U.S. Testing for Mad Cow Disease Inadequate

NewsMax ^ | January 10, 2004 | Edward I. Koch

[Phaedrus]

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[microgood]

Another uninformed politician. Most cattle 99%+ are slaughtered before they are 30 months old. Mad cow does not show up in cattle less than 30 months old.

[facedown]

In contrast, 143 people have died in Great Britain from mad cow disease over the past few years.

As far as this was worth reading.

[Phaedrus]

Another uninformed politician. Most cattle 99%+ are slaughtered before they are 30 months old. Mad cow does not show up in cattle less than 30 months old.

Does this mean they cannot carry the disease? I suggest not. This article deals in facts, not spin. Refute the facts, please, and avoid ad hominem attack ("uninformed politician").

[Agnes Heep]

... 143 people have died in Great Britain from mad cow disease over the past few years.

Correct me if I'm mistaken, but people don't get "mad cow disease." What they get is a human variant called Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, which produces similar symptoms and occurs naturally in the population at the rate of one case per million people. The fact that 143 people have died in Great Britain over the course of a few years doesn't imply a cause and effect--143 cases is just what ought to have been expected, with or without BSE. There were, I believe, around eight million infected cattle discovered in Britain, which means that millions of people ate beef from infected animals. The rates of human infection from Creutzfeldt-Jakob should have risen dramatically--but they haven't.

[Phaedrus]

As far as this was worth reading.

Good to know that you're better informed than all of Europe, Canada and Japan. If we keep our heads firmly implanted in the sand, surely the problem will go away. Surely Ann Veneman will protect us. We have become a nation of dreamers.

[Phaedrus]

There were, I believe, around eight million infected cattle discovered in Britain, which means that millions of people ate beef from infected animals. The rates of human infection from Creutzfeldt-Jakob should have risen dramatically--but they haven't.

Source, please, on the 8 million citation. Does this mean we should not test widely? Does this mean we should not ban feeding animal parts of any sort to other animals? In both cases, I suggest not. We have lost the $3.0 billion export market. Surely the cost of testing can be recouped if we are able to regain that market. Where is all this is there any applied common sense on the part of the USDA? Koch is making sense. Why don't you all want to hear it?

[vetvetdoug]

Why aren't we testing every cow for BSE, Foot and Mouth, Vesicular Stomatitis, Rinderpest, Trypanosomiasis, Heartwater or Lumpy Skin disease? Because they are Foreign Animal Diseases. Until last month BSE was A foreign animal disease and we were surveying animals to see if we could even pick it up here in the US. Now its been found. Not indiginous, not because there was an outbreak but because it got here via a foreign trade. Now do you wish to test every animal slaughtered in the US for these diseases and pay $150 for a hamburger? We have the safest food supply in the US and the BSE was picked up on a survey from an animal that exhibited no/nein/nada symptoms of BSE. We got it really fast. Testing every animal in the US is impractical but increased surveillance is warranted. Those that are calling for across the board testing for every disease in the world are living in la la land.

[steplock]

So inadequate are the USA standards that we had ONE sick cow out of untold MILLIONS of healthy cattle....!!

It's just like this recent law making LEGAL herbs into ILLEGAL drugs per ignorant politicians and scum-of-the-earth lawyers.

This Mad Cow rampage is from ELF, ALF, PETA, and other left-wing radical extremists groups who are also MOST likely to be the source of this infected cow.

[punster]

At first, I thought the article was about a lack of testing being done on Hitlery, Coward Dean and the other nine midgets.

However, the article is about our beef supply. There do seem to be a lot of unanswered questions about the problem.

[Phaedrus]

"The first North American case of mad cow probably appeared in 1985, on a Wisconsin mink farm. That's when Richard Marsh, a veterinary pathologist at the University of Wisconsin, discovered that mink fed "downer cattle" (technically any cow that has difficulty walking) from local dairy farms, went crazy and died. Prof. Marsh took samples of these mink brains and inoculated and fed them to bull calves. Each bull developed holes in the brain. He then fed infected cattle-bits back to mink, which developed more spongy brains."

See An Issue Comes to a Head.

[Phaedrus]

... and pay $150 for a hamburger?

Give me a break. Cents per pound of beef would be required for testing. Read the article.

We have the safest food supply in the US and the BSE was picked up on a survey from an animal that exhibited no/nein/nada symptoms of BSE.

How can you possibly know this if testing is so meager (which it is)?

Testing every animal in the US is impractical ...

Why? Japan does it.

[Phaedrus]

So inadequate are the USA standards that we had ONE sick cow out of untold MILLIONS of healthy cattle....!!

You just do not know this and the only way to know is to test.

[Phaedrus]

This Mad Cow rampage is from ELF, ALF, PETA, and other left-wing radical extremists groups who are also MOST likely to be the source of this infected cow.

This is not about politics. It's about applied common sense. The left is right on this one and the right had best get a clue. My politics are right of Attila The Hun and Rush Limbaugh.

[Phaedrus]

There do seem to be a lot of unanswered questions about the problem.

Thank you. Some Freepers don't want to hear it. That attitude doesn't solve problems and there IS a problem.

[vetvetdoug]

I lived in Japan, you likely have no idea of the cost of beef raised in Japan. Japan imports the majority of its beef from NZ, Austrailia, and the US. A steak from Japanese beef is over $100. As a member of the inspection service, I know that our supply is well tested and regulated. It is a helluva lot better here than in the Socialist countries and the EU. Survey...Foreign Animal Disease....the USDA is vigilant, moreso than the average reader and politician like Koch state.

[Freebird Forever]

Deer infected with a disease comparable to mad cow disease...

This is the part that confounds me. How are wild deer (such as the animals in SW Wisconsin) ingesting this prion?

I've yet to hear a satisfactory answer to that question.

[Phaedrus]

As a member of the inspection service, I know that our supply is well tested and regulated.

Well this is just nonsense -- 20,000 cattle out of a total of some 35 million slaughtered annually is "well tested and regulated"? The USDA is behaving like an arm of the cattle industry and all we're getting is lip action.

It is a helluva lot better here than in the Socialist countries and the EU. Survey...Foreign Animal Disease....the USDA is vigilant, moreso than the average reader and politician like Koch state.

More nonsense. Where are your facts? The USDA and the beef industry are playing fast and loose with the food supply most likely for political reasons and that's the truth. All the rest is rhetoric.