On January 2, Canadian officials announced that an Alberta dairy cow had tested positive for mad cow disease—the third time a North American bovine has been diagnosed with the neurological disease. Most Canadians and Americans believe that their governments have taken the necessary measures to stop the spread of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), the scientific name for mad cow disease. For… return to article
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Reader Comments (19)Page 1 of 1 pagesMad cow disease! Caused by feeding cow biproducts to cows instead of proper cattle feed in order to save money! What a perfectly republican disease!
Posted by Lefty on Jan 18, 2005 at 2:30 PM Do they have Repubs in Canada? Oh right, liberal thought does not confuse itself with “facts”! :)
Posted by huh? on Jan 18, 2005 at 3:15 PM The notion of horizontal contamination through saliva? There’s a thought to keep you up at night!
*shudder*
Posted by Lefty Canuck on Jan 18, 2005 at 5:20 PM It’s all a bad joke, really horrible.the goverrnment has known for years that food with animal by-products contai prions ( the causitive organism)Laws made to protect the public were never enforced. Theoretically, anything fed the animal feed can produce prions. Consider pork, chiken (and eggs unless they are fed vegetarian feed)cows (and milk)as well as beef cattle are not immune.This is a pandemice waiting to happen, and the cattlemen associations refuse to admit theit duplicity in the whitewash. One day there will be one heck of a lawsuit.
Posted by OOSEMA on Jan 18, 2005 at 8:22 PM Thank you for printing a story about Mad Cow Disease in humans (vCJD). The ending however was a bit sensational. Why bring up kissing saliva just because deer and elk may transmit it that way? What should be mentioned is what science already knows about transmission: vCJD transmitts between humans through the blood supply, surgical instruments used on the central nervous syste (autoclave does not kill a prion) and eye exams (when an instrument actually touches the eye ball). Also there is a little matter of the incubation period, 10-16 years.
Posted by Jay Jordet on Jan 18, 2005 at 10:24 PM I recently became a vegetarian (mostly for ecological reasons, I’m very pragmatic about it). I guess that now is as good a time as any. Heh.
Posted by Mikhail Capone on Jan 19, 2005 at 5:01 AM the only way we can bring about change is to keep up the pressure! ifwe let up for a single moment tis will cease to be the TRUTH.. Have you read Brain Trust by Colm Kelleher? I have 2 siblings diagnosed with ALZ. We must continue the fight. Where would we be without the courage of Jeff Rense?
Posted by robert fitzgerald on Jan 20, 2005 at 1:37 PM Will anyone in the mainstream media ever put this together with the mysterious “cattle mutilations” involving “black helicopters”, going back as far as the 70’s, indicating that the government has been aware of, and done covert testing for, this disease far longer than is being said? Given the governmental parrot status of the press today, as opposed to it’s once fierce reputation as the guardian of the peoples right to know, I somehow doubt it.
Posted by R B on Jan 20, 2005 at 1:42 PM Crimes against nature never go unpunished, and the original insanity of grinding up cattle to feed to cattle will eventually infect all who subscribe to this outrageous, profit-driven, self serving madness and the unlucky will reap the spongiform benefits. The problem is that those who are totally consumed by greed have foisted this raunchy delicacy on a population that had placed inherently misguided and totally undeserved trust in the ranchers and farmers who “feed us all”. Who among us was NOT shocked to realize soylent green was already a reality for bovines (and other domesticated animals)? What other surprises do these idiots have for us in the future?
Posted by Frank Scott Searl on Jan 20, 2005 at 6:14 PM TTHe cattle mutalation theory is interesting,but i have to say the solyent green ref really hits the spot.
Posted by Jason on Jan 20, 2005 at 7:48 PM Let’s raise this discussion up a notch. Things are too serious to speculate about cattle mutalation connections and soilent green jokes. The In These Times too casually blows off the Harvard Study. We can not afford to cut corners in journalism any more. Fire the writer or make him write a follow up. For example, a simple surf can give more information, “Joshua Cohen was a key member of the HCRA team that did a risk assessment of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (mad cow disease) in the United States. He received his Ph.D. in Decision Sciences from Harvard University.” His name apears first in the report,
Evaluation of Potential BSE in United States Joshua T. Cohen et al. Nov. 26, 2001
One of the et al is George Gray who is serving as Acting Director since founding director John Graham left within two months after this report was published to serve as Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs in the Office of Management and Budget in the administration of President George W. Bush. That casts a more serious shadow than just blowing off the Harvard report cart blanc.
Posted by Jay Jordet on Jan 20, 2005 at 11:38 PM I grew up in Britian when the first cases of Mad Cow were first detected and kept hidden by a very frightened government, they had cause because the beef industry suffered a terrible blow. The more people try to cover up such a serious infectious disease, the worse it will get and from experience of watching over the years, the more a government or a country has to lose, the worse the cover up or denial will be, and the worse the consequences will be for the government involved. Too bad some governments don’t learn from mistakes made by those who first trod this shakey path of self destruction. Diseases evolve and I guess the governments in North America have eaten too much beef and have dementia to really act to help…!
Posted by Martel on Jan 20, 2005 at 11:58 PM Republicans exist in Canada, but they call them Liberal Democrats, n’est ce pas? There was something ironic about it if that isn’t quite right.
Black helicopters, mad cows, mad sheep, mad deer, mad elk, in Alaska there are now mad moose and soon crazy caribou I guess. There will be nothing to eat in the arctic.
Posted by Bigfoot on Jan 21, 2005 at 5:08 AM To Martel from Britain;
I have heard Britains are not allowed to donate blood because there is no way to confirm if it is contaminated. Is this true? See this web site for more information on prion blood contamination.http://www.mad-cow.org/sep99_news.html
Posted by Jay Jordet on Jan 21, 2005 at 5:48 AM “Thank you for printing a story about Mad Cow Disease in humans (vCJD). The ending however was a bit sensational. Why bring up kissing saliva just because deer and elk may transmit it that way? What should be mentioned is what science already knows about transmission: vCJD transmitts between humans through the blood supply, surgical instruments used on the central nervous syste (autoclave does not kill a prion) and eye exams (when an instrument actually touches the eye ball). Also there is a little matter of the incubation period, 10-16 years.”
Posted by Jay Jordet on January 18, 2005 at 4:24 PMJay: In my view, the article author wanted to emphasize the “barrier jumping” qualities (i.e. quick adaptability) of the spongiform virus. Because of this property, there is plenty to be concerned about. Incubation period? I’m not sure that this is a source of comfort. I am going to take a look at CJD and the dementia-like symptoms, however, because I see a lot of dementia symmptoms in my work.
Posted by Eyeball Kid on Jan 24, 2005 at 3:09 AM Eyeball Kid;
“barrier jumping” qualities yes, quick adaptablity of the spongiform virus NO! The paragraph in the article is misleading. Prions are misguided protien molecules, NOT a virus. They are not alive, they can not be killed. The prion starts a domino effect in the brain, it does not “infect” in the same way a virus or bacteria does.It is called vCJD only because it looks like that disease of the elderly, not because it is biologically or even chemically related. Symptoms start over 10 years with anxiety, sleepless, depression, dementia, and then motor problems like stumbling. When the motor problems start the end is about a year away. Only 6 people over the age of 50 have died of it. That is a mystery. Maybe the elderly don’t eat as many hotdogs? Also, it is more likely the deer in the article eat each others feces rather than kissing :-)
Jay
Posted by Jay Jordet on Jan 24, 2005 at 5:52 AM re-The Harvard Study and BSE
bought and paid for (in part) by your local cattle dealer.
BUT, what about the ;
Suppressed PEER REVIEW of the Harvard BSE study
of October 31, 2002http://www.fsis.usda.gov/oa/topics/BSE_Peer_Review.pdf
or, the reports by the GAO on BSE in the USA.
just do a quick google on ‘GAO BSE’, OR
MAD COW TSS, the truth hurts sometimes…TSS
Posted by Terry S. Singeltary Sr. on Jan 27, 2005 at 6:48 PM EFSA Scientific Report on the Assessment of the Geographical BSE-Risk (GBR) of the United States of America (USA)
Publication date: 20 August 2004Adopted July 2004 (Question N° EFSA-Q-2003-083)
* 167 kB Report
* 105 kB SummarySummary of the Scientific Report
The European Food Safety Authority and its Scientific Expert Working Group on the Assessment of the Geographical Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) Risk (GBR) were asked by the European Commission (EC) to provide an up-to-date scientific report on the GBR in the United States of America, i.e. the likelihood of the presence of one or more cattle being infected with BSE, pre-clinically as well as clinically, in USA. This scientific report addresses the GBR of USA as assessed in 2004 based on data covering the period 1980-2003.
The BSE agent was probably imported into USA and could have reached domestic cattle in the middle of the eighties. These cattle imported in the mid eighties could have been rendered in the late eighties and therefore led to an internal challenge in the early nineties. It is possible that imported meat and bone meal (MBM) into the USA reached domestic cattle and leads to an internal challenge in the early nineties.
A processing risk developed in the late 80s/early 90s when cattle imports from BSE risk countries were slaughtered or died and were processed (partly) into feed, together with some imports of MBM. This risk continued to exist, and grew significantly in the mid 90’s when domestic cattle, infected by imported MBM, reached processing. Given the low stability of the system, the risk increased over the years with continued imports of cattle and MBM from BSE risk countries.
EFSA concludes that the current GBR level of USA is III, i.e. it is likely but not confirmed that domestic cattle are (clinically or pre-clinically) infected with the BSE-agent. As long as there are no significant changes in rendering or feeding, the stability remains extremely/very unstable. Thus, the probability of cattle to be (pre-clinically or clinically) infected with the BSE-agent persistently increases.
http://www.efsa.eu.int/science/efsa_scientific_reports/gbr_assessments/573_en.ht tmlONE YEAR PREVIOUSLY ;
From: Terry S. Singeltary Sr. [flounder@wt.net]
Sent: Tuesday, July 29, 2003 1:03 PM
To: fdadockets@oc.fda.gov
Cc: ggraber@cvm.fda.gov; Linda.Grassie@fda.gov; BSE-L
Subject: Docket No. 2003N-0312 Animal Feed Safety System [TSS SUBMISSION
TO DOCKET 2003N-0312]Greetings FDA,
snip…
PLUS, if the USA continues to flagrantly ignore the _documented_ science to date about the known TSEs in the USA (let alone the undocumented TSEs in cattle), it is my opinion, every other Country that is dealing with BSE/TSE should boycott the USA and demand that the SSC reclassify the USA BSE GBR II risk assessment to BSE/TSE GBR III ‘IMMEDIATELY’. for the SSC to _flounder_ any longer on this issue, should also be regarded with great suspicion as well. NOT to leave out the OIE and it’s terribly flawed system of disease surveillance. the OIE should make a move on CWD in the USA, and make a risk assessment on this as a threat to human health. the OIE should also change the mathematical formula for testing of disease. this (in my opinion and others) is terribly flawed as well. to think that a sample survey of 400 or so cattle in a population of 100 million, to think this will find anything, especially after seeing how many TSE tests it took Italy and other Countries to find 1 case of BSE (1 million rapid TSE test in less than 2 years, to find 102 BSE cases), should be proof enough to make drastic changes of this system. the OIE criteria for BSE Country classification and it’s interpretation is very problematic. a text that is suppose to give guidelines, but is not understandable, cannot be considered satisfactory. the OIE told me 2 years ago that they were concerned with CWD, but said any changes might take years. well, two years have come and gone, and no change in relations with CWD as a human health risk. if we wait for politics and science to finally make this connection, we very well may die before any decisions
or changes are made. this is not acceptable. we must take the politics and the industry out of any final decisions of the Scientific community. this has been the problem from day one with this environmental man made death sentence. some of you may think i am exaggerating, but you only have to see it once, you only have to watch a loved one die from this one time, and you will never forget, OR forgive…yes, i am still very angry… but the transmission studies DO NOT lie, only the politicians and the industry do… and they are still lying to this day…TSS
http://www.fda.gov/ohrms/dockets/dockets/03n0312/03N-0312_emc-000001.txtTerry S. Singeltary Sr. P.O. BOX 42 Bacliff, TEXAS USA
Posted by Terry S. Singeltary Sr. on Jan 27, 2005 at 6:54 PM Terry S. Singeltary;
thank you so much for your hyperlink to the peer review of the Harvard Study. They have been asked by the USDA to write a follow up.I suggest In These Times raise their bar when covering Health and Science issues. I would recommend pursuing the science issues identified by the Union of Concerned Scientists report (Jan. 04)that complained how the Bush administration was silencing agencies from talking about issues such as global warming and Mad Cow.
O.K. so In These Times is not a journal, it is an opinion magazine. Times are too dangerous to be spending our time on soapboxes complaining about government or corporations. Progressives ARE more educated. We expect more than opinion and we can not afford hysteria such as groundless spectulation that mad cow can be spred by kissing.
Get real,
Jay Jordet
Posted by Jay Jordet on Jan 27, 2005 at 7:48 PM Page 1 of 1 pages -
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