Posted on 01/28/2005 8:18:51 AM PST by LibWhacker
A goat slaughtered in France in 2002 has tested positive for "mad cow" disease, French and EU officials said, announcing the first case in the world of an animal other than a bovine coming down with the fatal illness that can be transmitted to humans.
The discovery of the disease -- known scientifically as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in cows -- is a disturbing sign that it can cross over to other species used for human consumption.
The presence of BSE in other animals had been viewed as theoretically possible but has never previously been detected.
BSE has been linked to variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD), the human form of mad cow disease, which causes brain-wasting, personality change, loss of body function, and ultimately death.
The French agriculture ministry said the new case was confirmed by a panel of scientists appointed by the European Commission.
It stressed that the Commission was not yet recommending consumers avoid buying products with goat meat but was advising EU states to step up checks for any other goats showing BSE symptoms, such as trembling and lacking coordination.
British health authorities said in October last year that British scientists in a laboratory in Weybridge, England, were testing brain tissue from the goat.
The goat in question was slaughtered in an abbatoir in Ales, in southern France in 2002 but was kept out of the food chain. The 300 other goats in its herd were destroyed as a precaution even though testing revealed no trace of BSE in any of them.
There are 1.2 million goats raised in France, of with 940,000 are used to produce milk for dairy products.
BSE first appeared in cows on a farm in West Sussex, south England in 1986. The disease has an incubation period of around five years.
Well, I won't be eating goat for awhile.
"2002 and we are just now hearing about it. "
Well, apparently they were suspicious, because the meat wasn't sold and the rest of that herd of goats was destroyed. Since the disease wasn't known in goats, it could have taken some time to confirm it.
ping
Yep . . . They seem to be such simple things (not that I know anything about them!) operating at such a fundamental cellular level, it'll be absolutely amazing to me if prions can target one species and not another.
Wonder if the darned things can mutate?
This study published 2-17-04 by the National Academy of Sciences stated that:
"The unprecedented biological properties of the BSE agent, which circumvents the so-called "species barrier" between cattle and humans and adapts to different mammalian species, has raised considerable concern for human health. To date, it is unknown whether more than one strain might be responsible for cattle TSE or whether the BSE agent undergoes phenotypic variation after natural transmission. Here we provide evidence of a second cattle TSE."
Not only can it jump species barriers, there appears to be several strains.
It's almost certain that this disease in cows comes from feeding them bits of ground-up cow, ground bones, or the like in their feed.
Presumably this goat was fed some such contaminated feed. My comic mind also raised the idea of a bit of goat/cow frolicking in the pasture, but I think it's only transmitted by eating a diseased animal.
Darn, no more goat head cheese.
vanity - we have enjoyed our Saanen dairy goats for 17 years. They have given us great dairy products from milk, butter, cheese, ice cream, kefir, and yogurt. They are a great source of entertainment too, and given our daughter 9 years worth of 4H projects animals. It's been a great ride.
I have had this gut feeling that Mad cow is some how being purposly transmitted by the enviromentalist movement.
Maybe the vegans know something. Sort of like muslims getting off the bus before the homocide bomber blows.
SACRE BLEU!
Where do you come up with these things?
Did he get it from a frenchman?
Seriously, where did you get all the articles you posted in the past hour or so? I would have no prayer of even reading them all in that short a time, much less reading them AND posting them. You must both read AND type WAY faster than I do. Thanks for all the great articles. Most are pretty DEPRESSING, but I DO read as many as time allows.
Best,
BTTT!!!!!
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