellness/preventative-care/how-to-prevent-viral-infections4.htm). Regarding GM material, the concerns are around pesticides such as, 'GM Round-up ready soya, engineered to be resistant to the herbicide glyphosate and often used for animals feeds', says the "Soil Association" (www.soilassociation.org/gm/gmandanimalfeeds). Of course Dominicans were rearing livestock before the advent of GMOs and BSE so safety procedures should not be too challenging.

That is my contribution to the conversation which I hope is useful to the Dominican public.