USDA orders silence on mad cow in Texas

The Washington Times ^ | May 12, 2004 | Steve Mitchell

[WhyisaTexasgirlinPA]

San Angelo ping.......

[WhyisaTexasgirlinPA]

Fergot ya Shooter! Cancel your dinner in San Angelo.....;^)

[Arrowhead1952]

Thanks Whyisa. The Austin paper had an article about this last week. There was no mention of the fact in the title - "USDA orders silence on mad cow in Texas". Of course, you have to understand the ultra liberal leaning of the Austin Pravda.

[GodBlessRonaldReagan]

Darn it! I thought somebody had finally put a muzzle on Molly Ivans!

[tje]

Hillary is in Texas???

[Shooter 2.5]

So much for the all-you-can-eat over at the Trail Dust.

I had dinner last night with the folks and the kids. Shawn will be back in two weeks but I don't know if I'll see him then. I hope so.

Two weeks, then one month in Cal. and then a year in the sandbox. It's going to be a long year.

[WhyisaTexasgirlinPA]

All I know is I had one of the best steaks I've had in years while I was in Texas........ ;^)

[WhyisaTexasgirlinPA]

We've got an awful lot of people praying for our soldiers here Shooter - I hope you'll let us all join you in prayers for your son....

[angcat]

Hello there stranger, I hope all is well with you and your family. Long time no chat! I'm sure you are glad the warm weather has finally arrived!

[Shooter 2.5]

Thank you. I'll try not to post about him unless I have something to say. Since the going away party was last night, I'm thinking about it more than I should.

[sam_paine]

With current testing policies it seems to me it's not a question of if a group of Americans will come down with mad cow disease, it's simply when . . .

The evidence suggests otherwise. 30% of all new-variant Creutzfeld Jacob's diseases (humans do not contract BSE) are spontaneous. That is, there are vegans and children that have contracted nvCJD because they're genetically disposed to expressing that gene in the presence of prions, which coincidentally are prevalent in the neural matter of infected BSE cows (and also scrapie, etc).

It's really quite fascinating, and if you read much of the detailed technical literature (not the dumbed down AP versions of the stuff) you'll see that there is VAST disagreement about how, and even if, eating infected beef overcomes the species barrier. In fact, there's a lot of interesting evidence that correlates the prions in England's scare very closely to a pesticide the government used more than it did to the cattle! I'm not saying you're wrong, I'm just saying the journalists uniformly asssume the link, but the scientists categorically do not agree. Who do you wanna believe?

In short, if the countervailing theories are correct, and the BSE->nvCJD link is incorrect, then I would hope that the USDA would do everything it can to stem the likely irrational panic that could cause the liquidation of the entire US beef industry as they did in England. More ranchers died from suicide after losing their herds in England than died from all nvCJD's!!!!!!

That kinda destruction of the heartland would make a juicy story for the NYT.....hmmmmmm

[WhyisaTexasgirlinPA]

Gosh it has been a long time! How've ya been?

We're actually on our way back to Texas! My husband had been commuting to Baltimore every day so we planned to move to York County after our daughter graduated this June - but in December he was offered a transfer to Texas and since she is headed there for college, we accepted.......

So we have our house on the market just waiting for everything to fall into place...........

[WhyisaTexasgirlinPA]

I'm sure you could post any information you can share - you know people here are receptive to our military and feel prayer is something many of us can offer

[sam_paine]

Thoughts on #31?

[TexasCowboy]

"not to talk about the cattle disorder with outside parties,"

Well, I don't know whether or not outside partying can be called a "disorder", but when I lived there, many times on Saturday night I saw cows staggering out of the Santa Fe Junction so drunk they were having a hard time making it back to the corral.
Some of these were young heifers, but a lot of them were older cows who had seen their better days.

[WhyisaTexasgirlinPA]

I'm not sure whether to laugh or groan......lol....ok, that was a pretty good one........

[Arrowhead1952]

All I know is I had one of the best steaks I've had in years while I was in Texas........ ;^)

Did you have to mention steaks? I'm getting hungry now and that is just what I need, a big steak with baked potato and a salad.

[eno_]

I think it is very plausible that meat cannot transmit prions effectively, and that there is some other explanation.

OTOH, the way this is being handled is still scandalous. The people deserve to know this information.

[angcat]

I bet your thrilled to go back home! I'm sure the house will sell in no time. I had a baby last October, a girl, Giovanna, so I am a slave to her! I manage to Freep that is my down time. Keep in touch!

[farmfriend]

Thanks for the ping.