21—76.8 (189A,167) Dead, dying, disabled or diseased animals. Persons shall not engage in the business of buying, selling, transporting in intrastate commerce, dead, dying, disabled or diseased animals, or any parts of the carcasses of any animal, unless they have been licensed for the purpose of disposing of the bodies of dead animals pursuant to Iowa Code section 167.2. All persons so engaged are subject to the provisions of Iowa Code chapter 167 and regulations of 21—Chapter 61, “Dead Animal Disposal,” Iowa Administrative Code.
	 76.8(1) All rendering plants engaged in processing fallen or dead animals into pet food and pet food processing plants shall be inspected by the meat and poultry section in accordance with Iowa Code chapter 167 before registration is approved.
	 76.8(2) The plant shall engage the services of a licensed veterinarian, approved by the department, to inspect carcasses for the presence of communicable disease or harmful contamination or adulteration and evidence of decomposition. Any of these conditions shall be cause for the carcass to be condemned as unfit for processing into pet animal food.
All compensation for the veterinarian employed by the rendering plant and pet animal food processing plants processing inedible meat and carcass parts for pet food shall be paid by the plant.
	 76.8(3) Fallen or dead animals which are recovered and transported to the processing plant shall be immediately skinned and eviscerated, except the lungs, heart, kidneys and liver, which shall be left attached to the carcass, and the carcasses shall be stored in a chill room with attached viscera until inspected and approved by a veterinary inspector. The stomach or stomachs, together with the entire intestinal tract, shall be tagged immediately with serially numbered tags and stamped with the word “inedible.” The word “inedible” shall be not less than one-half inch high. Condemned carcasses shall be deeply slashed on the round, rump, loin and shoulder, denatured with a ten percent solution of cresylic acid or other decharacterizing agent approved by the department of agriculture and land stewardship and removed to a rendering plant prior to the close of the working day.
	 76.8(4) The department shall inspect each place registered under Iowa Code chapter 189A or licensed under Iowa Code chapter 167 at least once a year, and as often as it deems necessary and shall see that the registrant conducts the business in conformity to both chapters and these rules.
	 76.8(5) Rendering plants and pet animal food processing plants may process fallen or dead animals into pet food where the animals are recovered and transported to a processing plant within a reasonable time following the death of an animal and before decomposition occurs.
	 76.8(6) Processing facilities, when located in or operated in conjunction with a rendering plant, shall be in a separate area equipped and used only for skinning, eviscerating, deboning, grinding, decharacterizing, packaging and labeling of inedible meat and carcass parts to be used in pet animal food. Rendering facilities approved by the department shall be available to process materials not suitable for pet animal food.
	 76.8(7) These rules shall also govern the collection, transportation and processing of other inedible material such as lungs, livers, hearts, spleens, poultry and poultry parts obtained from slaughterhouses, packing plants or other sources, to be used in the processing and manufacture of pet animal food.
This rule is intended to implement Iowa Code sections 189A.8, 167.5 and 167.14.