Mad Cow Is Here

[HDPM]

Well, there is finally a documented case. (Not that we haven't been looking diligently or anything.....) Check out some of the articles out there. This is going to get bad.

My decision to dump meat is looking better. Haven't been at it long. And fell of the wagon a couple times, but not on red meat. Unlike veneman, I won't be sampling the rib roast this x-mas. Of course, do your own research and weigh the risks. My decision was just based on what I found out, but before this development. And it might be too late. You never know. Incubation period for vCJD is long. Not a good way to go.

[Ed I]

This is the topic on Night Line tonight. It looks like it will cause a big stir for a while. I stopped eating beef for a few yrs because I was tired of seeing the damage grazing causes on public lands. I fell off the wagon. I think I'll get back on and pass on beef for a while. This is a good time to eat the buffalo I have in the freezer.

[Kurn, son of Mogh]

This is going to get bad.

It's already getting bad, economically. All major Asian countries have cancelled their contracts for US beef.

[Ray Zee]

we can do like we do with europe. who doesnt want our beef because its loaded with hormones and antibiotics. force it down their throats with threats of sanctions.
why would anyone want to buy our beef. our inspection of the food supply is political. the big companies get to skate by all the time.

[HDPM]

Yep, the inpection process is a joke. And so is the testing that was done. 20000-25000 downers were tested and one report says the gov can't or won't document even that. And unlike the e-coli situation that is basically caused by sh!t in the meat, more cooking won't destroy BSE.

This problem won't be solved by regulation. Only market forces. Some stuff will be done to get the market back, not because the gov cares about safety. But it is likely the steps taken won't go far enough. IMO educated consumers would insist on hormone and antibiotic free beef that has never been fed any animal product of any kind ever and that isn't finished in commercial feed lots. Slaughter practices have to change. It is done too fast, too carelessly by unskilled workers. Beef will cost more. It will still have fat and cholesterol and everything, but at least the chances of other stuff will be minimized. Companies should start raising and marketing expensive but more natural beef IMO.

P.S. I have read that slaughterhouse workers like the days when animals are killed for export to Europe. They have to slow things down and do things right given the regs over there. Instead of the usual days.

[elwoodblues]

I really don't know much about the whole inspection process. One thing about you post raises a question for me. If workers have to slow down to do things right meet (or is that meat?) the Euproean regulations, doesn't that suggest that regulations might work alongside market forces?

[adios]

I haven't verified this stat but I read this morning that something like 1300 people die in the US each year due to bad food more or less, 136 people have died world wide due to mad cow disease. All the beef I consume is from Whole Foods, don't know how much safer I am but I'm not hitting the panic button. And yep my family's having rib roast for Christmas dinner.

[Kurn, son of Mogh]

If you're eating Coleman Beef, you're safe from BSE. Coleman Beef cattle are 100% grazed, so there is virtually zero chance of prions in the meat.

[adios]

Thanks. Here's an article about Mad Cow Disease I thought was decent:

Mad Cow Disease Article (http://www.cbc.ca/news/indepth/background/madcow_science.html)

Mad Cow: The symptoms
Amy Foulkes, CBC News Online | Updated: May 20, 2003

The Disease

BSE, bovine spongiform encephalopathy, also known as Mad Cow Disease, affects the central nervous system of its victims. It may be present in an animal for four to seven years before symptoms appear. During the final stages, infected animals become aggressive, lack co-ordination, and are unsteady on their hooves – hence the nickname for the condition – Mad Cow.

Victims of the disease usually die within a year after the first symptoms appear. Veterinarians can only tell for certain if an animal died of BSE by examining its brain after death. Brains of "mad cows" are spongy, as holes have developed in the nerve cells. A deposit of fibrous protein is also apparent in the brain's tissues.

Transmission

Scientists originally thought BSE made its way into cattle through feed made from sheep offal (guts, basically). The sheep were infected with a similar condition called scrapie, and researchers thought that by eating feed made from sheep that had scrapie, the cows developed BSE.

But in October 2000, at the British BSE Inquiry, it was concluded that though the conditions are similar, BSE likely didn't originate when cattle dined on sheep with scrapie.

Instead, it was concluded that BSE is a new disease, possibly arising from a mutation in one cow's genes.

The assumption is that the remains of this one cow was used in cattle feed, thus starting the infection of Britain's herds.

Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD)

Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, CJD (pronounced "KROYTS-felt YAK-ob"), is often referred to as the "human form of BSE." It has a long incubation period, up to 30 years, and CJD also degenerates vital parts of the brain. Symptoms include dementia, weakened muscles and loss of balance. Autopsies of human brains show the same spongy appearance as cow and sheep brains affected by BSE and scrapie. CJD is always fatal.

The disease has been present in human populations for many years. An average of one person in a million dies of CJD in a year. Most of them are elderly people. CJD has been shown to be transmitted through contact with infected people's brains, via insufficiently sterilized surgical instruments and electrodes applied directly into the brain, and through growth hormone created from infected corpses. But since the BSE scare began, there has been fear that humans could catch CJD by eating infected beef.

For the first 10 years of the epidemic in cattle, both the British government and many scientists believed there was no chance for people to contract CJD through food.

Then, in 1995, the first case of a teenager infected with CJD occurred in Britain. Other unusual cases had cropped up by this point; four slaughterhouse workers had died in the past three years from CJD, a dairy farmer whose herd had BSE died of CJD.

A panel of independent scientists was formed to examine 10 such new cases of CJD. In 1986, they came to a startling conclusion – a link between CJD and BSE appeared to be established. Calling the new strain "new variant CJD," or vCJD, they made their results public.

There is still no concrete proof of how exactly BSE, scrapie, CJD and vCJD are transmitted. The current theory is that a mysterious agent called a prion may be the culprit.

The prion connection

While studying scrapie in 1982, Dr. Stanley Prusiner, a neurologist at the University of California at San Francisco, said he had found a mysterious substance containing protein, but no genes. He called the substance a "prion" (pronounced pree'-on) or infectious protein.

Prusiner won the 1997 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his discovery.

Prion specialists think there are two kinds of these proteins. Normal prions are found in all brain cells. Abnormal prions have a different shape, and are the suspected agents of diseases like BSE. When they make physical contact with the normal prions, they can flip them over into the abnormal shape, changing them into infectious agents.

The catch is that proteins need genes in order to make new proteins. So, if prions are just proteins, with no power to create anything new, scientists want to know how these abnormal prions can flip normal prions, and how they cause them to start causing disease.

Researchers think the abnormal prions are likely a product of a mutant gene, but they still don't know exactly how they cause disease.

Sheep prions closely resemble cow prions, lending credence to the original theory that BSE arose from cattle eating meal contaminated with scrapie. But human prions are significantly different from both sheep and cow prions, leading many researchers to believe humans don't contract CJD, or even vCJD, from cows - at least maybe not through prions.

[HDPM]

They can I think. But market forces are stronger, particularly in our political system. Here, the regulatory agencies are also charged with promotion of agricultural products. The ag. producers run the show politically. Many reforms have only come when big buyers like McDonalds force their suppliers to do a better job. And the reforms don't necessarily go far enough.

[The Vegan]

It's about damn time that an "official" case has finally come to light. Anyone paying attention and with any knowledge of the disease and statistics has known that Mad Cow has existed in the US for quite some time.
The inspection procedures here are a joke and were designed to make it almost impossible to detect the desease. As others have pointed out, the inspections are purely political and are not designed to protect public health.
An excellent read is Mad Cowboy by Howard Lyman.

Yet another reason I'm glad I chose to go vegan several years ago and vegetarian years before that.

--The Vegan

[Ray Zee]

good for you vegan--

in this mad cow case. the cow was 12 years old and could hardly stand, so they decided to send it to us in our food supply. that is why it was even tested, as it was so sick and had trouble holding itself up. then they slaughtered it with the close cutting method where they get every last bit of meat at the risk of getting other stuff. then they used the remains which hold the worst of the mad cow desease for either chicken feed. or to after the chickens ate it, it went to cow food . they dont know where it went exactly. right back into the cycle. but that is most cost effective and we want cheap beef --dont we.
but our president came out and said it was all safe for us to eat. i trust him as he would never lie so its off to the burger joint to get get something to die for.

[Jim Kuhn]

I heard reports that the cow was four years old. The head, spine and stomach were sent for testing while the rest was sent for processing. Due to a backlog in government testing most of the meat was consumed before the testing results were returned.

[DanS]

[ QUOTE ]

P.S. I have read that slaughterhouse workers like the days when animals are killed for export to Europe. They have to slow things down and do things right given the regs over there. Instead of the usual days.

[/ QUOTE ]

HDPM, did you get this from "Fast Food Nation"? If not, check that book out. Similiar to "Bowling for Columbine" or other Michael Moore stuff, it's a little skewed in it's take, but pretty much spot on.

Dan

[Al_Capone_Junior]

Yea, I too refuse to up and panic all of a sudden. Why cave in to the hoopla and hype? The chances of getting mad cow are infinitessimally small, so I'll just fire up that big fat juicy porterhouse as planned.

here's some links:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/madcow/

http://www.cdc.gov/travel/diseases/madcow.htm

http://www.aphis.usda.gov/lpa/issues/bse/bse.html

http://www.accessexcellence.org/WN/NM/madcow96.html

http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761582434/Bovine_Spongiform_Encephalopathy_(BSE).html

al

[Ray Zee]

you are right. you are very unlikely to get mad cow. but you are very likely to have or will eat meat from sick cows that could barely stand. and thats what everyone should be up in arms about.