Texas Woman's Death Probed for Mad Cow Tie

My Way ^ | November 21, 2004

[Tumbleweed_Connection]

The family of a Beaumont woman is waiting for test results to find out if she died from a form of an affliction connected to mad cow disease.

Burnell Baize, 71, died Oct. 16 of the rare Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, which eats holes in the brain and always causes death, the Beaumont Enterprise reported Sunday.

There are two forms of the disease.

One type is called variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and is linked to mad cow disease. It can be contracted by humans if they eat infected beef or nerve tissue, and possibly through blood transfusions.

The more common type of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, known as classic CJD, is responsible for about one in 10,000 U.S. deaths each year, and its cause is unknown 85 percent of the time.

Baize's family is wondering if she ate infected beef.

In the United States, there has been only one known case of variant CJD - a Florida woman who died in June after eating contaminated beef more than a decade ago in England.

The only confirmed U.S. case of mad cow disease was found last December in Washington state.

But on Thursday, Agriculture Department officials said a second case of mad-cow disease might have turned up.

Baize's family is worried.

"This is a scary, scary malady," said her son Gene Barnes, 53.

Baize began to suffer from dementia during the late summer, he said. In the last week of her life, she was in a coma.

Her brain was taken to the National Prion Disease Pathology Surveillance Center in Ohio, where an autopsy will determine if she died of classic or variant CJD. The results are expected in about two weeks.

This year so far, two Texans have died of classic CJD, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services.

In the last eight years, there have been between one and 10 people to die of the illness each year, said spokesman Doug McBride.

Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, the human form of mad cow disease, so far has killed 100 people in Britain and elsewhere.

Both forms of CJD are believed to involve the unexplained mutation of proteins in the brain called prions.

Mad cow disease - known also as bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE - eats holes in the brains of cattle. It sprang up in Britain in 1986 and spread through countries in Europe and Asia, prompting massive destruction of herds and decimating the European beef industry.

[Gibtx]

this is not good news.. this is a long gestation period of years..... so i am told

[mercy]

Oh yeah, it almost never happens. We know this because the FDA tells us so.

[Texas Songwriter]

I need to know who did the autopsy on this woman. Was the gross examination suspicious and waranted the immunofluorescence studies to confirm. The article seems to imply the family is suspicious of BSE involvement but I don't see any medical experts making that inference in the body of this report. Crutzfield-Jacob disease is so rare that even the most experienced pathologists in this country have never seen the gross exam nor the histology. Therefore I must ask if this is sensationalism in reporting or are there good medical findings to suggest this diagnosis.

[chesty_puller]

Another reason that I raise my own beef.

[Perdogg]

I heard it could be up to 35 years.

[Perdogg]

Did rancher usually render animals in the US? It seems to me that corn and wheat prices had been steady over the years that american ranchers didn't have to do that.

[asgardshill]

That's true - CJD's gestation period is more often around 20 years. The fear of CJD is the reason I cannot legally give blood according to the FDA - I lived in Britain in the late 70s and early 80s.

[Cloverfarm]

Do you mean do ranchers butcher their own cattle? No ... not usually. Most are sold to meat packers.

Years ago people used to butcher their own cattle once in awhile, especially if they had a cull cow or something else that would go to waste otherwise. So, since the woman who died was in her 70s, maybe she would have been exposed on the farm. Especially if she were one who liked fried cow brains, or that dish where you barbecue a cow's head ... (some Hispanic customers of ours wanted to be sure their meat order included the animal's head, for a special occasion)

We are thankful we never gave our cattle any feed containing animal by-products. Years ago FIL pronounced it "just too weird." Smart!

Ann

[deport]

From the article:

Her brain was taken to the National Prion Disease Pathology Surveillance Center in Ohio, where an autopsy will determine if she died of classic or variant CJD. The results are expected in about two weeks.

[steplock]

let's all fall for the peta/elf/alf/aspca/green/WHACKO scare tactics to make everybody SICKLY VEGGIES.

Mad Cow - Mad Cow - run dick run --- scream jane scream - see spot wet the rug in abject fear.

[deport]

The Beaumont Enterprise	home : news : news : local

Mad cow variant suspected in death

By: JAMIE REID, The Enterprise

11/21/2004

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	Burnell Baize, 71, of Beaumont died in October from the rare Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.

It was as if every day God pulled another plug on Burnell Baize - one day she couldn't control her fingers, the next day her legs, then her tongue. Her demise was quick.

"It was the most pitiful thing I've ever seen," son-in-law Dan Jordan of Little Rock said.

Baize, 71, of Beaumont, passed away October 16.

She died of the rare Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, which eats holes in the brain and always causes death. There are two forms of the disease and relatives are waiting for tests to determine which type killed Baize.

One type is called variant CJD and is linked to mad cow disease, which was likely found in the United States this week, the government announced. The one suspect cow never entered the food or feed chain, officials have said.

Mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, attacks an animal's nervous system much like CJD attacks humans. People who eat food contaminated with BSE can contract variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.

So now Baize's family wonders: Did she eat infected beef?

Most likely, no.

Just one American has died from variant CJD, according to experts. That woman, a Floridian who died last June, is thought to have caught the disease while living in England, experts said.

The only confirmed U.S. case of mad cow disease was found last December in Washington state.

The other type is called classic CJD and strikes about one person in 1 million, leading to about 200 to 250 American deaths each year. Experts do not know what causes it, but it's not from eating tainted beef.

Yet Baize's family is worried. They heard doctors ask these questions, "When was the last time you traveled in Europe?" and "Have you eaten any wild game?'

Son-in-law Jordan, 56, wants to know if his family is in danger. He hasn't eaten a piece of pork or beef for weeks and vows he won't ever again.

Jordan wants to know where the possible mad cow infection occurred. The government isn't telling.

Jordan, an admitted conspiracy theorist, worries the government is keeping quiet to protect the cattle industry. Exports represent about $3.8 billion of America's $40 billion a year beef industry, according to The Associated Press.

The disease, both classic CJD and variant CJD, is difficult to kill. Normal sterilization procedures don't kill it, and at least five Americans since 1998 have caught the disease through medical procedures, according to a CJD research center in Ohio.

The disease can not be transmitted through casual contact, so family members of CJD patients are at no higher risk of contracting the disease than the general population, according to support group CJD Voice. However, exposure to infected brain tissue and spinal cord fluid should be avoided.

There is no evidence that blood from people with classic CJD is infectious, according to the group. Yet blood transfusions from people with variant CJD might transmit the disease. People who have lived more than three months in a country where mad cow disease is common can not donate blood here, according to the group's Web site.

During Baize's last months, family and health care workers attended to her with surgical gloves for extra protection. When she died, her bedding was destroyed, said her son Gene "Tommy" Barnes, 53, of Pine Ridge, between Lumberton and Sour Lake.

A Southeast Texas funeral home refused to embalm the body and instead held a closed casket ceremony, Jordan said.

Her brain was taken to the National Prion Disease Pathology Surveillance Center in Ohio, where an autopsy will determine if she died of classic or variant CJD. The results are expected in about two weeks, said Jordan, director of business for the Arkansas Baptist State Convention.

Baize's brain - like other people who die of CJD - is filled with holes that resemble sponges under a microscope, according to the national support group CJD Voice.

Baize - an active member of a Red Hat club and Procter Baptist Church in Port Arthur - began to suffer from dementia during the late summer, her son said. She would tell her son that she needed to brush her teeth, but could not remember how. She would ask for help finding her underwear, while she was holding them.

During the last week of her life in October, she was in a coma.

"This is a scary, scary malady," Barnes said.

Most researchers believe that a type of protein called a prion causes CJD.

Prion proteins occur in both a normal form, which is harmless, and an infectious form, which causes disease. The harmless and infectious forms have the same building blocks, but they are folded into different shapes, according to CJD Voice.

The harmless prions may spontaneously change into the infection form. Scientists do not know exactly how brain damage occurs.

In about 5 percent to 10 percent of cases, the protein change is a genetic mutation.

Baize's relatives would like to know if this disease runs in their family.

CJD occurs worldwide at a rate of about one case per million people each year, according to the CDC. Risk increases with age, and people 50 or older have about a 3.5 times greater chance of developing the disease.

This year so far, two Texans have died of the disease, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services. In the last 8 years, there have been between one and 10 people to die of the illness each year, said spokesman Doug McBride.

Nationwide there are usually between 200 and 250 people to die of the disease, according to the CDC.

Reach this reporter at:

(409) 833-3311, ext. 428

jreid@beaumontenterprise.com

©The Beaumont Enterprise 2004

[freakboy]

Texas Woman's Death Probed for Mad Cow Tie

What? Was she strangles by said necktie or something?

[Johnny Crab]

Good move.

http://www.drday.com/madcow.htm

[Glock17]

You'd better slaughter and process them yourself also. The meat grinders in the pack house could pass the contamination to your steer. I buy all my beef from my Dad. He uses a local packer that has a limited client base whom he has dealt with for years. Basically, if he does not know them, he says no.

[Sivad]

Dang. When I saw 'Dead Texas Woman' and 'Mad Cow' I thought
for sure the article was going to be about Molly Ivins.

[TBall]

I love chicken, bump.

[Fury]

(some Hispanic customers of ours wanted to be sure their meat order included the animal's head, for a special occasion)

I was once at a packing plant and noticed calf brains of veal calves (usually slaughtered around 17-20 weeks of age) on a tray, all in little rows. I asked who ate those and was told they are a delicacy and were being shipped to NYC, as are brain from cattle, etc, also considered "good 'eatin" at some of the "finer" eateries .