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Route 1 Box 121

## Southwest City, MO. 64863

Phone 417-762-3001 Ext. 704

Fax 417-762-3568

August 13, 2004

Division of Dockets Management (HFA-305)

Food and Drug Administration

5630 Fishers Lane, Room 1061

Rockville, Maryland 20852

Re: Docket No. 2004N-0264, Federal Measures to Mitigate BSE Risks:

Considerations for Further Action

To Whom It May Concern:

Simmons Foods, Inc., offer the following comments regarding FDA's Docket
No. 2004N-0264, the agency's advance notice of proposed rulemaking
(ANPR) and the invitation to comment on federal measures to mitigate BSE
risks: Considerations for further action.

Simmons Foods, Inc. is one of our nation's top 18 totally integrated
poultry companies in the United States with operations in Arkansas,
Missouri and Oklahoma. Simmons Foods, Inc. is also a major render of
poultry by-products producing poultry protein products from our company
as well as eight other large integrated poultry processing operations.

FDA together with USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) and
Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) have published an
ANPR that requests comments and specific information regarding possible
regulatory measures to mitigate the risk of BSE.

These additional measurers are being contemplated in response to the
report of the International Review Team's report.

The published ANPR requests comments on numerous items relating to the
BSE issue.

One of the items on which comments were requested was regarding
[Mammalian and Avian]{.underline} [Protein:]{.underline}

As reported in the "Feed restrictions" section of the International
Review Team's report:

> "The International Review Team recommends that the current feed ban be
> extended to exclude all mammalian and poultry protein from all
> ruminant feed, and that this ban as well as measurers to prevent cross
> contamination be strongly enforced. This recommendation must be
> enforced through an inspection program including sampling and testing
> of feed."

It is this section of the ANPR that Simmons Foods, Inc. wishes to
comment. The recommendation or possible rule making that would ban all
poultry protein from all ruminant feeds is totally without any
scientific or research data to support such an action. It is for this
reason that Simmons Foods, Inc. requests that all poultry protein,
including poultry by-product meal, feather meal, poultry fat and poultry
blood meal, not be banned from ruminant feed.

If poultry protein were banned from ruminant feed it would exert a
devastating economic loss to Simmons Foods, Inc. and the entire poultry
industry. It would also remove many needed non-ruminant natural sources
of protein for the ruminant feeding industry. If FDA bans the use pf
poultry protein in ruminant diets the perception that action would
convey to the pet food industry and pet owners would also destroy that
major market for poultry protein and fat.

The International Review Team's recommendations were made from a view
point of the extreme BSE problem in the United Kingdom and Europe where
there has been a severe incidence of BSE. The United States has never
had a known case of an animal born in our country being infected with
BSE and nothing has been shown to warrant the banning of poultry protein
in ruminant feed. Our government agencies recognized a potential BSE
problem prior to 1997 and have established adequate criteria to prevent
any need for such a proposed rule.

Simmons Foods, Inc. opposes any restrictions on all avian protein
sources, as scientifically indefensible and strongly recommends that FDA
follow a policy of adhering to sound scientific research when
formulating regulatory policies and make no rules that would ban poultry
protein in ruminant feeds.

Thank you for your consideration and the opportunity to submit our
comments for

the public record.

Sincerely

Gene Woods

President

Protein Division