Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Mad Cow Disease In Texas Man Has Mysterious Origin
NPR ^ | APRIL 16, 2015 | MICHAELEEN DOUCLEFF

Posted on 04/16/2015 10:41:02 PM PDT by nickcarraway

It began with anxiety and depression. A few months later, hallucinations appeared.

Then the Texas man, in his 40s, couldn't feel or move the left side of his face.

He thought the symptoms were because of a recent car accident. But the psychiatric problems got worse. And some doctors thought the man might have bipolar disorder.

Cattle feeding practices have been changed in an effort to halt the spread of mad cow disease. THE SALT Mad Cow Disease: What You Need To Know Now Eventually, he couldn't walk or speak. He was hospitalized. And about 18 months after symptoms began, the man died.

An autopsy confirmed what doctors had finally suspected: mad cow disease.*

The case, published Wednesday in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases, is only the fourth one diagnosed in the U.S. In those previous cases, people caught the disease in another country.

Right away the man's diagnosis raised a new question: How did a rare disease linked to contaminated beef in the U.K. more than a decade ago get to a Texas man?

Back in the early '80s, British ranchers noticed some of their cows were dying of a strange neurological disease. The cows became aggressive. They couldn't walk.

Eventually, scientists figured out the culprit. A rogue protein formed large clumps in the brain and spinal cord. Over time, the clumps spread throughout the brain and damaged tissue.

Corinne Lasmezas studies neurodegenerative diseases at Scripps Research Institute in Jupiter, Fla. SHOTS - HEALTH NEWS Mad Cow Research Hints At Ways To Halt Alzheimer's, Parkinson's Cows were catching the deadly protein from feed that contained ground-up brains of sheep and cows. Once ranchers stopped feeding their animals these organs, the disease almost vanished.

But figuring all that out took time. And from 1980 to 1996, the U.K. continued to export contaminated beef around the world. More than 200 people in 12 countries died from mad cow disease.

It can take more than a decade for mad cow disease to appear after a person is exposed to the proteins. But in every reported case, people had eaten beef in the U.K. or in a country known to have imported contaminated meat.

The source of the infection in Texas is less clear, says Dr. Atul Maheshwari, a neurologist at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. Maheshwari was one of the doctors who took care of the patient with mad cow disease, and he led the study.

The patient had lived in the U.S. for 14 years before becoming sick. Maheshwari says he most likely didn't catch the disease here. The country has recorded only a handful of mad cow cases in cattle since it began testing in 2003. And the U.S. didn't import contaminated beef from the U.K.

So Maheshwari and his team started tracking down where their patient had lived decades earlier, when the U.K. was exporting dangerous meat.

The doctors narrowed down the source to three countries: Kuwait, Lebanon or Russia. None of them have reported any mad cow cases in people or had large outbreaks in cattle. But Kuwait was importing a large quantity of beef, per capita, from the U.K. while the man was living there.

"The risk of infection would have been highest in our patient when he lived in Kuwait," Maheshwari says. "But we do not think," he stresses, "that [the new case in Texas] means it is more risky now to eat beef today in Kuwait, Lebanon or Russia."

Since 2012, there have been only four cases of mad cow disease detected in people around the world, including the one in Texas. And the U.K. has improved its tracking and monitoring of cattle.

But Maheshwari hopes the case will have a few repercussions. First off, he hopes doctors and nurses will be more aware that mad cow disease, although extremely rare, can occur, even in people in the U.S.

And the case will help remind health officials around the world that watching out for mad cow disease is still critical. It can crop up in new places, at any time.

"Since 1996, there have not been any known large epidemics in cows," Maheshwari says. "But the U.S. has been monitoring the beef industry to make sure another epidemic does not occur."

*Note: Mad cow disease is also known as variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease because it is related to another disease, called sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. Caused by a human protein, sCJD is more common than mad cow disease but still quite rare, with about 1 case per 1 million people each year.


TOPICS: Agriculture; Health/Medicine; Local News
KEYWORDS: 1996; beef; creutzfeldtjakob; disease; kuwait; madcow; madcowdisease; texas; uk

1 posted on 04/16/2015 10:41:02 PM PDT by nickcarraway
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: nickcarraway
Monitoring the "beef" industry is silly for two reasons: 1) 85% of ground beef comes from culled dairy cows, not beef steers. and 2) In the US, there is no reason to do any kind of monitoring: it has been illegal to feed BSE specific animal proteins to dairy or beef cattle since 1912.

US Farmers who do this intentionally are criminals. Prohibited feed-stuffs are clearly labelled: “Do Not Feed To Cattle Or Other Ruminants”. Or in the case of cattle products: CMPAF: “Do Not Feed To Animals”.

2 posted on 04/16/2015 10:58:59 PM PDT by FredZarguna (It looks just like a Telefunken U-47 -- with leather.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: nickcarraway

These researchers did not do much book research because “Mad cow disease is also known as variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease because it is related to another disease, called sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. Caused by a human protein, sCJD is more common than mad cow disease but still quite rare, with about 1 case per 1 million people each year.” is a spontaneous disease not a sporadic disease. The protein involved mutates of its own accord - folds itself into a non functional shape and begins the disease process... this is a PRION. The poor man did not ‘catch’ this disease from anything ... it occurred in his brain tissue because of some unknown genetic predisposition ... there were no cows or sheep involved.

These researchers just went out on a gambit spending other people’s money.


3 posted on 04/17/2015 12:11:04 AM PDT by ICCtheWay
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: FredZarguna

All I knwo about is that I can never give blood. I was stationed in Germany in 1980s. Seems like someone would have contracted the disease by now.

At least all those gay men are now able to give blood in my place. Makes me feel much safer....


4 posted on 04/17/2015 12:47:12 AM PDT by antidisestablishment ( Everyone is equal in the state of desperation. GOP delenda est!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: antidisestablishment

I was stationed in Germany in the early 1970s. Would that apply to me also?


5 posted on 04/17/2015 2:22:02 AM PDT by Gaffer
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: Gaffer

No, the ban is only for people who have lived in Europe since the 80s.

There have been only four reported cases in the US, but apparently the incubation period can be decades-—though I don’t know how that would be since the disease peaked in the 90s in the UK.


6 posted on 04/17/2015 4:56:18 AM PDT by antidisestablishment ( Everyone is equal in the state of desperation. GOP delenda est!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: nickcarraway

If you’ve read “The International Meat Crisis” you would know a lot of this already. Mad cow disease has been in the US for a while.


7 posted on 04/17/2015 5:04:12 AM PDT by rfreedom4u (Chris Stevens won't be running for president.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: nickcarraway

Mad. Texas. I’d say start your search in Austin ...


8 posted on 04/17/2015 5:25:50 AM PDT by IronJack
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: antidisestablishment

So much for it is better to give than to receive...


9 posted on 04/17/2015 5:44:46 AM PDT by Resolute Conservative
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson