After all the hoopla about mad cow disease, is there any legitimate concern for using bone meal as an organic fertilizer? I'd be interested in some input. Thanks.

mimzoo

Good question. And no easy answers.
It turns out that use of cides triggers Mad Cow.
But then again, we all know that inter-reaction of poisons can lead to nasty after effects.

http://www.mercola.com/2000/dec/17/bovine_spongiform_disease.htm

Would I quit using bonemeal? Not unless the product is made in the European Union.

Then again, we all loved pressure treated lumber until, after a 15 years+ campaign against the use of CCA finally brought the EPA to the point of taking a more in-depth look.

Individual judgement call. And proof once again that, what we blindly accept today may prove to be dangerous tomorrow, witness lead in paint.

Hmmmm.

John / Ecologicals

As John mentions BSE may well be caused by an organophosphate use to combat the warble fly. This chemical is required in the UK and several other countries (the ones that get outbreaks) but not in the US. I am one of those that believes the chemical connection

BSE is caused by a prion and scientists know very little about prions and how they work. This means we don't know much about the disease.

If you are really paranoid than find a source for organic bone meal. No organic cattle get this disease. Or use another source for calcium.

Good suggestion. I use a lot of bonemeal for my bulbs & had no idea. Ignorance is bliss, I guess.

I'm like Linda, I use a lot of bonemeal but never thought of the connection. Aren't the bones cooked before they are ground? Would that destroy the organism? Can the organism live in the soil like e-coli or is it strictly animal-borne? Now I have more questions than answers, but that is my usual state of being-

I like to feed my chickens homemade suet in the winter. I try to load it with good, nutritious ingredients, like soybean meal, alfalfa, bone meal, etc. This year I was advised by my feed store that bone meal isn't being sold as "feed" quality right now. I suppose that if it isn't good enough for our critters, we probably don't want to grow our food in it. That's my opinion, and I'm sticking to it.

You may want to note that mad cow is here in N.America.Scrapie,the sheep equivalent as well in farmed elk. As well I have read that some wild animales,deer and the sort have shown post-mortem sings of spongiform encefalitus,or however it is that you spell it correctly.And really it can remain dormant for quite a while in certain species(40 yrs in humans.)I would say that I agree with Ecologicals,as long as you know where it comes from.But then on the other hand I don't think that it would jump from being a animale problemto be coming a pathogen for veggies.But then all strains of flu come from swine and humans living in close proximity in Asia.Now I've gone scared myself,perhaps just veggies for supper to-night.