Under proposals currently being investigated by DEFRA (Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs), UK farmers could soon be banned from burying livestock. The agency is currently consulting on the EU Animal By-Products Regulation, which will tighten rules on the processing, use, disposal, trade and import of animal by-products.

More specifically, the Regulation will:

* Ban the routine burial of fallen stock;

* Allow the treatment of animal by-products in approved composting or biogas plants;

* Maintain the existing UK ban on swill feeding;

* Introduce controls on animal carcase incinerators; and

* Require the treatment of previously uncontrolled animal by-products such as blood and feathers.

DEFRA says that as part of the consultation process, it is also currently seeking views on a limited number of additional provisions which are considered necessary to ensure the regulation can be complied with.  These include record keeping requirements and specified sampling frequencies for the microbiological testing of processed products.

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