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The nation's fourth case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), sometimes referred to as "mad cow disease," has been confirmed in a dairy cow in central California, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said Tuesday. The carcass was at a Baker Commodities Inc. rendering facility in Hanford, California, according to Executive Vice President Dennis Luckey. The company renders animal byproducts and had randomly selected the animal for testing last Wednesday, he said. "We are in the business of removing dead animals from dairies in the Central Valley," he told CNN in a telephone interview. "As part of that program, we participate in the BSE surveillance program." Public health officials said the risk to public was extremely low. The sample was sent to UC Davis for initial testing, which came back inconclusive. It was then sent to the USDA's laboratory in Ames, Iowa, where it tested positive, the agency said. Had it been rendered, it could have been turned into an element of a number of products, including chemicals or feed for poultry or livestock, he said. But it would not likely have spread the disease, since USDA regulations prohibit high-risk parts of the cow, such as brains and spinal cords, from entering the food chain. Eating contaminated meat or some other animal products from cattle that have bovine spongiform encephalopathy is thought to be the cause of the fatal brain disease in humans that is called variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. The fatal disease was blamed for the deaths of 150 people in Britain, where there was an outbreak in the 1980s and 1990s. In people, symptoms of the disease include psychiatric and behavioral changes, movement deficits, memory disturbances and cognitive impairments. BSE can cause infected animals to display nervousness or aggression, difficulty in coordination and standing up, decreased milk production or loss of body weight, according to the agency. It is usually transmitted between cows through the practice of recycling bovine carcasses for meat and bone meal protein, which is fed to other cattle. In this case, the USDA reports that it was a rare form of BSE not likely carried by contaminated feed. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that the odds of a person contracting mad cow disease, even after consuming contaminated products, are less than one in 10 billion. California Department of Public Health Director and Public Health Officer Dr. Ron Chapman issued a statement Tuesday saying residents do not need to take any specific precautions. Unlike most other meat-borne illnesses, such as those caused by E.-coli bacteria, cooking does not kill the infectious agent that causes mad cow disease. Consumers who wish to exercise extra caution can follow the advice presented by the Web-based consumer advocacy group Consumeraffairs.com, which advises the avoidance of brains, neck bones and beef cheeks, bone marrow and cuts of beef that are sold on the bone. The group also says to choose boneless cuts of meat and ground beef only if it has been ground in the store. "Evidence shows that our systems and safeguards to prevent BSE are working, as are similar actions taken by countries around the world," said John Clifford, the USDA's chief veterinary officer. Last year, 29 cases of BSE were reported worldwide, down 99% since the peak of 37,311 cases in 1992. "This is directly attributable to the impact and effectiveness of feed bans as a primary control measure for the disease," he said. "A case of a single cow with bovine spongiform encephalopathy is not a reason for significant concern on the part of consumers, and there is no reason to believe the beef or milk supply is unsafe," said Sarah Klein, food safety attorney for the Center for Science in the Public Interest. "If the cow were exposed to the typical strain of BSE via animal feed - and the government says that's not the case here - that would have represented a significant failure." But she said the government would have had a difficult time tracking down other cattle that may have been eaten the same feed because the nation lacks an effective animal ID program. |
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Tremendous issues here. I am very glad to peer your post. Thanks a lot and I am having a look ahead to touch you. Will you please drop me a e-mail?
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I had a mad cow once. He was always so angry. I tried advance anger management classes for him to no avail. At my wit's end, I set up surveillance cameras in the pasture. That darn coyote was pulling his tail at night. The only solution was to hire a pack of roadrunners to spend the night. Mr. Coyote left in frustration and my "mad" cow calmed down. What a relief!
Mad cow disease...hope 'ThaGerm' and others like this person got their answer...
KP
Raising chickens at home is not a good idea. Just in case, in times of bird flu epidemic, etc; culling and control of spread of disease will become very difficult and could become very dangerous for people. Having animals, meant for food, in a centralized locations is a sensible thing...
April 16, 2012 at 5:58 am |
ThaGerm
This response sounds like it comes from a person with NO experience in the subject matter; rather, a phobia that they wish to pass on to others. If I am wrong, please post some sources or let us in on your extensive credentials in farming and virology. What, no experience in either farming or virology? Noooo, you don't say. No really please DON'T say.
April 23, 2012 at 3:46 pm |
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Interesting story. The medical correspondant claims we have never had an issue with this in the US, or the 3 cases were from aboard yet it takes 15 years for it to show up. So how can one be sure our meat isn't tainted here now. We won't know for another decade. jeez.
Moooooo!
Going by the governments own numbers, ALL beef sold in the U.S. Must be contaminated with mad cow. They say you have a 1 in 10 billion chance of catching it if you eat contaminated meat. Theres around 300 million people in the U.S. The CDC says we have around 200 new cases a year in the U.S. Just doing the math, there would need to be 2 Trillion contaminated portions consumed here. I seriously doubt that we consume 2 trillion portions a year. The governments numbers dont add up.
southern_gent, I don't exactly think beef is a healthy food, but I've never heard there are 200 cases of Mad Cow Disease every year. I think this particular case is the 4th – that we're aware of anyway.
Actually, it looks like the cdc says there were 200 cases worldwide of CJD (a human form of BSE) as of 2006.
If you are refering to CJD that is different than vCJD that is associated with BSE. CJD is much more common.
Au contrars, mon ami... The "200 cases" you're referring to were in Britain, not in the U.S. of A.. But the numbers in fact are ridiculously off, even if you do the math for seven billion people.... So, yea. Eata da beef? No problama! LOL.
This is the beginning of the zombie apocalypse. Drink some of that cows milk and mad cow disease will become mad human disease!
I thought this article would be about Pelosi, Boxer, or Feinstein. Bummer.
Here's a little bit of research that most of the ignorant commenters here are completely incapable of doing:
From http://www.cdc.gov (yes, I know that's a government agency so most of you will discount it):
"Classic CJD is a human prion disease. It is a neurodegenerative disorder with characteristic clinical and diagnostic features. This disease is rapidly progressive and always fatal. Infection with this disease leads to death usually within 1 year of onset of illness.
Important Note: Classic CJD is not related to "mad cow" disease. Classic CJD also is distinct from "variant CJD", another prion disease that is related to BSE."
So, for all of you who have relatives that died from CJD, yes, that's true, but it wasn't mad cow disease.
In other words, "classic CJD" is NOT related to Mad Cow Disease, but "variant CJD" IS related to Mad Cow Disease. BSE is Mad Cow Disease.
From CDC, "BSE (Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy, or Mad Cow Disease)"
AEP, your quote from cdc correctly states that varian CJV is related to BSE. BSE is Mad Cow Disease, according to the cdc: "BSE (Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy, or Mad Cow Disease)"
i would shy away from rachel maddow before any other worry.
dscon given your dumb ass reply sounds like you already have mad cow
As if the price of beef couldn't get higher. And eggs, milk, bread, chicken....
America's food industry is one of the safest in the world...I am a proud that my family and I provide the safest beef in the world and the USDA does a wonderful job in ensuring that ALL our food is closely monitored. I hate that the media seems to like to start food safety scares just for media ratings. Take for example the lean finely textured beef (LFTB) scandal that ABC News was more than happy to start. People should ask hard questions about where their food comes from and I would encourage anyone concerned about food safety to reach out to their Congressman, the USDA, their state Cattleman Associations , or National Cattleman Beef Association (www.beef.org). I think you will find from top to bottom that EVERYONE in the beef chain has a vested interest in making sure what they provide the consumer is the best and safest beef around.
Yeah, because any of those organizations you listed actually cares about "me". They care about $$$ and continuing to make $$$.
In fact we do care about you Joe and all other potential beef consumers. Simple logic dictates that if you want to stay in any business for any length of time as a business you need to put out a high quality product, otherwise you lose consumer demand and you are out of business. The cattle industry doesn't shy away from close scrutiny of how we do business and we make sure the USDA plays a huge role in verifying the safety of our entire food industry.
As a public health professional I appreciate your comment. The comment following about the health organizations that ensure our health and safety exemplified the problem we face with our population. Stupid... really, really stupid.
You don't even know anything about the world.
The meat industry is so safe for consumers and so well inspected and tested by the FSIS that: 27 million pounds of beef and poultry were recalled in 2010 – after it was inspected by FSIS and released for sale to the consumer.
Recalls prove the system works and as far as the total amount it is so large because no one wants to take any chances so the USDA always "goes big" when it comes to a recall.
Recalls don't prove the system works. Recalls prove inspection and testing are inadequate. The system is based on inadequate inspection and inadequate testing.
@ 25 – you apparently know little about microbiology. "Inspection" won't find pathogenic bacteria on meat. "Testing" will, in some cases. Bacterial testing is typically a destructive test – meaning that the material being sampled is 'destroyed' in the process. That's the first problem. The next is the size of bacteria. You could have a cluster of 2.5 million salmonella bacteria and it would be about the size of a grain of rice. Now try to find that in a 2000 lb batch of meat! 100% testing is impossible – it would take too long, it would be cost-prohibitive, and there would be nothing left to sell after it was tested. "Ideally" we would test 100%, but we don't live in an 'ideal' world.
Recalls are so big because 100% of the 'suspect' product made during any questionable window of time is involved. When Cargill had the ground turkey recall (salmonella), all of the ground product that had been produced in the implicated plant over a period of about 4 months was involved. Was all of it 'bad' – of course not. But the 'standard operating procedure' in these instances is "if there's any doubt, call it out".
and it was recalled becasue further testing determined there was a problem! Not all tests and controls are instant. If the system didn't work you would never see any recalls once it left the facility no one would ever give it two more thoughts. there is risk in everythign we do it doesn't mean we quit doing them. do you quit driving because there is a chance you may be in a wreck?
Mad cow disease??? I thought the Kardashians just signed a new contract for the next several years, and tens of millions of dollars. Was that not enough?
about 5 years ago I did volunteer work for a Canadien company, hired by Texas cattle ranchers to track sick cows. Seems if they're sick, and they have ? a dangerous disease ?, they want to find them first before inspectors look into it.
I don't trust cattle ranchers. Hiring a Canadien company for a job anyone in Texas could do was suspicious to me. If you find mad cow, I can see huge efforts to keep it quiet.
If, according to the USDA, this is a " rare form of BSE not likely carried by contaminated feed", then where DID it come from? I'd also like an explanation for how we know it couldn't have been transferred to consumers through the sick cow's milk.
Science Daily has an article about a 2008 study that found scrapie (Mad Cow Disease for sheep) being transferred from infected sheep to lambs through the MILK.
The answer is right below you, but like all vegans, you are blind and ignorant to the facts.
Mad cows in California? I thought happy cows come from California.
actually it's crappy not happy...........
been trying to correct that type-0 for some time,
here in no california.
Allow me to summarize the facts from above and dispel all of the crazy talk.
1. The feed that all of you are referring to has not been allowed since the outbreaks that prompted new regulations in 2004.
2. This is a VARIANT case that is not transmitted by feed. It is an natural mutation that occurs in some animals just in the same way deer and elk can get the disease and they are not in feedlots or dairies and only eating what nature put in front of them with no hormones or antibiotics and give them a field of corn or a field of grass and I can guarantee which one they will choose HINT: not the grass.
3. This cow was in a rendering plant to be turned into leather and all of the other things we get from cows not to be eaten
4. Prions are never found in milk and appear in the central nervous system. Don't eat BRAIN!
5. If everyone is so against Hormones, Antibiotics and vaccinations then maybe we should ban birth control, all the antibiotics the doctors give you when you get sick and we should quit giving our children vaccinations against nasty diseases like polio. Sounds CRAZY just like many of the comments above. However, I just solved the healthcare crisis because anyone who gets sick would just die or get better no need for doctors and drugs. We don't give these things to animals just for the heck of it they have a purpose of keeping them healthy or treating them when they are sick. Same thing you do for yourself and your kids.
6. Grass fed and organic beef has its place in the industry and if you want to eat that more power to you. However, don't complain about the price because it is VERY EXPENSIVE to produce and people are already complaining about the price of traditionally raised beef. The other answer is for every one of you to have your own cows and gardens and produce 100% of what you eat just like the 1800's. Sound fun? That means little time to go to movies, no vacations because you have to care for your food. Think about it people this production system will not feed the 9 billion people we will have on earth in the next 30-40 years.
7. Pink Slime is not the root of all evil it is simply a process that produces a less than desirable texture when completed if not mixed with other ground beef. However it is completely safe. It heats the meat that is ~50% lean and 50% fat to 100 degrees to liquefy the fat so that it can be put into a centrifuge and spun off so you don't have to eat a fatty product. It is then treated with Ammonium NH2 not Ammonia NH3. Two completely different products one is safe and one is hazardous go back to chemistry and inform yourself. This process has made beef more economical because these 50% lean trimmings would otherwise be discarded into pet food and would required millions more cows to fulfill the beef demand filled by Lean Finely Texturized Beef.
8. Please inform yourself with the facts before you decided to rant and rave and demonize the very industries that are responsible for keeping you alive because you have to have food and that comes from the 1% of us that actually still produce food for 99% of you. Most of which are uneducated about productions methods and almost certainly ungrateful! You think it will always be at the grocery store. We have the largest, SAFEST, and cheapest food supply in the WORLD. We spend less than 10% of our income on food. Think about all of other great things you spend the other 90% on that you would not have if you were in another country or had to raise it all yourself or required all of it to be organic. You would double or triple your food cost. So essentially you would be spending 60-70% of your income on your house and your food. Think about the consequences of what you are asking for before you demand everyone should be organic.
The Facts, this sick industry may be keeping YOU alive. Not me. NO THANKS!
Then why not just let people live how they see fit? Salmonella has been found on alot of veggies too.
What makes you think that my choice has anything to do with MAKING anyone else do anything? I'm simply stating that none of us has to eat another animal to live. None of us HAS to. If some of us DO, that's their choice, of course.
Funny you don't eat and your still alive? I would like to see that diet plan. Agriculture as whole accounts for ~1% producing ALL food. I am keeping you alive! Or wold you prefer your food to come from say MEXICO? Do you think they have anywhere close to the regulation and controls we have in the US? I think not.
Sorry, Facts friend, I should have been more specific: the MEAT industry is not keeping me alive.
It's hard to take "the facts" serious when they are barely literate
Please forgive me if I seem ungreatful to you.
Maybe I should be grateful for the nice Mega Meat manufacturers and Food comglomerates sneaking PINK SLIME into my families food supply without giving me the choice and keeping it a dirty little secret for how many years?
Well said...How ironic that Jamie Oliver (the originator of "Pink Slime") is from the country that has had over 172 confirmed cases of BSE.
Smells like industry propaganda (in other words, pure cow dung).
Safe huh? yeah well that's what they said about Thalidimide. Like I trust any of these agencies. This same group who are saying meat is safe insist on feeding cattle, sheep and chicken antibiotics that are building resistance, sticking cattle in their own filth in feeds lots and then slaughtering them in a way that creates terror in the animal so that it releases a lot of hormones before it's death. Plus they raise most of the animals on unnatural feed that produces more fat then muscle I barely eat meat now and probably will cut it out all together. Safe my ass.
Taken your kids to the doctor lately for an ear ache or some other common sickness. Almost guarentee you got somthing that was pennicillan based. want to talk about over use and resistance. Should we just let the animals die when they get sick? You would call that inhumane but you don't want me to use antibiotics. I use them to prevent and cure sickness.
No good parent would ever allow their child to be exposed to the conditions that most cattle are exposed to. Of course the cattle are always sick, given the conditions they live in. Facts: Most of the antibiotics used in this country are going to cattle, who are fed antibiotics ROUTINELY, as a preventative measure due to the unsanitary conditions and feed.
Although it's true that it's no longer legal to feed MOST cattle PARTS to cattle, it IS legal to feed manure and also a few cattle parts and other animal parts to cattle.
From Union of Concerned Scientists:
The advent of "mad cow" disease (also known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy or BSE) raised international concern about the safety of feeding rendered[1] cattle to cattle. Since the discovery of mad cow disease in the United States, the federal government has taken some action to restrict the parts of cattle that can be fed back to cattle.
However, most animals are still allowed to eat meat from their own species. Pig carcasses can be rendered and fed back to pigs, chicken carcasses can be rendered and fed back to chickens, and turkey carcasses can be rendered and fed back to turkeys. Even cattle can still be fed cow blood and some other cow parts.
Under current law, pigs, chickens, and turkeys that have been fed rendered cattle can be rendered and fed back to cattle—a loophole that may allow mad cow agents to infect healthy cattle.
Animal feed legally can contain rendered road kill, dead horses, and euthanized cats and dogs.
Rendered feathers, hair, skin, hooves, blood, and intestines can also be found in feed, often under catch-all categories like "animal protein products."
Manure and Other Animal Waste
Feed for any food animal can contain cattle manure, swine waste, and poultry litter. This waste may contain drugs such as antibiotics and hormones that have passed unchanged through the animals' bodies.
The poultry litter that is fed to cattle contains rendered cattle parts in the form of digested poultry feed and spilled poultry feed. This is another loophole that may allow mad cow agents to infect healthy cattle.
Animal waste used for feed is also allowed to contain dirt, rocks, sand, wood, and other such contaminants.
You certainly picked a completely unbiased source for your 'education', didn't you? Bovine blood and blood products are still allowed in cattle feed, but exactly what other cattle "parts" are allowed? I'll be real curious to see the list, so please enlighten us.
It's a reference. You'll have to ask them. Perhaps they're talking about the beef recycled through other animals that the article refers to. Or perhaps they're talking about restaurant scraps that can be included in cattle feed (according to Wikipedia, "Cattle Feeding"). Or perhaps they're talking about something else. I only read what you read.
Um, actually, no – you don't read what I read or you would know better than to make some of the comments you've made here.
I was referring to the article above that I thought we were both talking about (past tense "read"), but if you have a valid reference from whatever it is you read that disputes the article above or the information from Wikipedia, go ahead and post it if you like.
I don't intend to be mean-spirited when I say this, but simply 'regurgitating' anything that you happen to run across on the internet – especially when it can be put there by anybody (Wikipedia) or is put there by a group with a considerable bias (U of Concerned Scientists), does not constitute a "well-reasoned" response, and it certainly doesn't mean that the information is accurate.
U.S. Code of Federal Regulations, Title 21, Section 589.2001
Please see U.S. Code of Federal Regulations, Title 21, Section 589.2000, as well.
The Soylent Corporation allows for human parts to be rendered and fed back to human beings, namely in their popular new product Soylent Green. Really, are we far from this?
Reading all these posts is making me hungry. Time for some In-N-Out!!!!!!!!
this is one of the problems with a ton of illegal aliens coming to this country, they bring their host diseases with them.
How perfectly racist of you to say. Actually, you can blame industrialized farming for this mess......
Exactly how many illegal aliens are you eating?
Yeah... Canadians do seem like a disease ridden bunch, don't they?
After watching Food Inc. I would rather eat a live rat than anything spewed from the evil hell-pit that we call the food industry. And no, I'm not sentimental – give me a lovely steak from an animal raised by human beings in a decent manner and I'll take it rare. Now and then. It's not just the mind-blowing, heart-assaulting cruelty to animal – it's the cruelty to real farmers, to workers, the filth, the inane un-fooding of food. The food industry is a dystopia proper, a real heart of darkness. I buy locally, organically and carefully. I'd like to see that juggernaut come down, deeply. Do your part, if not for love of beasts, for the love of us all, and the planet.
Right on! I'm with you 100%. I couldn't have said it any better!
I hope I never live next door to you.
You already do. You're simply unaware of it. And a great many other things as well, apparently
LOL...The beef industry bribed the USDA to ban the import of beef from Canada, when there was one animal found with Mad Cow Disease. The beef industry did this to keep US beef prices high.
Let's hope the rest of the world now bans beef from the United States.
Mad Cow Disease is not a virus or bacteria - there is no way to irradiate it, cook it out by heat or treat it with antibiotics.
It is a damaged protein in the brain of the animal that in turn damages other healthy proteins in the brain and then areas of the brain become spongey and do not work until the animal goes blind, stops beathing, whatever part of the brain stops working.
It originally started in sheep, the protein was transferred to cows, due to the practice of grinding up the carcasses of dead sheep and turning it into animal feed for cows (again remember it doesn't matter if this protein that ends up in the brain and spinal column is cooked at high temps, irradiated, whatever, proteins can't be killed it is not a virus or bacteria) Also cows are herbivores, the only animal protein they are supposed to have is when in the womb and when young feeding on mother's milk. These practices are supposed to be banned, however I have heard that young cows are also given cow blood in food to make them produce more milk eventually. I think that practice should also be stopped.
I am not vegan, but I do buy organic beef and dairy products. Buying local would probably be safer too especially if you could research the farms.
I never eat fastfood burgers though – it is obvious to me if we have more cases still of mad cow disease, the cows are still being feed animal protein from other sick animals. That is the only way for other cows to get sick.
Is it true a clinical series found 13% of Alzheimers cases were actually CJD?
So when I was a kid in the early 90's we lived in Germany. I can never donate blood or plasma because of the SLIGHT POSSIBILITY of being exposed to mad cow disease. I seem to remember Whole heards being destroyed back then for a single sick cow. But, now the government says don't worry, one in 10 Billion chances... Forgive me if I don't quite buy it. Why the two totally different reactions? Is mad cow disease some how not as bad 20 years later? Something doesn't add up. But government agencies never lie.
DONATING blood or plasma doesn't expose you to BSE any more than it exposes you to HIV, Hepatitis or HPV. What an ignorant comment.
This isn't to protect the donor. It's to protect the blood supply from "possible" contamination. No doubt an FDA mandate. It has been, for years now, a cause for automatic denial if one lived in the UK for a total of over 3 months during a span of about 14 years. It's a question they ask you every time.
I have the same restrictions from living in the UK during the 80s. I tend to think it's because the Red Cross is overly conservative when it comes to eligibility criteria, perhaps as an overcompensating reaction to cases of HIV transmission via blood transfusion.
Not cool...
This is the first step to zombie domination... :)
Not a Mad Cow, just Nancy Peloski
Rorger – Let me guess: You're the epidemic comic? Right? Nobody's clapping.
ATTENTION – I know a person who died of MAD COW ( Cruzelts ) at UCLA in 2002. KNOW THE TRUTH. This situation will soon blossom in the U.S. – it takes 10 – 20 years for it to appear after eating contaminated meat. That means, in 2002 it started – and NOW it becomes pervasive.
STEER CLEAR OF BEEF! Pun intended.
Indeed. The Mayans foresaw this and the zombie apocalypse is almost among us. Another 6 months and half the world will be trying to eat the other half. In 7 months...well...
Rod – Apparently you have ZERO idea how horrible a death from the human form of Mad Cow is.... or better yet – apparently you make a living running interference for the criminals running the beef industry. Didn't they silence Oprah by suing her for $1M? Scvmbags.
Actually, the state of Texas brought charges against her for defaming the beef industry in violation of Texas state law. The Supreme Court of the United States tossed the law as being unconstitutional.
I know nurses who have taken care of patients with BSE 20 years ago in the US. It's here and it's been here for decades. Get ready.
That's really interesting to know . . . considering the fact that BSE was, for all practical purposes, unknown prior to 1986.
I'm afraid to say this but I think the CDC is holding back info here. I know someone here in central Florida who the CDC confirmed with a brain biopsy with critzfeld mad cow. Tired of the lies. Tell us the truth with cattle. Stop covering for our billion dollar fast food industry and save human lives. Do your job CDC.
I agree. Our leaders today have the ethicas and morals of Al Capone. America is being parted out – and IF they can PROFIT from killing millions of us – all the better.
>>>Consumers who do wish to exercise extra caution can follow the advice presented by the Web-based consumer advocacy group Consumeraffairs.com, which advises the avoidance of brains, neck bones and beef cheeks, bone marrow and cuts of beef that are sold on the bone. The group also says to choose boneless cuts of meat, and for ground beef, choose only meat that is ground on-site in the store.<<<
and now tie this together with PINK SLIME being worked into everything and not having to be declared on food, school lunches, chubs of beef, and already prepared frozen food, lasagnas, and whatever else is floating around out there in the Supermarkets of this country.
its all in the name of the almighty dollar.
I'm glad I'm cooking fresh food from sources that I know their origins of... takes a little longer and may not be as convenient but I know my family is not eating who knows what from who knows where.
The sad thing is if you have eaten prione infested beef you won't know for a couple
years when you will show the signs of insanity and dementia while your brain starts rotting from the inside out.
Just don't eat meat. Their are so many obese Americans. How many vegetarians are obese?? I'm sick of paying your medical bills. Eat smart people!!
But it's illegal to eat people, smart or not.
: D
They do...and they get Kuru in Papua New Guinea.
They've pretty much died out. They no longer practice ritual cannibalism.
I live near a large Seventh Day Adventist church college and there are PLENTY of fat vegetarians. Trust me!
What she said.
Ahahhaha! Punctuation saves lives. Proof?
"Let's eat, Grandma!"
"Lets eat Grandma!"
"Want to eat Grandma?"
Want to eat, Grandma?"
You have to eat meat, it's the circle of life, we need the protein. All of the vegetarians I know are mal-nutritioned and their skin looks pasty.
You have no idea what you're posting about. There are many vegetarian olympic medalists, professional athletes even body builders.
I totally agree Buck. I'm tired of my tax dollars going to other people's steaks and hamburgers. The meat industry is kept alive by federal subsidies. As a result, it's Auschwitz for animals; and it's obesity, heart disease, cancer, strokes, and diabetes for humans.
Are you serious? I know many vegetarians who are obese. They eat potatoes, rice, bread and too many carbohydrates with loads of butter. They never exercise and they're fat.
peridot2 – yes, eating only carbs will make you gain weight and is mal-nutritious. However, if you are a vegetarian doing it the right way by eating plenty of fruits, vegetables, grains, protein from beans, tofu, nuts, etc. and maybe even eating the occasional carb you could not be overweight. You'd be doing those people you know a favor if you told them of the other options available to vegetarians.
You could do the exact same thing, but also eat meat, and be perfectly healthy. Eating a balanced diet and living healthily does not preclude the consumption of meat, at all. There is a huge nutrition and lifestyle problem in the U.S. that taxpayers are going to pay out the rear for, but meat is not to blame.
yes but I'm sure the percentage of meat eaters eat crap like mcdonalds are a lot higher that vegetarians who I guess could eat fries compared to about 50 items of garbage on the menu. Anyways the western diet is horrible and now taking over the world. Eat right and exercise lazy people!!
We're paying the price for not "listening" to Mother Nature...if all creatures are given their natural diet, they'd all be healthy, including human beings!!!
But then how would doctors and big pharma stay in business?
I, for one, pay very close attention to my nature and eat only what it tells me to. For instance, I eat cheeseburgers because my body tells me it is a pleasurable experience (I salivate when I smell them, the flavor-processing parts of my brain reward me for doing so, etc.). On the other hand, I have never eaten an old car tire, or a putrid, moldy tomato, or a box of nails. So far, this policy of allowing nature to determine what I eat has worked out very well for me and my family, so I heartily concur with your advice.
"mad cow disease, was found in a dairy cow in California" – Too bad they euthanized it, that cow was well qualified to hold a political office in California.
The artivle said there were 2 diagnosed cases. One was a cow, the other was Gov Jerry Brown.
They neglected to say that the diseased old cow was named "Nancy".
Actually it turns out this case cut in half the number of Tea Party members in that county.
What really worries me is the thought that sloppy, underfunded inspections might NOT have caught a carcass or two. If you want a safe food supply you are going to have to pay the taxes to have that. People are not going to inspect your food for free out of the goodness of their hearts & Big Agriculture can't be trusted to do the job instead of the government. GROW UP.
What was the last time you saw a purple stamp on a pad of fat on a roast or steak? They don't seem to exist anymore.
See what happens when people eat contaminated meat: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zmbey7cZQcw
F***, they know what causes this. Have known for years but corporate profits outweigh public health concerns.
Watch Soylent Green anyone? You should – because you are next.
With the world population at 7 billion and counting, now would be a good time for a remake of that movie.
Humans are now by far the most common large animal on the planet. Every time I think about that I get a real bad feeling.
Burbank, while I am riding your thought train, can you imagine how the germ-o-phobic, uber PC, lightweights would run screaming in the streets after seeing such a movie – re-made or not? LMAO. The imbeciles who fear for their very lives because some company put beetles in their strawberry creme beverage so more of them would buy it more often would cause comment boards all over the internet to explode ... hmm ...
Why do you think that Taco Bell and McDonald's are so cheap?
'Watch Soylent Green'? There's no such thing. The film was called THE OMEGA MAN, lackwit.
Lacwit? Oh my what a dummy. 'Soylent Green' was a movie in 1973 about eating processed people.... Omega man was the same actor, but totally different movie released in 1971.
hahaha, wow, i was born in the 80's and i know about Soylent Green.... dont call other ppl names when u look like the fool
Don't worry people just elect a good Republican like Mitt Romney, and any news reporting like this to the public will be illegal, because it is bad for business..punishable by a death sentence...
Republicans & children; Lost in Magical Thinking.
and most people sadly...
If they would stop feeding these cows, feed made from ground up dead cow parts and scraps...maybe they would never have another case of mad cow...some of the things they feed these cows just to save a few bucks is disgusting..
You are absolutely right – only a human would be dumb enough to feed an a plant eater meat (soylent green for most part) and expect nothing bad would happen.
Cows were designed to eat grass, hello??!!! Buy grass fed, organic beef, steers castrated the old fashioned way instead of getting an injection that shrinks the testis and give the steer a growth hormone.
Not to worry; Big Agriculture will just take all those parts & scraps, make them into 'Pink Slime' & feed them to us instead. Big Agriculture is your best friend. They are always looking out for your welfare. Why can't you just trust them?
Once again – as previously stated in all this uneducated hoopla – it has been illegal to include ANY ruminant "by-products" in cattle feed for at least 5 years. But don't let the facts get in your way . . .
What? – you are correct, it's illegal to feed meat and bone meal to cattle and has been since 1995 in the U.S. Cows are not forced to eat cows – that's totally innaccurate. Further, this animal was nowhere near a human food processing plant. It was dead at a rendering plant. It never would have passed visual inspection at a human food processing plant. Our food supply was never in danger of being contaminated by this animal.
they are allowed to use "certain parts" of the cow in feed, just not the brain, spinal colum, etc... u have to read the actual law and not the abridged what-they-want-us-to-know parts.
Aside from blood and blood products and milk and milk products – if you consider those "parts" – and, in some cases, certain types of tallow (pure fat), exactly what "certain parts" are allowed?
"The Centers for Disease Control reports that the chance of contracting mad cow disease, even after consuming contaminated products, is less than one in 10 billion, if at all. " i find this statistic very hard to believe. i think its a mistake and they meant to say million not billion.
ANY chance at all is too much when we are talking about human lives.
Just look at Agent Orange and our Vets, Gulf War Syndrome, and our Vets, incredible increase in Autism, contaminated foods, some times the government lies to us, partly because they mean to lie, partly because they don't have a clue..
Eventually, the Jihadists will get a BSE carcass and use it to spread the disease through NYC and other infidelburgs. Just a matter of time The governmen sould work on a cure for BSE instead of wasting money on AIDS research.
Just remember "Pink Slime" & firing all the government chicken inspectors are both good for you. Big Agriculture says so & they are buying up congressmen as fast as they can to speed up the changes.
Watch Documentary Food inc. Corporate farming is big business and not really interested in America's health. We need to revolt and go back to locally raised food or organic raised food. I would rather pay a little more for healthy food and skip the late' candy and soda.
i find it very disturbing that we allow our cows to be turned into cannibals. cows are not carnivorous and should never be fed meat byproducts. cows should only be fed grasses and grains. why do we let this happen? i would gladly pay a little more money if i knew the beef i buy was raised properly. come on USDA lets make this disgusting practice illegal!
Totally agree with you but Big Agriculture can make an extra buck here & their vote on the matter is much bigger than a mere citizen's.
Aaaand yet another reason to not eat meat
troll
You mean yet another reason to buy local organically raised meat, right? Oh you silly fool, you get your English confused.
Anyway, all you have to do is contact a local farmer or University (many of which raise and butcher their own) or raise something yourself. Food is something you don't skimp on. You wouldn't drink sewer water when clean spring water were available, right? Then why would you eat garbage? If you can't spend the extra buck and eat healthy, then you're supporting these death farms. And don't kid yourself as a vegan - you're causing more damage than most meat eaters by supporting an unnatural homogenous agricultural system where whole ecosystems are destroyed just to grow soy. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1250532/Being-vegetarian-does-harm-environment-eating-meat.html
The fact is that we are too numerous a species, we are invasive and destructive. It doesn't matter if we all ate our own feces and nothing else - we would still be destroying the planet we live on. Eventually we'll reach critical mass and disease, war and other disasters will do their job, maybe a meteor. Either way, eating anything would be good for the environment if we were in balance with nature, which we aren't. You don't see people forcing bears to stop eating meat and honey and only eat berries and roots. They wouldn't live very long.
Beef is safe to eat, we didn't bust our butts protecting everyone to start freaking out. The cow was Dairy first of all, seco d it was never introduced to our food supply. I will continue to eat beef, eat cheese, drink milk, even from California, and I'm from Iowa, because it is just as safe as it was yesterday and it will be even two days, months and even years from now. There is no need to freak out. Drama is for teenagers and two year olds. If you think about it, this isn't a crisis. We have a good system for trackig animals now, better than the last time this happened. We are a smart country and we are not a bunch of babies, we can still remain calm and set an example for the rest of the world.
You're from Iowa, enough said
bigot
I say that because Iowa is one of the largest farming and agri-business states in the country, not because I'm a "bigot". Try some intelligent input next time instead of inane name calling.
Lets make all these downer cows into "Pink Slime" & YOU can eat your fill.
Mad cow disease can lead to zombifacation if not seen. This is a matter of life and death people! .-.
What does the deaths of a few peasants matter when Big Agriculture can add a few million to their bottom line?
"Pets such as cats and dogs are not at risk for the disease."
Did a Korean write this article?
it says pets, so I would have to say no...
.....I don' get it.....God, I'm such a ditz.......
?
=u= <- le me, ditzing out.
Good, now the rest of the world can ban Merican beef, just like your hick cowboys lobbied to ban other countries when they had an outbreak. What comes around goes around Merica.
That explains a great deal about California. Immigration in other states is a federal responsibility but states (aka CA) can pass laws legalizing drugs which the Federal government prohibits?
Youre comparing apples to peaches genius. Also, the Federal Government has been basically at war against even medicinal marijuana clubs since we passed that law. You aren't from here, so stick to things you actually know about.
Gogole Joel Salatin, read and watch everything you can, then eat accordingly. Best move you will ever make.
Way to go Primal!! :-) I'm right there with you. I bought Joel Saletins book several months ago. I hope all agriculture will eventually learn from him and put his practices in action. He is a true American hero!!
They are fed in this way because everyone wants cheap meat. We live on a false economy for eating all kinds of meat. People should stop being ignorant to this real fact of life.
Stick to pastured grass fed and finished beef and you will never have to worry about. Say goodbye to feedlot beef garbage forever.
Yes I agree. I only buy grassfed beef when I do buy it. I also make sure I buy raw muil from grassfed cows that have never been injected with hormones or antibiotics
You understand that no beef you buy is entirely grassfed. Prion were introduced into the bovine food system by people that took sheep bones and made bone meal out of them and fed them to cows. Cows are herbivors, never meant to eat animal protein. Be aware that all beef cows, and this cow that is infected is a dary cow, are sent to feed lots and prepared for market with corn other grains and all sorts of other products.,natural and artificial. Better you do some research on Prion disemination in mammals and that will scare the pants off you.
By all means read up on Prions. They are devilish things. Sort of like a near indestructible alternate DNA system which acts like a virus. Special sterilizing procedures had to be invented; LIVE STEAM doesn't even faze Prions. There are probably many types of Prions that are still unknown to science. Who knows what diseases they are causing. There is a hundred years of research that will have to be done before we will really understand them.
That's not true. You can find completely grass fed and finished beef. I know because I bought a half steer from the farm where the shorthorn was raised. The small herd is rotated daily on grass pasture, no grain or bonemeal. If more people would see where their food is grown and get to know the people who grow it we would be better off.
http://omegameatsohio.com/
Look for 100% grass fed beef, NOT finished on grain. It is slightly more expensive, but the demand is bringing a bigger supply all the time. Even my local supermarket here in MA recently started carrying it, at least ground beef. Much of the beef in Europe and South America is grass fed also. In Europe, if I am not mistaken, all beef cattle are tested for Mad Cow. Here, it is about one out of a thousand or less. The European Union pays $150M a year in fines so as not to have to import American beef. Cattle evolved to eat grass, that's why they have multiple stomachs. Grain can make them sick, so they pump them full of antibiotics in their feed, not to mention growth hormones. Grass fed cattle also have a much better balance of Omega 3 fats than grain fed cows, and your chances of getting E. Coli and other diseases is much less. Bison, or buffalo, is another alternative, but make sure it is 100% grass fed, not grain finished. Also try an ancient breed of cattle called Criollo, supposedly brought here by Columbus and naturally tender, and which I can vouch for personally.
So I take it you've never seen a cow eat her own placenta (after-birth) after delivering a calf, have you? Maybe you should get out in the "real world" more often.
I see Sarah Palin is residing in California now...
Kudos to you, and I'm sure we'd all be healthier if we did convert. I eat vegetarian about 3 times a week. However, with all the recalls with produce over the last few years, fresh, or raw fruits and vegetables aren't exactly a safe haven from nasty toxins, like e.coli, et. al. A few of those recalls were even traced to the organic farming industry.
The original "Mad Cow." The brain disease she causes is incurable too.
I became vegetarian in '98 to try to avoid crap like this.
I like beef, but I try not to eat it too often. I just don't like how it "digests" within myself when I eat it often. I do enjoy a nice tasty hamburger or steak every once a while. Tasty!
so is colon cancer-nothing like pooping out of a bag to set the mood of romance.
Properly raised beef will never give you colon cancer.
local news just reported cow was found on a ranch near fresno ca. now all animals at this dairy are being checked
This reminds me of a child's poem (Nursery ryme) about the black plague called ring around the rosy, and one we seem to have forgotten about; mary had a little lamb.
Don't bother posting last comment...let me re-phrase....
please see the following:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bovine_spongiform_encephalopathy
Regulatory failures
In February 2001, the USGAO reported that the FDA, which is responsible for regulating feed, had not adequately enforced the various bans.[46] Compliance with the regulations was shown to be extremely poor before the discovery of the Washington cow, but industry representatives report that compliance is now total. Even so, critics call the partial prohibitions insufficient. Indeed, U.S. meat producer Creekstone Farms alleges that the USDA is preventing BSE testing from being conducted.[47]
The USDA has issued recalls of beef supplies that involved introduction of downer cows into the food supply. Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing Company was found to have used electric shocks to prod downer cows into the slaughtering system in 2007.[48] Possibly due to pressure from large agribusiness, the United States has drastically cut back on the number of cows inspected for BSE.[49]
I so glad to see we're getting our moneys worth from the FDA. Your tax dollars at work!
The meat supply is not safe-do your homework and only eat humanely raised beef, pork and chicken. Factory farmed animals put you at risk for e-coli, salmonella, MRSA and a host of other illnesses. Do you really think they get a good scrubbing before they are slaughtered?? They are forced to stand, lay, and sit in their waste all day. They are fed hormones and antibiotics to speed up growth and keep infections at bay. Hmmm....don't you think that ingesting these meds on a regular basis is going to eventually cause some harm?? If you don't want to change for yourself, do it for your children, grandchildren, etc. Take control over the quality of food that you eat-send factory farmers and Big Ag a message. Or just sit by and get sick. I feel better since I gave up meat in 2006. I don't drink milk, limit my cheese inake to organic or vegan. My stomach and intestinal system are much happier. :) Think before you eat....
Every kind of food can hurt you if its not cooked or cooked properly even organic or natural or whatever. Organic means nothing BTW. If a USDA organic labeling makes you feel warm and fuzzy and you like paying more money for your food then by all means. But if you could really show me reputable citation where it shows organic potatoes or healtheir than regular potatoes or organic beef nexts to natural beef I would love to see it?
Spoken by the ignorant....do you have any idea what you are talking about?
http://Www.healthy-eating-tips/7-foods-should-never-cross-your-lips/1-canned-tomatoes
Here is one of many...do some research and all the things you asked will be proven and answered
It does not matter if you cook this disease... it is a prion disease and does not die off if you char it to death. Anyone who eats factory farmed animals is killing themself – so so vile!
and your mis infromed so called "big ag" represents a small percentage of where your food comes from.
The avg size of the american cow herd is like 50 animals per farm or rancher. Ag is big in the vertical intergration and therefore you get to buy your food cheaper. I guess we could grass fatten the nations beef supply and I promise it would atleast double the price people are currently paying at the grocery store.
The Tea Party and the Republican Party need to take note of this story. The Tea Party wants to remove agencies that keep an eye out for things exactly like this. They say we do not need government protection. Well if the government is not going to do it and keep us informed that just opens the door to anyone selling anything and having no consequences. And I suppose the Tea Party Republicans say a "private" entity could run this. Corruption will make it's way into private and government entities alike. The plus side of having the government run it is that its findings are made public. A private company does not have to disclose anything unless under court order. The way it should work is the government runs it. Citizens become involved for over sight and laws are put in place to punish corruption. Seems simple enough but when money comes into play everything changes and common sense goes out the window to save a few dollars which intern could potentially affect alot of people in a very negative way just some a another big corporation or rich individual can make a few more bucks. And you want to put a gut that is going to spend 600 + million dollars into getting elected to get rid of things that protect you and your family so they can save a few bucks ? Greedy Tea Party Republicans.
Pilar Sanders, have your blood checked.
Living in Australia, I really don't care. We have no Mad Cow or such diseases out here, so it isn't a problem at this stage.
If it becomes a problem then I'll switch to eating kangaroo meat which is readily available, it's much healthier anyway and roos do not add methane to the atmosphere due to a particular micro-organism in their gut.
'Roos don't fart; a duck's quack doesn't echo; male seahorses get pregnant; Obama will be the next POTUS. What a truly amazing world we live in.
Chances to contract the disease is one in 10 billion. Yet, I still cannot donate blood as I lived in the UK during the outbreak there in the early 90s.
1/ 10 billion?:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bovine_spongiform_encephalopathy#Epidemiology
"In humans, symptoms of vCJD involve psychiatric symptoms and behavioral changes, movement deficits, memory disturbances, and cognitive impairments." OH YEAH, AND GUARANTEED DEATH!
Well I guess Canada, Japan, South Korea, Australia and other countries should impose a ban on U.S. beef imports. Didn't the U.S. and these other countries do this to Canada when a mad cow was found there.
Naturally, in the equally rare occurrance that this happens to bovine in Canada, the reaction from the U.S. is "Canada is contaminated!!! Avoid all meat products (Heck...might as well be vague so Americans reject chicken and pork from Canada, too) or expect to DIE!!!! No need to lay out the stats/facts in these cases.....
There's a very simple, sure-fire solution to this problem that's readily available: start raising cows that have been genetically modified to not produce prions. A breed like this was genetically engineered in 2006.
Interesting, please cite your source. Doesn't sound possible to this food scientist.
Call the USDA and ask them about bone meal and its current uses. Food scientists doesnt mean anything as most of them dont understand the production side anyway. As someone who helps feed the world and understands these operations yea I can tell you there wasnt bone meal being used.
I am not even a dairy men.
I don't know the specific example SixDegrees is citing, but it does seem possible to engineer a cow less susceptible to BSE from other cows. BSE is transmitted by prion protein from an infected animal starting a chain reaction in the protein of the animal who eats it. If you make a cow whose protein is sufficiently different, you reduce the risk of that chain reaction being kicked off. Likewavise, the article is probably not correct when it says dogs and cats can't catch prion disease from a cow – it's less likely for sure, but all mammals he similarities in their proteins and thus it is possible.
The company is Hematech. Cited in the Washington Post, here: washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/31/AR2006123100672.html
I have an even simpler solution yet! I don't eat beef – period! Healthy, slim and happy works for me ;)
"BSE is usually transmitted between cows through the practice of recycling bovine carcasses for meat and bone meal protein, which is fed back to other cattle. In this case, the USDA reports that it was an atypical, rare form of BSE not likely carried by contaminated feed."
Ill say it again this is not a factual statement. I guarantee you 100% there was no bone meal fed to this cow. Do a little research and you will see that most areas of the world have banned the use of it except in dog and cat food and as a fuel.
Your "guarantee" is worth nothing. Thanks anyway!
Dairy cows are fed only the highest quality feed available because if they are not milking at peek production they are costing the dairymen money instead of making him money. These dairys cant even get their hands on bone meal if they wanted to besides the audits and inspections from third partys it would cost them huge fines and possibly their entire operation. So yea I can guarantee you because I am actually know how these things work and the current rules and regs. Why do you think so many dairy have gone under the last 5 years? Again they couldnt get their hands on it if they wanted to. Before you make stupid posts about things you dont know do a little research.
Trakk is actually right, it's banned. That question came up during my reading of the article as I had just learned that the practice was banned.
Wonder how long before the R-Calf whiners start blaming Canada for this mad cow case too.
you should all be smart enough to google the experts and see what they are saying now
Here's a thought: stop feeding cows to cows.
Agreed!
Nonetheless, a British BSE expert has pointed out that at least one human case suggests passage of prions in milk. A Japanese woman dying of CJD was found
Transmitting Prion Diseases In Milk
Scrapie " A PRION illness" can be transmitted to lambs through milk, according to new research. The study provides important information on the transmission of this prion-associated disease and the control of scrapie in affected flocks. Scrapie is a fatal neurodegenerative disease of sheep and goats. Clinical signs include itchiness, head tremor, wool loss and skin lesions as well as changes in behaviour and gait
Alzheimers is being listed as the cause for dementia in a lot of patients, CJD is fast acting as is Mad cow, A doctor told us at the Veterans hospital that a lot of cases were being mis diagnosed as Alzheimers even though the progression of symptoms was a lot faster then what happens to Alz patients. In our case a seemingly normal guy who owned a car restoration garage was suddenly posting notes to himself on where to find his bathroom, he lived in Oregon and ate a lot of wild venison. he Died 3 months after starting to lose his memory.
I pretty much wish you would have finished your story... the point of it got away from me.
My Dad was treated for mild alzheimers ,About 3 mths later Dad was Falling on the ground And didn't have a clue who he was, Dad was just Going thru the motions, Heck my Mother! would Yell at him as Dad was Driving(Saying JIM) Take a left now go straight ,Right Jim Right. Dad worked at Texas Instruments till he retired early and moved to Florida(My Mothers PPL lived There Not Dads)
Next= I went to help my Dad a no nonsense old fashion Values, He would work 3 jobs to take care of his family, My Mother Worked Very Little Public Work, But she raised 4 boys =a full time job. In April=Funny were talking about CJD in April? Dad was relaxing in April of 2005 (Having a Beer with my Cousin Kenny) Days later my dad was falling ,My mother couldn't pick dad up, She had to get a young man to help(Very Embarrasing) My dad was Sooooo Self Supporting ,Dad had so much pride, This Misdiagnoised Disease Was a Total Botched ,Butchered, Mocked,Abused by these Dr's in Bradenton ,Fl I personaly overheard two top Doctor Heads of Brain disorders, disease etc in the hospital totally Knowing it was CJD discussing all forms of using dad as a Lab Rat to further there studies, Then 2 weeks later Dad Passed, Only then for the first Time our family Knew Dad had died of CJD. We had been told it was Alzheimers right up to his death. The Scary part is the dr's knew it was CJD months B-4 dad passed, The Dr's had drew fluid from his spine, Finding the 14? Sided Protiens found only in CJD, But kept it a Secret from our family, So the Dr's could do more Test .
G.R
I Have been watching the news(CNN) There saying theres only like one case in 2006, My dad Died in 2005 of CJD- Oh and my Dad never ate Squirrel Brains Nor was Dad Ever in another country!!, Dad mainly ate Salad. Bradenton,Fl 2005 Dad Passed. I traveled from Kentucky to Bradenton Fl, To help my mother with Dad. I was there till his passing, I watched the Nero Dr's Talk to each other at a whisper, They had Drawn Spinal Fluid from Dad and knew of the 14 sided protien Found in CJD Patients, But over a mth or so The Family is still being told its Alzheimers, Not till dad Passed and my mother gets the death certificate Does Mom Notice something strange=The cause of Death CJD=Long word- Not Alzheimers. My mother had to look the word up to find out what the heck it was? To the Familys Surprise was this Terrible Disease CJD. We don't know how dad contracted it. But I will tell everyone=You cannot cook the disease out of meat, Even if its totally Burn't. It's a Awful thing to watch your tough dad who had no bad habits, Dad was stout, Dad ate Salad everyyday for his meal. I miss my father alot everyday, The sad part was the Lying and Abuse my father was subjected too by the Dr's.
G.R
I lost my mom last August to CJD. We also live in Oregon. While we were in the hospital we heard from two nurses of three other patients with the same disease. They say it is very rare. I think not.
You folks seem to have a problem realizing that "classic CJD", although closely related, is not the same disease as that attributed to 'mad cow'.
The use of feed deriving from animals such as bone meal is completly outlawed and has been for some time in the USA. The same goes for US dairy cows. None of these cows were fed any type of animals by products. Only the highest quality alfalfa, silage and corn....
Well, no. The ban is only partial, and allows several other byproducts from ruminant slaughter to be used in cattle feed.
And fwiw, cows have a very hard time digesting corn; it isn't part of their natural diet, and it gives them ulcers. I'd suggest reading "The Omnivore's Dilemma" for a very detailed look at American farming techniques, from CAFOs to organic to hunting.
It may be that bone meal was outlawed but please see this entry found at Wikipedia regarding enforcement:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bovine_spongiform_encephalopathy
Regulatory failures
In February 2001, the USGAO reported that the FDA, which is responsible for regulating feed, had not adequately enforced the various bans.[46] Compliance with the regulations was shown to be extremely poor before the discovery of the Washington cow, but industry representatives report that compliance is now total. Even so, critics call the partial prohibitions insufficient. Indeed, U.S. meat producer Creekstone Farms alleges that the USDA is preventing BSE testing from being conducted.[47]
The USDA has issued recalls of beef supplies that involved introduction of downer cows into the food supply. Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing Company was found to have used electric shocks to prod downer cows into the slaughtering system in 2007.[48] Possibly due to pressure from large agribusiness, the United States has drastically cut back on the number of cows inspected for BSE.[49]
Read the article people: "chance of contracting mad cow disease, even after consuming contaminated products, is less than one in 10 billion, if at all" You are more likely to win the lottery and then get struck by lightning after marrying a super model.
I'd settle for just the Super Model.
The meat,dairy supplies still safe.
......NEWS FLASH.......fox News has reported that Romney will SLASH the FDA and CDC budget as soon as possible.
contributor TREX has been eating burgers made with high concentrations of brains, neck bones and beef cheeks, bone marrow.
News at 11.
Well.... Since the scotus recently ruled that big ag is no longer required to exclude 'downer' steers from slaughter for the market, I'm sure we'll be seeing more of these as well many more toxins in our meats, along with more recalls. Thoughtful of em, wasn't it?
Once again the media doesn't ask the hard questions of the USDA. The food industrial complex MUST END and all feed lots disbanded. And at the very least it should be illegal to feed beef byproducts to cows. My understanding is that mad cow disease is only passed from one cow to another when they eat infected cow parts. The media must report the true facts to the American people so all of us can make informed decisions as to what we buy to feed our families and which lawmakers and government agencies have been corrupted to allow these horrible practices to continue!!
If they reported the true facts, you would be faced with finding out you're wrong about a lot of things.
Too late. You can see the shaking stagering people walking around everywhere. They can't control what you see at your door step anymore.
I would like to inform you that it already is illegal to feed cow parts (and other animals with fours stomachs, called ruminants) to cows or sheep and has been for several years now.
You're eating me, you're drinking me, you're wearing my skin. But I'M the one whose mad.
Well it is a milk cow. Lots of products have milk and butter in them. The infection wasn't found until the dead aminal got to a rendering plant. so.. it could have made alot or milk before it died. Kraft foods Deans foods and land O Lakes are all suspect as well as every thing made with milk products in calf.
Well, no. Prions aren't found in milk.
And the disease is not spread via milk, therefore whether or not the cow's milk was used in products doesn't matter.
Can't you read? "...milk does not transmit BSE."
"The animal has been euthanized and the carcass is being being HELD under State authority at a rendering facility."
BTW, do you know the difference between a processing and rendering plant?
I still will eat beef. this is only a dairy cow not a field cow. so theirs no need to panic because only the meat will harm us and the cow will never be eaten its a dairy cow. also the cows milk is not affected so we shouldn't worry at all about mad cow disease!
still by beef its good for u!
I don't know why you think mal-formed proteins arn't in milk. It is a body fluid and proteins move through the body fluids – that called eating.
Animals aren't just big spongy bags that soak up food at one and and squirt out waste at the other. Prions have never been found in any tissue other than that of the central nervous system. Like so many other diseases, this one affects only a very particular type of cell.
Actually dairy cows do enter the food system once their milk production falls below an economical point. The cheap stakes and other cheap types of milk come largely from dairy cows. Culled dairy cows (unless they do not pass inspection) END UP IN THE FOOD SYSTEM! It's unfortunate that some media houses and authority figures are falsely claiming that dairy cows don't enter the food system. This however does not mean that beef is not safe since the US has implemented a variety of changes including insuring body parts (brain, spine etc) that are carriers of the disease from entering the food system.
What kind of "agscientist" are you? Your comments can't help but make one wonder. Last time I checked, unless it was goat milk or sheep milk – not likely to see too much buffalo milk here – all milk, cheap or not, came from dairy cows. And I have never seen a 'stake' that came from any bovine animal . . . although I guess one could sharpen a bone enough to make a 'stake' out of it. I don't think anyone ever claimed that cull or spent dairy cows don't enter the human food system. The statement was made that this particular animal was never intended for the human food system. There's a rather large difference between one specific animal not being used for food and an entire class of animals not being used.
The cows probably caught it from Jerry Brown.
BSE is not in the milk. But it is in the blood, and there is frequently blood in the milk from udders that are chapped and rubbed and bleeding from over milking and rough milking. Commercially produced milk is not safe to drink, and eating the meat is definitely not safe. BSE symptoms don't manifest until cows are older, which is why they are killed young. A number of US cows have it but they don't show. But its still being passed into the food chain. Sorry... but its the truth.
Your a Twit, more people world wide have died from contaminated spinach than mad cow. Unfortunately fear mongering like what you are doing has cost billions of dollars. Many Canadian farmers lost entire herds and lost farms because of fear based hysteria. You have a better chance of getting hit crossing the street, maybe you should stop leaving your house...just in case!! Moron
Ashley: I was impressed by the logic and clarity of your comment ... until you called the other writer a moron. Please allow me to suggest that not everyone who disagrees with you, or for that matter, not even everyone who is mistaken on a certain point, is a moron. Reasonable people can disagree.
Moron by definition – Informal . a person who is notably stupid or lacking in good judgment. I don't think that the comment was unjust. I come from a farming community that is hugely impacted by people that lack good judgement. My father-in-law is a butcher that suffered greatly due to low beef prices. People need to stop the misinformations about what is safe and what is not and learn the facts! Peoples livelyhood could very well depend on it.
Yup... that's what I expect from the cattle industry – name calling. I don't mind though, Ashley. And I'm sorry that your butcher relative suffered economic hardship. I grew up eating meat. Lots of it. But I eventually realized what many people are these days, and that is that eating meat is bad for your arteries and your waistline, and it is linked with all sorts of cancers. Read "The China Study". We do not need the cattle industry to thrive on this planet, or the pig industry or the chicken industry. And you're wrong about BSE being dangerous. Read Howard Lyman's book – he was the head of the cattleman's association in Montana.
Its in the nervous system cells, not the blood cells.
And even if you do eat contiminated beet, the chances of you catching it are almost non-existant. This is people blowing something that is barely a danger way out of proportion.
How do you know Wit does leave the house?
Republicans will start blaming Obama in 3.... 2... 1....
haha... its true!
I thought it was more like the dems. or Obama would blame Bush as he/them have for past three years.
I'm sure they're not mad, they're from California, they just have issues; like not enough people eating at Chick Fil A
You shouldn't talk about Maxine Waters that way. Or is it Pelosi?
we have a pretty impressive veterinarian group in the US. rare that i trust many people, but they really are an impressive group. usually.
i appreciate very much that they told us.
Cows are not carnivores.. stop turning them into cannibals.
No doubt. I only eat grass fed cows grown in Colorado. Never eat meat not raised within 50 miles of your home!
Couldn't agree more, Sarah!
It's been against the law to "turn them into cannibals" for several years now.
Well, mostly. There has been a strict ban on feeding any central nervous system tissue from ruminants to other ruminants for several years, but several slaughter byproducts are still permitted in cattle feed.
I don't know that I would call it "several". When it comes to ruminant by-products – all meat is banned, period. All offal is banned, period. All bone is banned, period. Blood and blood products are permitted, as is milk and milk products, but that's about the extent of the list.
I'm not taking into account the twice-cooked stuff, so if we include that, then my comment is in error.
I thought only Happy cows come from Califorina
Happy like a loon...
It's easy to tell the difference: happy cows have fields of grass to smoke; mad cows do not.
Since I'm not a fear mongering liberal, I'm eating a hamburger right now.
Fear mongering liberal?? You crazy... The republican party is the party of fear, which is why we ended up in Iraq without any WMDs found at all.
We have to pass health care right now...
Moo. Moo. Moooooooooooooooooooooooooo. Moooooooeeeeeeeeeooooooooooooo. Moo
Finally. A voice of reason.
Alpaca...Yum. small farms and safe
All of the comments on this page are strong evidence of why the government isn't forthcoming. You are all too stupid to interpret the data even if they gave it to you. Intstead you would all rather mindlessly overreact or decide that somehow this supports your idiotic agenda.
Guess how much impact this will have on anyone's life or health anywhere? Zero.
And your comment is evidence as to why government power needs to be limited. You read a comments page, assume you thereby know all there is to know about the American public, and government "Aha–government is the solution." That is truly scary.
The invention and anonymity of the Internet has allowed the world to see into the disgusting minds of adolescent boys. The two worst countries are Ireland and the United States. Violent, uncouth, and know it alls. But at least we are warned.
Toadears: Although I am far from adolescent, I am American, and I found your comment rather odd. You wrote that the two worst countries are Ireland and the U.S. Worst in what exactly? In how people express themselves on the internet? And how would you know if a writer is from Ireland, or the U.S., rather than Canada or Scotland or England? Or from Nairobi, for that matter? And, if I may say, your comment paints with rather too broad a brush.
FWIW, when Mad Cow disease first appear in Britain the response was pure panic. Nearly everyone in the nation was exposed, and predictions at the time claimed that bodies would start piling up in the streets in just a few years. With each passing year, the predictions were extended; still no body piles, and after almost 30 years the number of confirmed cases remains at the handful level.
I'm not suggesting it isn't serious or that it isn't easily controlled simply by changing feed regulations, something I favor. But it doesn't seem worth getting all worked up over; apparently, it just isn't that transmissible.
Thank you, Six. Private Eye magazine in the UK has been saying the same for years.
wow, this is insane
What–another Hillary Romer story?
This is all being orchestrated so that Obama can come to the rescue.
Don't forget your tinfoil hat. I bet the government is reading your mind as we speak.
I see a typo in your name...looks like you typed an "s" instead of a "d"....
pretend I said a "d" instead of an "s"...carry on...
Grass-Fed pastured beef is never exposed to Mad Cow. It is time to demand better for yourself and your family!
Sorry to inform you, this is an incorrect statement. Prions have many different modes of transmittal. But if you really wanted to know that, you would have Googled huh? Or maybe, just read the story and found out that this was a rare variant. Wonder where it came from?
Prion diseases appear to arise spontaneously; deer and elk, for instance, get their own BSE variant without eating anything other than their natural diet.
I love the panic here. If you are panicking you are probably dense.
Do some research yourself, what they are telling you is true: its not transferred from milk, the cow was not killed. This happens atypically too.
FOR EXAMPLE: in the wild there are Deer (venison) that just *become downed* naturally while hunters are looking around for deer to hunt. That is because THEY TOO have a form of this disease. In fact, there is a HUMAN STRAIN of this prion disease found in cannibalistic cultures.
If you want a simple answer: DO NOT EAT OVER PROCESSED THINGS. ITS BAD FOR YOU ANYWAYS. SUPPORT A SMALL BUSINESS, EAT LOCAL. You'll like the way that you eat, I guarantee it.
*was not killed for meat.
Deer do not have their own form of prion disease. To contract a prion disease an animal (or person) must eat brain matter from an infected individual. In fact I would argue that wild venison is much healthier than any kind of beef and you know its organic.
Hey, "kid" (with emphasis on "kid") -
Maybe it's 'semantics', or a mere technicality and you're correct, but it looks like you really ought to try to find out something about 'chronic wasting disease'.
Look up CWD. There is no doubt that it is a prion disease, very similar to BSE, that occurs apparently spontaneously within the deer and elk population in North America.
So... how do you tell the difference between someone with mad cow disease and anyone else in California??? They're all nut cases.
I'd really like to berate you for such a nasty and ignorant over-generalization, but your spelling and grammar are above reproach. I declare it a wash.
It was Michelle Bachman.
bahahahahahahahaha
That made my day...
Simple is as simple does, I guess..
Given that liberals are so angry it makes sense their cows would be mad as well
Social liberals or fiscal liberals?
Social conservatives can lick my b@lls...
Sorry to ruin your day, jon, but no mad liberals involved. The areas of California with commercial dairy and beef cattle operations are all pretty much solid red GOP base area. Guess it's becuase they're used to the smell, they can't detect the BS from the candidates they elect. :D
LOL! Good one!
Liberals angry? You are confused. Liberals are usually very level-headed, well informed and well educated people. Republicans are generally angry, gun-toting, racists. Hate is a big part of their agenda. But I can't really blame liberals if they were angry after all the damage that Republicans have done to this country.
Never saw or heard of or met a rancher who wasn't a RABID ultra right Republican. They all think Reagan was a secret Communist; way beyond looney.
I also personally know of a 61 year old woman from Omaha, Ne. who died of mad cow disease. It was kept quiet and
certainly did not hit the news. I called the CDC about this, and guess what? They said they were not interested.
I could not believe it. The family was asked if they preferred to keep this private and they said yes.
Not saying I don't believe you....but how did you know the death was caused specifically by Mad Cow Disease?
Then I'll say it – I don't believe you.
Betty – do you also "personally know" that there is an entire family of transmissible spongiform encephalopy (TSE) diseases, and that 'mad cow' is only one of them? Do you know that there is a recognized human TSE called Cerutzfeldt-Jakob disease that has been around for decades – long before the first ever case of "mad cow"? It's much more likely that she died of this than a BSE-induced disease.
Edit for typo: encephalopathy
It's very possible she died of CJD which does affect 300 americans each year, but CJD is in no way related to mad cow disease which causes vCJD. Both diseases cause the same physical symptoms but show different neurological signs when you look at brainwave patterns and examine the spongiform tissue caused by the diseases.
No, I know her too. It wasn't Mad Cow....she was truly nutz!
My Mother-in-law died of CJD two years ago. It ravaged her in a two month time period. It's an awful disease.
Mad cow disease.............doesn't happen when farmers care about their animals, and feed them what they are designed to eat. Cows are herbivores they are designed to eat grass, and weeds not grain, corn and cattle bone meal protein.
Well, no. That's how it spreads. But it can arise spontaneously. Note that other ruminants, notably deer, get a variant of BSE despite feeding on a natural, vegetarian diet.
Hey Six, its been shown that all those deer had eaten at a McDonald's sometime within 6 months of their diagnosis.
Deer and elks get CWD, the deer form of BSE, without eating animal carcasses.
Many beef have gotten BSE without having eaten animal carcasses.
No one really knows if eating meat from an animal with BSE causes vCJD or not, it is just a theory.
Bottom line is there is a heck of a lot we don't know about BSE, CWD, and vCJD. Most of what people think they know has never actually been proven.
This is not unlike the early days of the AIDS/HIV epidemic when people incorrectly thought you could get it from shaking someone's hand or a mosquito.
Mad Cow Disease? Shoot, I thought that's what Nancy Pelosi's excuse was, all this time!!
WHICH FARM?
WHERE DID/DOES BEEF FROM THIS FARM GO?
DID THEY SHUT DOWN THE FARM OR NOT?
THEY RECALL OTHER PRODUCTS THAT ARE CONTAMINATED WITH MICROORGANISMS YOU CAN KILL WITH PROPER COOKING, TELLING US THE LOT NUMBERS TO AVOID, WHERE IT WAS DISTRIBUTED AND WHAT PROCEDURES HAVE BEEN IMPLEMENTED TO MAKE SURE THERE ARE NO OTHER INFECTED PRODUCTS. THIS DISEASE CAN BE TRANSMITTED FROM ANIMAL TO ANIMAL (HENCE THE NAME OF THE RELATED DISEASE, SCRAPIE). SO THERE IS NO TELLING WHETHER THE REMAINING HERD OR NEIGHBORING HERD IS CONTAMINATED.
UNTIL THIS INFORMATION/PROTECTION IS PROVIDED BY THE FDA, PEOPLE SHOULD NOT EAT BEEF! iF THE CATTLE INDUSTRY WANTS TO PROTECT ITSELF FROM CATASTROPHIC LOSSES DUE, THEN FESS UP AND BE TOTALLY TRANSPARENT.
And where do you get your information, "Mr. BSE Expert?"
This makes 4 confirmed cases in the USA, at least 1 or 2 of which were dairy cattle that had been imported from Canada. These cases also were several years ago. It's quite interesting that NO OTHER ANIMALS IN THOSE HERDS were found to have the disease, nor have been found to have the disease in the intervening 5+ years. So where is your "proof" that this is transmitted from beef animal to beef animal? or are you just spouting off to hear yourself spout?
The vast majority of the BSE cases in Europe were traced to contaminated feed. This would – obviously – spread through a herd rather quickly, if they're all eating the same stuff. That is exactly why the restrictions on feed ingredients that are in place today were enacted.
Did you miss the part about NONE OF THIS ANIMAL BEING IN THE HUMAN FOOD SUPPLY? It was never headed for the human food supply in the first place. Take your sensationalism and scare tactics somewhere else.
Hmmm!?! That would be from research conducted in my laboratory at UCSF, which has been published in the most highly respected, peer reviewed scientific and medical journals. I won the Nobel Prize in medicine in 1997 for discovering PRIONS and elucidating the nature and mechanism of transmission.
Congratulations on your Nobel Prize – I applaud you. However, I am still quite curious – and dubious – about the direct (which you insinuated) animal-to-animal transmission in cattle. I find it quite odd that, apparently, none of the other animals in the herds, or neighboring herds, of the affected individuals have been found to be BSE-positive. That would lead one to believe that direct transmission is "possible", but that it is highly "improbable", wouldn't you say? (Especially considering that the previous 3 cases were well over 5 years ago.)
Some years ago when there was the case of the Canadian cow discovered to have this disease and there was panic in the land and the USDA was pushing a regulation that way overstepped its bounds and was using Mad Cow as the reason we should want them to do it, I decided to see what the risk actually was. I wanted to find out how many people died annually in the United of CJD acquired by eating tainted meat. Avoiding all sites that clearly had an agenda one way or the other, and sticking solely to sites of agencies that were charged with keeping that kind of data, I eventually discovered that, at that point in time, there had been 150 cases, worldwide, of deaths THOUGHT to have been caused by CJD acquired through consumption of tainted meat. Not annually, not in the US, but EVER – over the course of 20 years. Note that the article above states that the risk of acquiring CJD from tainted meat (there are other ways one can get the disease), EVEN IF YOU CONSUME TAINTED MEAT, is LESS THAN ONE IN ONE BILLION. I'd have more respect for CNN if they'd led with that little fact rather than burying it down in the article. But what fun would that be?
3 people just hit the lottery at 760 million to 1... i dont buy the 1 in a billion odds. the numbers dont add up to that if you consider how many people have gotten it and how many reported contaminated cows supposedly made it to the table.
nobody would read a headline that read 'you have less than a 1 billion chance of contracting mad cow disease' except to make fun of it.
Real California Beef Comes from Real Mad Cows. Wait I have one more........
Beef. It's what not's for dinner.
Welcome to the Land Of Milk And Honey..... Are we allowed to know the dairy company name??? ... At the speed things evolve we may need to think about the milk & what side effects it may have ... Safety 1st & may i say how sad i am that we turn our cows carnel ... I eat cow meat but i'm a human... I just want reassurance that the milk is 100% safe ... If the farmers dont drink it i -I dont want the children of america to drink it !! Theres enough land for farmers to feed there cows off natural pasture just to many big house goverment regulations on the govermnt land... Heres to a safers source of milk.... The land of Milk N Honey
"and cuts of beef that are sold on the bone" ~ Sooooo pretty much ALL steaks and ribs, right? Just f'n great! I can see that "pink slime" making a big comeback. I'm sure that ammonia hydroxide treatment can kill this type of bacteria and any other type.
its actually caused by misfolded proteins that become infectious and cant be killed by antibacterials or any other treatments to the beef. this disease can be transmitted even with gross chemical treatments that have so many other negative effects on the body
MCD is a prion (a rogue protein), not a bacteria. There's nothing that can be done to remove it from contaminated meat.
BSE is caused by a prion, which is a misfolded protein. I am pretty sure the only way to sterilize is to denature the protein. So I am not sure if the ammonia hydroxide would work.
You think mad cow is bad? Apparently inhaling pig brains is bad for your neurological system too: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/05/health/05pork.html?pagewanted=all
not sure how many people eat the brains and suck on bones.
Once these mutated proteins get into you, your history it is as deadly as rabies, maybe even more.
Kinda like the California Democrats.
By eating free-range, grass fed beef, this is NEVER an issue. Cattle were not meant to consume meat or corn. They eat grass. Pay more. It's worth the expense.
Yet wild deer and elk get CWD, the deer form of BSE.
Amen Dave
You do realize – of course – that corn is "a grass", don't you?
I guess next you will say that a peach is a tree.
what do you expect? its obvious feeding carcasses of dead cows to live ones is ridiculous as wow look! you have transmitted a disease!!
I bet most of you have never been on a ranch or been near a feedlot. Okay let's say you feed cattle only grass....do you know how many acres one animal takes??? Of course that varies due to the condition of the grass, but if you took corn and milo out of the picture we wouldn't have enough acres for the number of head we have in the US...guess we would have to dramatically reduce the number of cows and given the beef demand..I guess people would pay multiple times the dollars that they do now at the grocery stores or eating establishments...oh and since we would then have a huge glut of grain on the market (or do we just give it away), I guess we would find new markets for grain so our Farmers wouldn't go broke???? I suppose everyone of you work for free so I guess our farmers should too...huh? Think just a little bit, before you start telling everyone else how it should be. Farmers and Ranchers work for a living not just for exercise...ruin farming and ranching and you will see what it is like to go without...does North Korea ring a bell???
Because it's better to feed cattle something that their systems were never designed to eat and that poses not just a threat of mad-cow disease, but breeds increasingly resistant strains of e-coli (due to higher acidity in the digestive tract of cattle), of course, you're not worried about health of cattle or humans, just about profit.
Spare me the "we HAVE to do it or we'll all starve" nonsense. You and I both know that the reason for feeding corn and beef byproducts to cattle is to increase profit, nothing more.
Okay EK, why not get your butt out here in farm country. Gee, cows weren't meant to eat corn??? Really??? They seem to like it just fine...I don't see them puking it up. And now the LIBERAL EK uses the old tactic of claiming that I don't care about the health of anyone....guess what buddy...I knew someone that died of BSE!!! That is the God's honest truth...how did he get it...we don't and won't ever know so don't make assumptions about whether I care. Ecoli is not a good thing and the packers try and they are inspected...does it get through?? Yes and you should know how to properly cook meat. There are risks in this world in just crossing the street, I guess we better not let anyone cross a street. We feed corn, because consumers also demand the flavor of our beef in comparison to grass fed cattle. We can produce more gain and keep everyone fed...is it profitable...trust me not all the time. I know cattlemen that have lossed their asses feeding cattle. If you want to dictate what our grain can be used for, you are basically setting up the entire US ag industry for failure and when I talk ag industry, I am mostly talking about the small family owned farms that are in my area. You want to regulate to the point that there is no risk in anything.....you have the choice...you can eat grass fed cattle...there is some out there, as for me, I'll choose to live my life in freedom and CHOOSE to eat grain feed beef, pork, and chicken...my bet...I'll outlive you, because people back here live to be very old, because we eat well and work hard.
Quick, since you seem to know so much about cows . . . what is a cow's natural diet? I'll give you a hint, it's not corn. Their stomach and digestive tract is not adapted to it. Digesting corn requires a more acidic system. In order to digest corn products, cattle must produce more acid within their stomach(s). When they do so, the already existing e-coli in their system becomes more resistant. This is fact. Doubt me, Let's see what the experts (meaning not you) have to say: http://www.farmandranchguide.com/news/livestock/corn-processing-method-could-it-affect-e-coli-prevalence-in/article_ea03f0ce-9ac6-11e0-aa3d-001cc4c002e0.html
"It has been found in a host of studies that there is a distinct link between corn processing method and E. coli O157:H7 prevalence in a beef cattle herd. Of the methods examined, a majority of studies found that feeding steam flaked corn resulted in a greater amount of E. coli O157:H7 fecal shedding by beef cattle than when feeding dry rolled corn."
Cattle, left to eat their natural diet will eat grasses, not grains. That's a fact. You can't deny it, you can't disprove it. If you starve an animal long enough, it will eat whatever you feed it. Saying "they eat it" doesn't mean a thing if you offer no alternative. Offer a starving man dried whale intestines and he will eat it. It doesn't mean he likes it or that it's a normal part of his diet.
You can try to deny scientific and agricultural fact all you like, it doesn't change reality.
Also – knowing how to properly cook meat has little bearing on what happens to the run-off from cattle operations where resistant e-coli has been allowed to thrive, this run-off can contaminate neighboring crops, etc. We've already seen contaminated vegetable products traced to nearby pork farming operations, it's not exactly a stretch to see how the same could occur with cattle operations.
@ EK -
You should have quit while you were still at least fairly even . . .
"Cattle, left to eat their natural diet will eat grasses, not grains. That's a fact. You can't deny it, you can't disprove it. If you starve an animal long enough, it will eat whatever you feed it. Saying "they eat it" doesn't mean a thing if you offer no alternative. Offer a starving man dried whale intestines and he will eat it. It doesn't mean he likes it or that it's a normal part of his diet. " – This is as blatantly false as anything I've ever read. You obviously know absolutely nothing about cattle. This statement can actually be "disproven" in about 5 minutes flat, in the right setting. You don't know what you are talking about.
I'm a city boy, but I hear you loud and clear. It would be nice if we could all go back to mom and pop ranches and Lassie Come Home, but that's not the world we live in.
Ag man. Check out Polyface Farms in Virginia. There is an alternative to industrial farming which is only designed to make corporations like Monsanto and BPI rich. Incidentally, it is the same way your grandparents used to do it.
I'm not familiar with this outfit, but I guarantee you that if they aren't finishing on grain, it's not the way my grandparents did it. It has been known for decades that finishing beef animals with a grain-rich diet changes the flavor of the meat – in what is almost universally perceived as a positive way. This is because the fatty acid make-up in the triglycerides is altered, with the inclusion of a higher percentage of fatty acids that are perceived to have a better taste. So, unlike what one of the previous genuises posted – no, it's not "all about the money".
EXACTLY...as you can see, the best conclusion for the planet is not feed other cows to other cows or feed them what they weren't designed to eat, but for humans to eat what they're designed to eat – plant based foods
I personally know two people in Central California who had CJD – and now both are dead. Neither traveled outside the US. The CDC confirmed the diagnosis – so why they keep saying there are no confirmed cases in CA is a mystery. There have been 2 deaths, and there are two more cases I have heard of, but can't confirm.
MY WIFE IS A MAD COW.
Wow! I used to date her ! Am I in danger?
Only if you ate her.
And married to someone totally full of bull.
they will not admit it until they are forced, if they admit it then a chain reaction will start that will affect millions of people. the cdc and the fda would have to halt beef production until they source the problem this will alot of farmers and ranchers in dire straits and cause the demand for other food sources to sky rocket along with the price tag. to the government a few dead is not worth the cost of halt beef production.
Sarah – CJD is a similar disease. It, too, is a TSE (transmissible spongiform encephalopathy), but it is not the same disease as "mad cow". That's why the CDC would not 'confirm' mad cow in CA – it wasn't mad cow.
Probably because CJD and vCJD aren't caught the same way. The CDC and other agencies can gather evidence, but there are many causes of CJD and many related diseases. So that at least is why they say there have only been four confirmed mad cow cases. It's not the same as CJD.
CJD is inherited and is a death sentence. Variant CJD is caused by consuming the prions from a cow that has BSE. The CDC doesn't report hereditary CJD.
These Prion diseases are BAD, the malformed proteins can't be destroyed by cooking , very serious.
Kraf foods, Land O Lakes, and Deans foods are in the middleof that areawhere the outbreak is occuring. You might want to eat from other parts of thecountry for a while :)
Idiot! There has never – ever – been a case of "human mad cow disease" associated with dairy products. It isn't transmitted through the milk, moron. It's interesting to know that one single case constitutes an "outbreak", too.
So that's what is wrong with Pelosi....
*Like*
And a lot of others out there!
Maybe de-regulation isn't such a good idea–even though the Republicans swear this will solve all of our problems.
Gee, I thought CA cows were happy cows because of the type of grass they ate – not because they were mad.
Many years ago the cattle industry and cattlemen in Canada were devastated by a cow contracting this disease in Alberta.
The USA banned all imports of cattle from Canada and wiped out hundreds of farms and people in the process with this policy. People lost tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars thruout the whole cattle industry
Was it a good policy/... Yes, I guess... to protect their/your cattle herds.
Many years later I ran into a gentlemen who moved into our area and in my discussion with him I learned that he was one of those wiped out financially and lost millions and ultimately went broke.
He told me the farm and more importantly the farmer whom this cattle was found in Alberta happened to be an American who moved there in this area many years previous.
The irony here folks is the Canadian Government reimbursed this farmer for all his losses including buying out his farm and he moved back to the states.
All the Canadian farmers were left out in the cold!! they never received a dime from our federal government to help them out in the interim. The reason our local and federal politicians stated for their reasons of not helping the local farmers were they didn't want to throw money down an empty pit and more importantly didn't know how long the USA ag dept were going to keep the ban in place.
I feel no sympathy towards any hardships the industry down there have to go thru now because of this.
Cool Story Bro
I guess it depends on your point of view.
Needless to say when I first spoke to this farmer/rancher I told him he was full of it.... until he showed me documentation/ correspondence from various sources/agencies he tried to deal with.
Sad story indeed!! nobody wins!!
There are many people from the USA living in Canada because of the mass exodus during the Vietnam War.
The people use the brains the good Lord gave them & vote with their feet. These greedy big & small farmers will just have to take their lumps. This is the age of information & bought off government can no longer hide from the people.
My grandma was diagnosed with CJD in 2001 but the diagnosis was then changed to a stroke. Because my uncle is an orthodox jew an autopsy was never performed. She exhibited symptoms of extreme delusion. She thought she had won millions of dollars playing bridge and was slurring speech regularly. It would have been funny had it not been so serious. The case never gained widespread publicity.
whats worse is that i thought i was lactose intolerant, got tested and found out i was alergic to a hormone they feed dairy cattle to make them produce more milk. this hormone has been used for years and is known by our government to cause massive birth deffects in the cattle and in many cases prvents them from breeding at all. and they feed this @#$t to us. anyways i switched to organic dairy products and havent had a problem since. and people wonder why there are so many people with reproductive problems.
CT,
The added hormone to cows is called rBST, or Bovine Somatatropin. This is a hormone that is naturally produced in the brain of the cow and regulates milk production. Although it is falling out of favor due to public opinion, it was supplemented to cows on top of what they produce naturally to boost production at their peak of lactation. This hormone is found in ALL cow milk – organic or not, since it is a hormone that is normally produced by the cow. There is no test to differentiate whether it is the hormone produced by the cow, or the one produced by bacteria and given to the cow. There is no government conspiracy, and it does not cause birth defects. It is also in no way related to "mad cow disease."
I ate a hamburger today. "I will gladly pay you tuesday for a hamburger today!" – Wimpy.
This article doesn't answer the fundamental question or even ask it. It just gives a generalized description of how cows get the disease but offers no explanation how this cow got it. Was it being fed tainted food which other cattle in the U.S. are getting? CNN, this story needs to be followed through.
It was probably just due to bad luck. Prion diseases (which include mad cow) are weird diseases in that you can get them from eating infected material, or because of a genetic mutation, or just because of bad luck. Every year, you have about a 1 in a million chance of spontaneously developing prion disease - not from eating anything infected, but simply due to spontaneous protein misfolding. We don't know for sure, but it is reasonable to think that the same thing is true with cattle. Therefore, a single case is not a big deal; the issue is just containing it so it doesn't cause an outbreak like in the UK.
This is somewhat analogous to cancer - for cancer, while environmental insults or genetics can cause it, it can also happen randomly through mistakes in copying your DNA as your cells divide.
eating beef is one of the most devastating things you can do to the environment. The beef industry does the following:
-cow's waste poisons the land and local water supplies
-methane produced by cows is a more potent green house gas than all the C02 produced by the world's cars&planes
-the amount of energy to produce a calorie of energy from cows is about 10x that of a plant related calorie
-the food diverted away from humans to feed cows could feed approximately 2billion humans.
Time to wake up people. Its an easy step to make a big difference. Limit your beef consumption to maybe 1 or 2 times a month and you'll make a huge difference!
Methane produced by cows is a fraction of what termites produce, and industrial plants, and even methane produced by humans. It's a weak argument.
EPA says different my friend: epa.gov/outreach/sources.html#where (see eccentric fermentation and manure management...these make up animal husbandry related methane emissions)
so we will all switch to fish instead? maybe gulf shrimp? what are those chickens eating, btw?
I see you're enjoying the Kool-aid, Max.
thanks CNN..........
nice scare...........
mad cow desease case confirmed.........
BUT.........its cow to cow.....
not cow to human?
next distraction please!
Did you read the article? Eating infected meat can cause variant form of the virus, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. It is serious. Not to mention, it highlights very disgusting farming practices.
yep and a klingon is on its way to uranus!
let's cross that bridge when we get there.
I suggest you review the history of CJD and mad cow disease in the UK.
It has never been scientifically proven that eating products from animals with BSE leads to vCJD. It is just a theory that it is what causes vCJD. And even if it did, you would be safe as long as you don't eat the brain or spine.
Maybe this is all a coincidence but I know of two confirmed cases of CJD in california in the past two months. One of those was a patient of mine and the other was a colleague's patient. So when I seen this news today I was a little bit shocked.
Veal-ism YUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM
What happen to all the happy cows of California?
Even happy cows have red tide.
Really? This again? "Though eating contaminated meat or some other animal products from cattle with BSE is thought to be the cause of a fatal brain disease (variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease) in humans" – really? By whom? The average american and the media??? The medical community is in agreement that BSE has never caused CJD in a human. They are completely different proteins. Similar diseases yes? One causing the other? No. Gotta love the media.
Wrong. It is the same protein, PrP, that causes mad cow disease and human CJD. There are a few slight differences in the amino acid sequences between human and bovine PrP; these are enough to reduce infectivity between cattle and humans but not eliminate it.
There were a few hundred cases in England of people getting CJD from eating infected beef. When acquired from cattle it is called vCJD (variant CJD) and show somewhat different disease progression than standard CJD. It is estimated that about 1,000,000 infected cattle entered the food supply in England, so the relatively small number of cases shows the low level of infectivity. In short, your post is nonsense - while it does spread cow to human efficiently, it nevertheless does sometimes happen.
(And for perspective, I have run a lab studying prion diseases for about a decade.)
And if you actually worked in a lab that studied prions you would know that while analogous in their respective species, the prions that cause CVD and BSE are actually VERY different in structure. Too different to cause the same misfolding in a different species...The prions are misfolded prions that cause other proteins to misfold – but the two species prions and functional proteins are too different to actually affect each other. So again, analogous disease but no evidence that the human prion can cause the disease in cows or visa versa. Yes there are cases of CJD and yes there are cases of BSE but never has one been shown to cause the other. We just don't understand what causes them (other than cannibalism as in the case of Kuru), so people spread BS that is unproven and unsupported.
Like others have said – the issue is this is a very poorly misunderstood so government and media are erring on the side of ridiculous caution. I agree with the commenter who compared it to thinking that HIV was spread through kissing or hand shaking in the 90s.
And if we're going to throw titles around – an MD who has read the literature on Kuru, CVD and BSE.
Basic Microbiology says otherwise. CJD is inherited VCJD is what humans get when eating "mad cows". It's a prion disease.
You know why they call it mad cow? Because PMS was already taken.
Thats sick...............................................................................................but funny.
Soylent Bovine
Another example of corporations cutting corners to maximize profits at the expense of consumers.
On the bright side – maybe if they find more I'll be allowed to donate blood again! Ever since living in Europe, I'm permanently banned from donating because of the risk of mad cow disease. But if there are more mad cows here, then everyone else's blood won't be any less likely to have mad cow. Woohoo!
Exactly! It drives me nuts. They don't even ask if you ate meat while living in Europe. It's ridiculous.
I agree with you – frustrated at not being able to donate blood since moving to the US. Wonder how the UK manages ?
John must of got his 5100. I'd really like to know his thoughts on this.
This is what happens when money dominates and is more important than the health of a society. Farmers make money making more for cheap, and everyone suffers. There are always loopholes being exploited- they agreed not to feed cow parts to cows, but they feed blood meal from cows to pigs, and blood meal from pigs to cows. Now when you're feeding the pigs parts of cows and then feeding those pigs to the cows, you might as well just feed cows to cows. So many large scale farm practices should be made illegal, and lock up those who are pushing this garbage and walking away with piles of money.
Mad Cow Disease (cattle), scrapie (sheep), Kreuzfeld-Jakob syndrome (humans), chronic wasting disease (deer, skunks, racoons and other mammals) are essentially all the same disease.
What people may not realize is that prion diseases are endemic in the US. And for wild animals the transmission is not via eating contaminated central nervous system offal but rather through mucous and saliva that they pick up by grazing.
Luckily interspecies transmission is difficult. And although not insignificant, the rate of Mad Cow Disease transmission to humans is also relatively low.
Feeding cattle ground offal from slaughterhouses is certainly one way to maintain the transmission cycle. And by slaughtering young cattle before symptoms set in, there's little ability to track the real infection rate, unless every cow is tested which becomes prohibitively expensive. So unless everyone is willing to pay double for their beef (and US consumers certainly do expect their food to be cheap), farmers will continue to use slaughterhouse waste as a protein source and the USDA is left to rely on statistical sampling methods.
But by all means lets shrink the size of the government (USDA, food inspectors, OSHA, EPA) because all "big g'ubment" is bad.
Mad Cow? Why he is FURIOUS!
VEGANISM....I'm just saying!
You do realize that much of the countries vegetable crops are fertilized by "solids" from animal farms and waste water treatment plants, right ?
yep, and they are also fertilized by your farmworkers while they harvest our vegies too!
Is that an argument against not eating animals?
Remember the e coli outbreak that contaminated all that spinach a few years ago? The myth that cutting out meat in your diet somehow alleviates all food related illnesses is ridiculous.
It was what was sprayed on the crops that is the issue – not that vegetables are naturally toxic.
Dairy cow. Meat would not be eaten (or at least it shouldn't – you never know with Pink Slime . . .) – not really a huge health scare. Yet.
This is how it started in the UK/EU. Small admissions and slowly authorities started to check more farms and found it to be more prevalent than previously thought, because they trusted the farming community to self-police.
Old dairy cows become beef for fast food restaurants. And while you could argue that you should avoid fast food restaurants anyway, we all know most americans don't.
One of the many benefits of industrialized agriculture. Many thanks to ConAgra, Monsanto, Cargill, Tyson foods and others for bringing BSE to innocent animals.
Without these companies, you and 3 billion other humans wouldn't be sitting here right now. Or if you were, you'd be relying on your 2nd Ammendment rights to protect against looters raiding your food supply.
Industrialized agriculture ensures we use less total acreage for farming to meet our food needs. Or do you advocate for converting all the current marginal farm lands that represent large swaths of remaining wildife habitat into low yield producing farms to satisfy your "green organic" bias ?
Monsanto is not involved in the beef or dairy industry...just crop plants.
when one was found here in Canada a few years back, entire country was banned from selling beef in U.S. ,Japan and
most of Europe for years. It was all started by american ranchers assc. ,we'll see what happens now that shoe's on oyher
foot.
Its not too late to be vegetarian
That;s silly.......Them cows need eatin'..........
My friend's sister died of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, which has a hereditary component and is often NOT caused by eating contaminated meat. In her case, she was a life-long vegetarian who was extremely careful about what she ate and lead a very healthy lifestyle.
Thats why I am eating meat, we are all going to die, I want to die while eating a Wendy's triple!
Everyone already knew California was full of Mad Cow as well as Mad Liberal Disease. Nothing new here.
yawn
Glad I'm rich.
Actually, the authorities were mistaken .....
The cow wasn't MAD .......... just a little angry!
Ok, where there's smoke, there's fire. We are given strict instructions by our Almighty God in the Bilble, not to cross breed animals or vegetation seeds; we now know why, it distorts the DNA and the food we eat is no longer in its original perfect design. I advise all to visit the USDA website and look up the "repeat violators" list of who is injecting these poor animals with a myriad of drugs and hormones and exactly what drugs are being injected in vast quantities. You will never eat any animal again, and you will save yourself from many costly diseases.
As a former Hospice worker I had a patient with this disease. It is really awful. The cattle industry should stop feeding cattle, cattle. They eat grass and stuff like that, they don't need meat. I thought this practice had stopped. Obviously, I was wrong.
And that's why you don't feed cows to cows. Kinda like why you don't feed humans to humans. Weird, right?
Pay attention to where your meat comes from... not all beef is subject to this.
Cow's evolved to eat grass. Let them eat grass. They will be healthier and so will everyone else.
You realize that modern cattle didn't "evolve" to their current state. We have selectively breed them for several thousand years........
And that means they now eat cow meat naturally?
Evolution does not have to happen naturally. By interfering with the cows 'natural' evolution we evolved them in a direction more suited to our purposes. The process is still evolution.
That's what happenes when cows are forced to eat not the meat of other cows but the infected nervous tissue of infected cows.
I agree with the above comments. Horrible to feed cows ... cows – they are herbivores not cannibals. Horrific! I hope this is illegal and those who would do this would be prosecuted. ... also if cows are "protein" and they eat grass/grains ... where is that protein coming from? maybe we should eat like they do (minus the bad horrible terrible idea of eating other cows) ...
Robin have you seen the size of a cow lately? not so sure eating like they eat is such a grand idea either.
OK...easy solution: don't feed cows to other cows. That's just disgusting.
This video says these safeguards are in place -this is a 'new strain' of MC -'spontaneous' Not from cows eating cows.
Mmmmmmm BSE. It's what's for dinner.
This is disgusting. Why are feeding our cows corn and other cows parts when they should be out eating grass? Not allowing cows to eat grass and introducing grain into their diet is what started the rise of milk sickness (TB). If you let them eat grass, like they should, their wouldn't be near as many meat and milk safety issues as we currently have. This is one of many reasons I try to get my milk and meat from grass-fed cows. It's more expensive, but it's well worth it!
Well said.
Chris, I agree with you 100%. The problem is that we mass produce all our food in this country. There is no way to let 10,000 or 50,000 cattle ruminate over grassland that doesn't exist anymore. We screwed the pooch on this way back when we started corralling thousands of head of cattle into confined spaces closer to the market distribution systems. Now we humans have bad health effects from this type of mass-produced food production.
Go grass-fed!
totally agree... but on a deeper level, humans are the only species, lame enough to drink another animals milk... whatever illness, sickness, infestation as a result of, is deserved. You ever wonder why, there are so many, snotty nosed kids around? Its because our bodies are rejecting the enzymes in the milk. Humans SHOULD NOT be ingesting milk from other animals. If it was supposed to be so, we wouldn't have to process it down, to the inth degree...
all kids are snot nosed, genius. has nothing to do w/ enzymes or dairy.
Also, humans arent the only animals that drink another's milk. do some research before spouting off.
Also have you ever looked at a corn stalk? which does it resemble? if you answered a blade of grass, then youre correct for once. grains come from grasses. arguin that a cow should only be fed grass and only grass is the equivelent of arguing that only the stalks and husks of corn should be eaten by humans.
Sorry Chris, you're misinformed. First of all TB is not Milk Sickness, it's tuberculosis. However, tremetol vomiting (TV) is another name for Milk Sickness, so maybe that's where you got confused. Tremetol vomiting was a 19th Century problem caused by free-ranging cows grazing on white snakeroot which contains the poison tremetol. It doesn't happen today (or not often anyway). Ironically, TB is a problem with grass-fed cows. I live in New Zealand, where all our cows are grass-fed, and where TB is transmitted to cows via possum faeces which gets onto the grass. However, I do agree with you that cows should be grass fed, as the milk products from such cows are much more flavorful.
i'm sure we can trust the usda on this one! the food supply in this country is totally compromised and will remain so as long as the food processing lobby continues to twist the arm of government. grow your own food!
Cows are grass eaters, not meat eaters of any kind, and should not be fed grain. That should be fed to people. Why is it that people eat meat from animals that are supposed to eat grass? Surely, they get enough protein on their natural diet.
Yup.... and cattle should not be fed meat or by products or animal matter of any kind.
News flash. Grains ARE grasses. That includes corn, wheat, barley, and rye.
Neither cattle nor humans suffer ill effects from cattle eating the seeds of these grasses.
Eating grass is WILDLY different from eating grains (the seeds of grass). Nutritionally, grains have much more to offer than grass. This is why people (with ONE stomach) eat nutrient-rich grains, while cows (with FOUR stomachs) eat nutrient-poor grass. They evolved four stomachs to be able to extract nutrients out of the grass, something that people can't do. Feeding them grain is something cows are not prepared for – neither the density of the nutrients, nor the form.
You couldn't be more correct. Why, just last week I watched a cow for 15 minutes as she would pick up a nice oat stem and then snip the head (which has the "grain" in it) off before eating just the straw that was left. Any you ever notice how, when cattle have green chop to eat – that's freshly chopped corn, by the way, before it ferments into silage – that they go through and eat the chopped up stalk and leaves, and even the husks off the ear, but they leave all those nice yellow, soft-dent kernels behind? Yep, left to their own devices, cows will never, ever eat grain. And neither will any of the other "four-stomached" animals – deer would never eat corn, or wheat, or anything like that. Just ask any farmer out there – they'll tell you.
Don't eat beef meat that has been scraped from around the spinal column– no hot dogs, nothing that says, "beef" or has 'pink slime,' nothing that doesn't indicate the cut of beef. It is only beef/meat that is highly enervated that has these prions– so eat sirloin, ok, brisket, ok. chuch ok.... pass on other things, Nice for USDA to day it's all safe, it ain't but they don't know what to do and don't want to panic the population. We slaughter our steers– and some cows– before Mad Cow symptoms would present– 2 year olds are considered to old for human consumption here and mad cow takes at least that long to present...
Thank You, you seem like a knowledgeable insider.
Well, maybe to somebody who doesn't know any better.
A. This is a health crisis news story, Not for eatocracy recipes!
B."eating contaminated meat or some other animal products from cattle" -some other? like Milk? WHAT are they?
C. total downplay of symptoms. This KILLS you, turns your brain to Swiss Cheese, better to be shot like if you got rabies.
If one cow has been infected most likely more will be popping up. "The USDA says it remains confident in the health of the national herd and the safety of beef and dairy products". Sure..... Prion disease is not stoppable. If a cow with prion disease is incinerated then buried and 10k years from now a cow happens to graze upon the uncovered incinerated remains, it could actually be susceptible. The cattle industry practices that have led to the spread of this plague are abhorrent.
yupd– unless all the others likely infected are slaughtered too young or too soon to show symptoms– which is what has been going on here for awhile. Just because the symptoms aren't evident, doesn't mean the disease isn't present and contageous– prions are worse than viruses.
Boycott all cattle products – do it today, the life you save may be your own...
Prions are pretty tough to inactivate, but your description is a little over-the-top. It is true that cooking or boiling will not inactivate prions, and that they can persist in the environment for years. However, burning (as well as a handful of other treatments) does destroy the prion.
(I have run a lab studying prion diseases for about a decade.)
I'm sorry to be over the top. I am not an expert. I have only learned what I know of prion disease in classes. Thanks for the correction.
No need to worry......said the vegetarian USDA agent attempting to prevent nationwide panic.
LOL -except their all total vegans now!
Where there's smoke, there's fire. We are given strict instructions by our Almighty God in the Bilble, not to cross breed animals or vegetation seeds; we now know why: it distorts the DNA and the food we eat is no longer in its original perfect design. I advise all to visit the USDA website and look up the "repeat violators" list of who is injecting these poor animals with a myriad of drugs and hormones and exactly what drugs are being injected in vast quantities. You will never eat any animal again, and you will save yourself from many costly diseases.
I'd be a pretty mad cow too if you fed me ground up bits of the cow next to me.
I eat people all the time and I'm fine. Myth.
I second that! If they know that THIS is what causes it... why don't they stop this practice... Just a thought
"The USDA says it remains confident in the health of the national herd and the safety of beef and dairy products..."
This does not make me feel secure at all. If they were really worried about our safety, they wouldn't be feeding recycled beef to our beef stocks! It's, as usual, all about the money.
In 2011, there were only 29 worldwide cases of BSE (none in the U.S.), a dramatic decline and 99% reduction since the peak in 1992 when there were 37,311 cases. The systems put in place work.
"BSE is transmitted between cows through the practice of recycling bovine carcasses for meat and bone meal protein, which is fed back to other cattle." This is disgusting. The beef and dairy industry is despicable! Spend the extra money! Buy free range, no hormones, etc. "Old fashioned" is best here!
It's is sick. Over seas many cows get sick from eating sheep that have scrapie, which is another prion disease that sheep get then those cows get BSE. Cows are herbivores stop feeding them meat and there wouldn't be any problems. I guess happy cows don't come from California!
Such feeding practices have been illegal since 2004.
Right on Taylor!
Do you trust the government enough to continue risking eating contaminated bovine meat?
What a logical -and actually hilarious -question!
I think it is a valid comment. It seems kind of incredible that just one cow would come down with the disease if they're all fed the same food. The whole food industry needs stricter regulations and more inspections. It is sickening to hear these scary stories from pink slime to brain disease, e.coli found almost monthly in something or other and salmonella due to crowded conditions at chicken farms. Profit chasing makes the heads of companies turn the other way when problems surface.
Would you trust private for-profit corporations enough to inspect and regulate themselves and conduct themselves in a manner that is best for public health and safety? Because we all know that for-profit corporations *ONLY* do what is best for the public good! (**sarcasm**)
And there are rumors galore about government inspectors who are paid to not report "accidents" in the food industry. I trust government inspectors over for-profit companies' inspectors, but I think there needs to be more attention to regulations and somehow monitoring of the inspectors.
Totally agree with you, scallions. Undoubtedly, there are unscrupulous inspectors taking payoffs to look the other way. However, I'd still trust the government inspectors more than the beef industry to self-police. It is the inspectors' JOB to inspect and maintain food safety. It is the beef industry's JOB to make money from selling cow meat. Which is MORE likely to cut corners to increase profit?
Wow – Sarah Palin must be in California!
Wierd
Perhaps we shouldn't be turning herbivores into cannibals...
Exactly...that's what happens when cows are forced to eat cows.
So, no more fat lesbians?
exactly...
I couldn't agree more! It seems wrong on every level... ethically, morally, ....
I have an aunt who died of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. I fail to understand why are fed in this way.
It's the agri-corporations....treating humanity for cows. They don't give a sh** about us. That's why!