I just had to put all the usual disclaimers since not everyone believes the prion theory, even though the discoverers won the Nobel IIRC. Sad for US beef producers cause the price and profits were low for a long stretch and it looked like they had pulled it out. Now I assume everyone else in the world is going to boycott our beef like we immediately and forever boycotted Canadian and UK. It's almost enough to scare one off of meat but bacon and jerky are so good it's hard to stay away...
I'm sure your post was very informative, but I just had to stop reading after seeing the phrase fatal bloddy diarrhea.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/1226/p03s01-ussc.html . . . It's a little hard to comprehend" all the fear surrounding BSE, says Clive Gay, a professor of veterinary medicine at Washington State University in Pullman. "If you look at the number of deaths relative to the exposure, the risk of it is very low." Part of the reason for that is because of the way mad-cow disease is transmitted - solely by eating specific parts of cows that are infected. Scientific studies suggest that muscle tissue, from which supermarket meat cuts come, does not transmit BSE. The disease is usually transmitted through parts of the brain or nervous system. Scientists posit that human deaths, all in Europe, have come from eating tainted sausages. . . . Generally, the government now tests cows that have symptoms that could be related to BSE. The cow from a farm near Yakima, Wash., that tested positive for BSE fitted that description. It was a "downer" - the term for a cow that cannot stand on its own due to poor health. To critics, though, the detection is not a sign that the system is working, but rather that it is woefully inadequate. For comparisons, they need only look to Europe, which tests one-quarter of its beef cattle each year. Japan tests all meat for human consumption. The US, meanwhile, tests only about one in every 1,800 cows. Just a week before the Agriculture Department announced the detection of mad-cow, the Federal Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit overturned a decision to throw out a suit against the government's prevention policies. The suit, filed by an animal rights group, says that the government's policy of allowing the slaughter of "downer" cows poses a serious risk to public health. . . . The government acknowledges that its cattle-testing regimen is lighter than some other countries. But it also notes that America has never had a case of BSE before, so comprehensive testing was unnecessary. Officials note that, according to the guidelines laid out by the Office International des Epizooties, which sets international testing standards, the United States only is required to test 433 cows a year. Considering that BSE isn't even among the deadliest food-borne illnesses, setting up a comprehensive testing system like the one in Japan would create an enormous cost for a questionable benefit, some say. "We might find it expedient to do that," says Dr. Cliver. "But I don't think this is about saving lives." The investigation into how the Washington cow got BSE will play an important role. But even the Agriculture Department's detective work could take several months, partly because the US does not have a national identification system that tracks each head of cattle through its lifetime. Such a system was vital in Canada's effort to follow the path of the cow that tested positively earlier this year. Even ranchers admit that concern over the nation's systems of mad-cow prevention and detection could lead to significant changes in how the industry does business. "This potentially could have a huge impact on the industry, and the economies of several states," says Jim Petersen, a rancher in Buffalo, Mont.
Forgot about this, wanted to remind other folks: http://www.boston.com/business/globe/articles/2003/12/25/us_shifts_on_mad_cow_risk/ US shifts on mad-cow risk Cattle critics, officials clash over issue, leave consumers bedeviled By Stephen Smith, Globe Staff, 12/25/2003 Seven months ago, when a lone Canadian cow was stricken with mad cow disease, US agricultural authorities were so concerned they clamped a ban on all beef imports from the northern neighbor. Now, with this nation embroiled in a similar crisis, those same officials are urging consumers to serve beef for Christmas dinner and dine on hamburgers the day after. Confronted with that apparent contradiction, government regulators acknowledged yesterday they may have been too hasty in their move to temporarily block Canadian beef imports. But critics of the cattle industry and the government's efforts to assure its safety countered yesterday that US beef eaters should consume their meat with caution -- and a heaping helping of skepticism. "We shut our borders when exactly the same problem happened in Canada," said Mark Ritchie, president of the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, a think tank in Minneapolis. "The obvious contradiction now should be pointed out, and it is a disservice to the public for the secretary of agriculture to try to minimize the need for people to take conscious action to protect themselves. To say now, `Oh, it's not any kind of major problem,' it kind of drives me crazy." . . . Beef used in steaks and roasts typically comes from cattle younger than two years -- animals considered too young to develop mad cow. And those meats come from muscle tissue, which scientists have found is not a welcoming environment for mad cow. The same can be said for milk. . . . They assert that because hamburger meat sometimes comes from dairy cows older than 30 months -- the cow testing positive for mad cow, for example, was 4 years old -- it is more vulnerable to the disease. Critics say there's also a chance that hamburger meat could become contaminated during processing with the brains or other components of the central nervous system that harbor mad cow disease. Ground beef is made from the leftover parts of a cow using a high-speed industrial process, which the critics say creates a risk that diseased tissue could get mixed in. The Center for Science in the Public Interest recommended that consumers not consume ground beef unless they do the grinding themselves, using muscle meat. . . .
OK, this guy is trying to sell books. Still, it's scary if even some of what he says is true. http://www.wisinfo.com/thereporter/news/archive/local_13891777.shtml Posted Dec. 28, 2003 Mad cow disease expert says precautions may be too late By Patty Brandl the reporter pbrandl@fdlreporter.com Although the federal government announced last week that it is taking precautions to ensure a safe beef supply, it might be too little too late, says the Madison author of a book on mad cow disease. “We have not taken this disease seriously,” John C. Stauber, author of “Mad Cow USA,” said in a telephone interview on Friday. He said three recent tests performed by government agencies on a Washington state cow suspected of carrying the disease all have verified the strain of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) as the same one found in Great Britain in 1997. Tests conducted by researchers from the Veterinary Laboratories Agency in Weybridge, England, agreed with U.S. preliminary findings that the Holstein had BSE. “This cow should have never been slaughtered and put in our food system,” Stauber said. The good news about the 1997 infected beef crisis in Great Britain is that it only killed 130 people, Stauber said. The bad news is that people have been dying from meat they ate 10 years ago. One of the characteristics of the brain-wasting disease is a dormant period, both in the infected animal and in humans who contracted Creutzfeldt-Jacob Disease, which researchers believe is connected to BSE, the author said. Stauber believes that chronic wasting disease (CWD) running rampant through state deer populations is in the same disease family. “Most deer that have tested positive for CWD have looked healthy,” he said. “It’s only in the last stages that the symptoms show up.” Although there were 35 to 37 million cattle slaughtered last year in America, Stauber claims the government tested just 20,000 for the wasting disease. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has recalled the beef that was slaughtered with the infected animal. “Because our surveillance system aggressively tests for disease, we are able to detect animal health problems,” Bill Bruins of Alto, president of the Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation, said in a media statement last Wednesday. “Further investigations will shed more light on the source of the disease. We need to wait for the final test results on this animal and the trace-back of the farms this animal has been on so the appropriate action can be taken.” Stauber said government reports have indicated that the infectious protein or prion is only found in the brain tissue or spine of an infected animal, but other studies point to nerves and blood vessels as another potential source of contamination in the meat supply. The BSE incubation period in cattle is anywhere from three to eight years. “For this 4-year-old animal (in Washington state) to develop this disease, it would have had to ingest the prion as a calf,” he said. “This cow consumed feed in the United States that was probably contaminated with rendered cattle byproducts.” And an easy path of transmission, according to the Madison author, would have been through the dried raw cattle blood protein that’s not only legal to include in animal feed in the United States, but is commonly used as a protein source in certain calf supplements. “Farmers around here are stunned when they find out their calf feed contains cattle blood,” he said. Stauber said some analysts believed early in 1997 that without an effective feed ban in place in this country, just one case of BSE could cause another 299,000 cases over the next 11 years. In addition to testing every animal, the author said there must be a “strict and total ban on all rendered byproducts,” in order to better protect Americans from food-borne illness. Stauber said he believes the government is understating the issue, calling the information released “feel-good PR.” “It’s only one cow — don’t worry — we’ve got it under control,” is the message that has consumers continuing to buy U.S. beef, he said. “Why do they (the government) get to make this decision that we have to take this risk? “It’s insane to treat this so lightly. It’s a symptom of why we have this disease,” Stauber said. “We’re playing Russian roulette and we don’t even know how many bullets are in the gun.” Copyright © 2003
