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New US case of mad cow disease feared
Taipei Times ^ | Nov 20, 2004

Posted on 11/20/2004 3:13:52 AM PST by traumer

TESTS INCONCLUSIVE: The possible new outbreak comes less than a month after agreements were reached with Taiwan and Japan to resume US beef shipments AP , WASHINGTON

The US government is investigating a possible new case of mad cow disease, officials said on Thursday, rattling the US cattle industry, food processors and beef-oriented restaurant chains.

Additional checks are being conducted after initial testing proved inconclusive on the suspect brain tissue. Officials said the suspect animal never entered the food or feed chain.

Ranches and businesses dependent on beef are still feeling financial effects from the only confirmed US case.

More than 40 countries cut off imports of US beef after a Canadian-born Holstein was found to have been infected in Washington state last December.

Many of those bans remain in place. The announcement of a possible new case comes less than a month after US negotiators reached tentative agreements with both Japan and Taiwan to resume US beef and beef product shipments.

Exports represent about US$3.8 billion of America's US$40 billion a year beef industry.

Thursday's announcement sent cattle prices tumbling on fears that foreign markets would remain closed to US beef. Shares of McDonald's, Wendy's, and other restaurant chains that feature hamburgers also slumped, as did those of US meat producers.

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) gave no information on the location or origin of the slaughtered animal and said results from advanced tests were not expected before four to seven days.

Alisa Harrison, a USDA spokeswoman, said the animal in question was among high-risk animals subjected to the new screening procedures. Those are animals that died on the farm, have trouble walking or showed signs of nerve damage.

She said no quarantines have been established.

"There's no reason to do that since it's an inconclusive result," Harrison said. "Should it be positive, we will be ready."

The "inconclusive result" was the same term the agency used in June when two potential cases turned out to be false alarms.

The Consumer Federation of America suggested that the "inconclusive" label was itself misleading, and that the government should have reported the finding as a "preliminary positive." Still, said federation official Carol Tucker, "there is no reason for consumers to be alarmed by the announcement." This story has been viewed 635 times.


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: madcow; usda
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1 posted on 11/20/2004 3:13:55 AM PST by traumer
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To: traumer

2 posted on 11/20/2004 3:43:14 AM PST by festus (Old growth timbers make the best campfires....)
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To: traumer

Tag 'em with RFIDs. Then we can track the beef all the way through the chain. Just the peace of mind it'll give consumers will be worth it, and it'll give us more credibility with nations like Japan, who still ban our beef. (Although they may have other issues, also.)


3 posted on 11/20/2004 3:44:26 AM PST by D.P.Roberts
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To: D.P.Roberts

As long as animal by product is fed back to cattle, the beef will never be safe. Testing each and every cow can, and should be done. It costs 12 extra bucks per cow, mere pennies considering the catastrophe it can prevent. Japan tests every single cow, and is still one of their demands for any beef they import.
BSE also occurs naturally in cattle and sheep. these prions cannot be stopped, even with prolonged high heat sterilization. This is why animal by products should not EVER be fed back to livestock, which sadly it still is.
It's the main product of rendering plants, cheap, and people will always cheat. One single "sick cow" sent to the rendering plant, and subsequently fed back to cattle can quickly infect the whole herd. It's not something to be careless about since we now know it jumps the species barrier into humans.
Human cases are not reported in most states, but BSE type diseases are on the rise in the population. It also occurs naturally in humans, at the same rate as Animals, which is about 1 in every million. What's scary is this IS very easy to catch via blood products, even from surgical equipment, as sterilization of it cannot kill the prion which spreads it.
Testing ALL cattle is the only way to insure the safety of our beef, and the public. We should learn from the Brit's experience of how fast this can get out of control if we are not careful.
How many people know of a friend or relative that suddenly lost their minds and died? It's very similar to Alzheimer's except it has a rapid onset, plus the cases which effect younger people are of particular concern.

There are some interesting web sites and prion science web sites available.


4 posted on 11/20/2004 4:19:39 AM PST by Nathan Zachary
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To: Nathan Zachary

Wow. Thanks. Very informative.


5 posted on 11/20/2004 4:24:14 AM PST by D.P.Roberts
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To: Nathan Zachary
This business is making me rethink vegetarianism (vegan), something I tried to do years ago. That and an unappetizing little video from those annoying folks at PETA, with the absurd name "Meet Your Meat". This 13 minute clip shows surreptitiously obtained video from factory farms and slaughter houses documenting cruel treatment of animals. Defenders of the industries point out that these incidents are illegal and contrary to industry standards, yet it does seem these things happen. (www.meetyourmeat.org)
6 posted on 11/20/2004 5:22:16 AM PST by megatherium
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To: traumer

London Broils on special this week. Going to buy about 20lbs and make it up into jerky. Liberal neighbors use MCD as an excuse not to eat beef. They have a much better chance of hitting Powerball than of contracting MCD. Still, keeping them on stupefying slave diet is lots of fun especially when delicious fumes from jerky smoker drift over their way.


7 posted on 11/20/2004 5:27:11 AM PST by NaughtiusMaximus (Their women give good lamentation, maybe we can conquer them again sometime.)
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To: D.P.Roberts

What's scary about that information, is the natual occurance of BSE. As I pointed out, it's one in every million. Our National herd count is 24 million, so while we found ONE case, where are the other 23? Yummy, that tasted good. We should be finding close to that number every year. Some cows drop dead and are just buried, so their is no way to tell if it had BSE or not.
It's another reason why younger cows are preferred for slaughter, around 24-30 months. It takes time for BSE to develop and the older a cow gets the more developed the disease gets, then one day they just fall down and die.
It's also why it's seen more in dairy cows, because they are kept alive longer, and they are given more protein supliments to boost milk production. This supplement comes from rendering plant products. Beef producers also sometimes use suppliments as calf starters, and feedlots use it for finnishing. You'd be suprized what passes for
"protein supplements". Currently there is a ban on feeding anything containing animal by-product to cattle, but some cheat. Plus there are no guaranties that cross contamination of feed product can't happen in rendering operations, as these prions can't be sanitized from multi-purpose equipment.
The best thing to do obviously, is not to feed ANY to cattle. Their is no ban on feeding animal by- product to pigs turkeys and chicken. One of the reasons is that these animals are slaughtered at much younger ages so the disease doesn't have enough time to develop. Still, after doing alot of research on the subject, I try to eat organicly raised meats. It wouldn't do much good to stop eating beef or any meats, because this stuff can spread into vegitarian diets as well via fertilizers. Plus so many other products are made from animals that it would be pointless. lip stick, makeup, medical products, medicines etc. can all be contaminated with these nasty prions. Besides, it takes about 15-20 years for humans to develop the human form. It's already too late if you ate some bad stuff.
Most people don't eat cow brain and the parts where these prions are concentrated anyway, and most cattle slaughtered are younger. Muscle tissue doesn't contain these prions, its found in the spine and brain, ganglea.
They have a "guideline" as to how and what parts become infected as an infected cow ages. Those parts are not put into the food chain as a precaution, and mechanical stripping of meat has been banned for safety reasons as well.


8 posted on 11/20/2004 5:27:43 AM PST by Nathan Zachary
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To: megatherium

That peta stuff is pure B.S. Many times they stage their own crualty shows. Those people sicko's.

As I said, going vegitarian would not help at all, plus you'll miss out on some very good BBQ's, and be misurable.
You've aready ate the stuff long ago, plus veggies are grown in what? Prions have a half life simular to uranium.
Not every human is suseptable either for some reason unknown to science at this point, they suspect about half the population isn't according to some studies. Maybe only democrats are, which explains their nuttyness! LoL!
I wouldn't worry too much about it. All I'm really concerned about is that we be carefull and take precaustions with our food supply now that we know some about this, and how it can spread rapidly making it a problem, much like it did in the UK. We know how to prevent an outbreak, so we should take every precaution of doing just that.
It will take another hundred years before we learn the mysteries of the protein. We simply can't see things that small to be able to study them. They aren't the simple building blocks we once thought they were however.
This is why cloning should not be done on humans. We can create a prion type thing which could be unstoppable.
As we see, prions are darn hard to kill, even at 600 degree for 8 hours, they can survive. That is beyond any proccessing temperatures we use.


9 posted on 11/20/2004 5:45:30 AM PST by Nathan Zachary
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To: Nathan Zachary

Yes, I agree. There were also pockets of outbreak of CJD in New Jersey which got little press coverage. What I wonder is if prions can not be killed does it not seem that every slaughterhouse that processed infected beef would be vectors for the spread of CJD? If this is so then every slaughterhouse would be effected and may need to be destroyed. I have never hear this aspect mentioned but it sort of makes sense. This along with the infected beef would be a big hit to the economy but I can not see any other way to truly guarantee the purity of the food supply.


10 posted on 11/20/2004 5:52:12 AM PST by foolscap
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To: NaughtiusMaximus

I just finnished a few batches of deer jerky, and sausage making. Tis the season, LoL! We did good this year, filling our tags for all 3 seasons, bow, muzzle and rifle, 6 deer between my son and I. Lots of butchering work this year, thank god I'm finnished. Next year I'll quit after the 3rd deer. Thank goodness my other son didn't hunt this year. There are just too many deer around here, not enough hunters.


11 posted on 11/20/2004 5:54:23 AM PST by Nathan Zachary
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To: Nathan Zachary

The feeding of animals to animals has to stop and should have back in 1997 when the FDA said they would tend to the problem. Thus far their efforts have been laughable. Even with this what question is not answered is why CJD like diseases are occurring in wild animal populations which have never been exposed to current feeding practices. There is no real reason for such large numbers of elk in the western US to have diseases like this. There has long been naturally occurring CJD like diseases but their number is growing at an alarming rate. It makes me wonder about an over looked environmental toxin. I just wonder if there is more to the puzzle than we realize. Poor feeding practices has been proven to be a part but maybe there is something we are not seeing which is the real answer


12 posted on 11/20/2004 6:04:00 AM PST by foolscap
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To: megatherium
Some people break laws, the vast majority follow the rules. If you don't want to eat meat don't eat meat but don't use PETA"S propaganda let ou paint all with the same brush.

BTW, PETA wouldn't mind hurting you if it helped their cause.

13 posted on 11/20/2004 6:12:14 AM PST by tiki (Won one against the Flipper)
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To: foolscap

I've wondered the exact same thing about those slaughter houses. They have taken out the mechanical strippers though. The rendering plants that they ran these tests on were closed. But I didn't discover much information about that either when I did my study.

Those cases in NJ were intresting, and most likely were from bad beef. IT hit young people, and were exactly the same as those in the UK. It was kept hushed I guess. There were also some cases in Minn. from a deer farm, as well as some cases reported in deer around an elk farm, I can't remember where off hand, somewere out west. It seems in all cases though, it's caused by feeding by-product.
The big problem I see is human cases are not being reported, and proper diagnosis and testing is not being done to determine which variant it is. Any deaths among younger people with rapid onset are very suspicious, and in my opinion, probably BSE related. As far as we know, there have only been a few. But I wonder if we are even being told?


14 posted on 11/20/2004 6:12:24 AM PST by Nathan Zachary
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To: traumer
America's Mad Cow


15 posted on 11/20/2004 6:13:17 AM PST by CR
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To: Nathan Zachary
sterilization of it cannot kill the prion which spreads it.

I think the answer to this will come via DNA research. That is the only way I can think of to understand the prions and come up with a way of killing them in hospitals. If we can now produce vaccines by DNA manipulation it is not that far of a stretch to think that genetic modification can also be applied here. It make take a protein to kill a protein.

16 posted on 11/20/2004 6:14:07 AM PST by foolscap
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To: foolscap

If my memory serves me, I think those elk cases were on an elk preserve, where they were feeding them animal by-product. There is a study on that somewhere, with a few theories, like grazing. Because they are sheep like, they think the transferance could have been a sheep variant, and it turned into another variant simular but not quite the same as the BSE from cattle. As you probably know, this is a huge problem with sheep ranchers with this as well. I should look it up and see if those studies have come to any conclusions. I haven't kept up with them for the last year or so.
T.B. in that area is a problem as well, and in some areas of the northern mid west.
There hasn't been any reported finds this year that I've heard of so far, but it's early yet. Hunters should be carefull though. Any sickly looking animals should be turned in.


17 posted on 11/20/2004 6:25:47 AM PST by Nathan Zachary
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To: Nathan Zachary
But I wonder if we are even being told?

As I have read and I do not know if this is true the CDC does not require mandatory reporting of suspected CJD deaths. I have also read that local coroners are reluctant to perform autopsy of these sorts of deaths because of the risk of prion infection. I can see why they would feel that way however we have a major public health problem in the making. The CDC must require ever suspected death to be investigated. If the local hospitals and coroners can not do the work than the bodies need to be shipped to a central location for autopsy. This location would only do autopsies on those suspected of having the prions. It's a big cost and a lot of hassle but without good information an answer will never be found. I have a feeling that many more people are infected than we realize. These people are donating blood and other activities that is speading the disease.

18 posted on 11/20/2004 6:27:19 AM PST by foolscap
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To: festus

You should be ashamed of posting that picture of Linda Ronstadt on here. Of course you may have hit on something, it may just be what all these sicko liberals have come down with.


19 posted on 11/20/2004 6:31:34 AM PST by gunnedah
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To: Nathan Zachary
as sterilization of it cannot kill the prion which spreads it.

Prions aren't living organisms as I understand it. My understanding is it is more akin to a protien string as opposed to a living organism.

20 posted on 11/20/2004 6:39:31 AM PST by Thermalseeker
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