U.S. Testing for Mad Cow Disease Inadequate

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

[Phaedrus]

Here's another link from Common Dreams - It's the Cow Feed, Stupid. These folks offer "Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community" so they have an agenda which runs counter to ours on FR. But I will take my truth wherever it can be found and if it can be exposed as untruth, so much the better.

[Phaedrus]

...to purchase only that product that fits your requirements.

This is getting surreal. Testing is simple common sense.

[Phaedrus]

Senator Cochran has a whole crew working on the testing necessary to guarantee the safety of our food supply along with the USDA and the cattlemen.

This is good to know. Anything we get through the media is so sensationalized and "sound bited", everyone looks like a fool. And we are treated like fools (sorry, "fooles") by government and the media alike. I would, however, like to see Koch refuted point-by-point. He's making sense unless he's flat wrong. I think he probably knows he could not be reelected.

[spunkets]

" This is getting surreal. Testing is simple common sense."

What is surreal is living in a world of folks that insist on forcing their ways on others. Whether it's seatbelts, or any "common sense measure". Can you explain why you would not be satisfied with a situation where food was labeled either fully tested, or not tested and Freedom prevailed.

[meatloaf]

Here's some info. http://www.fieldandstream.com/fieldstream/columnists/conservation/article/0,13199,356809,00.html

This is one of the reasons we need to do more testing in this country. The one thing about prion based diseases that is true is we don't have all the facts. While regulatory agencies focus on feed, there are alternative theories which have not been disproved. The suspected long incubation period is another factor that makes fact finding difficult. While 143 died in Britain including a young vegetarian, there's nothing to indicate whether or not certain individuals are more susceptible. Those may have been the canaries in the coal mine and perhaps because of genetic makeup may have been the most susceptible in the population.

One fact that's irrefutable is that CWD is spreading via elk, mule deer and white tails across the US. It's crossed the Mississippi. We know it can cross species. I'm wondering if the Canadian case of mad cow originated in deer from the US. It's hard to imagine that all the infected wildlife got that way by eating contaminated cattle feed. That alone points to an unidentified factor that's responsible for the spread.

[CaptainK]

It appears that CJD is within human DNA makeup. BSE is a variant of CJD. Scientists can differentiate, in an infected human, between the human strand and the one that has a bovine origin. Your point about the large amount of infected beef vs the small amount of infected people is interesting and I found one possible explanation:

"Strong evidence indicates that BSE has been transmitted to humans primarily in the United Kingdom, causing a variant form of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD). In the United Kingdom, where over 1 million cattle may have been infected with BSE, a substantial species barrier appears to protect humans from widespread illness. As of December 1, 2003, a total of 153 vCJD cases had been reported worldwide; of these, 143 cases had occurred in the United Kingdom. The risk to human health from BSE in the United States is extremely low."

[realpatriot71]

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

Spongiform encephalopathies may not show signs until 30 months old, BUT this is because of an ongoing process, meaning these diseases progess from a point where no symptoms are evident yet, but the disease process is in motion destroying neurons. The time at which signs first start to show is TOO LATE to check because the disease process has been on going for some time by the time symptoms start to show.

So eating beef slaughtered before 30 months is no safe-guard in this regard.

[realpatriot71]

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.

However, some of those people who died from spongiform encephalopathy did NOT have the CJD varient gene, meaning CJD is caused by a mutation in the human chromosome, causing essential the same dz, but in this case some of those who died with SE did not have the CJD mutation in their genes.

[realpatriot71]

Those that are calling for across the board testing for every disease in the world are living in la la land.

Correct, the same reason we do not give out Smallpox vaccines as a method of standard care to the general public of this country is because, for the most part, there is no need to vaccinate everyone. However, now that BSE has been shown to have a probably link to Human SE, why not test for it in all beef? Running a specific protein assay of CNS tissue could be quite quick, not costing much, but giving much piece of mind.

[Phaedrus]

I'd be happy to pay more for beef from 100% tested herds. As has been pointed out, they do it overseas and beef prices in, say England, are not out of sight.

That's where my thinking goes, too. Smart cattlemen will form an association or a cooperative, if they don't already belong to one, control the feed process to eliminate questionable sources, test for Mad Cow, arrange or ensure butchering controlled to eliminate risk of contamination and market the resultant beef as "Mad Cow Disease Free" or "100% Tested for Mad Cow" or some such, price accordingly and generate additional margin. Cattle folks tend to be good business people, I believe, and more than a few are well-to-do. This Mad Cow thing can be viewed as an opportunity.

[microgood]

So eating beef slaughtered before 30 months is no safe-guard in this regard

Thanks for the info. I was going by what some cattleman's association was saying on a conservative talk show in Seattle. He must have been full of it.

[microgood]

Refute the facts, please, and avoid ad hominem attack ("uninformed politician").

You are right. Especially since this one endorsed Bush for President last week.

[In_25_words_or_less]

"CWD is thought to be transmitted via the contaminated afterbirth of deer."

That stuff is gobbled up by coyotes. There's been no mention of coyotes found with spongiform encephalopathy up here in WI, or out west that I've heard.

I don't know. I saw one on TV looking awfully wobbly. Right after that anvil fell on his head.

[realpatriot71]

He must have been full of it.

Perhaps, I'd have to hear what he said :-) . . . but many diseases do not show any signs or symptoms until they have progessed to a point where they become chronic and/or fatal. Tumors are a good example - by the time most people feel any pain the tumor is rather large and perhaps malignant. Similarly with BSE, by the time the cows starts getting "goofy" the disease process has been ongoing for some time.