This was surprising to me as well. I was unaware that the FDA routinely allowed sick cattle to be butchered for human consumption. Seems like a poor public health practice to me.
I can only guess that there are few known diseases that can be transmitted from beef to humans through cooked meat.
As a hunter, I would never eat a sick animal. Why take the risk of contracting a disease.
One should be especially wary of a known rabies carrier like a raccoon.
I didnt know that either. But I am not worried about it. Figure that is the main reason you cook meat, to kill all the bacteria. I dont plan to change my eating habits a bit, in fact I am going to fire up the bbq grill and do a couple of T-bones tonight. Some things you dont really want to know too much about and one of them is how food is processed