How serious a problem is mad cow disease? Sometimes I downplay things of this nature because I know the media likes to hype things up so much.
I don't know. I sure hope it's hype. The incubation period in humans is ten years, iirc.
The problem is that beef is in everything from makeup, to toothpaste, to animal feed. So you say you will stop eating beef? Won't work because leftover beef and stuff is ground up and feed to chickens, pigs and other cows.
I keep wondering the same thing. Last I heard there still wasn't a firm consensus on what the mode of transmission is, although they lean towards prions, which are supposedly virtually indestructible, even at autoclave temps. And the linkage between BSE and CJD still seems to be pretty tenuous. But maybe that's just my impression. Anyone up to speed on the latest scientific thinking on this topic?
I guess it's not such a big deal. After all, the Frnch seem to have it in all their living beings, so it kinda comes natural.
Problem as in chances of getting it or in what happens after you get it?
Deaths from forms of CJD continue in Britain.
http://www.cjd.ed.ac.uk/figures.htm
Seems like it dropped off last year. That doesn't mean it's going away. If and when the deaths will stop is anyone's guess. Chronic wasting disease may be the real problem in the US. That's spread into the East from the West recently. Some think some cases of Alzheimers are really vCJD. Because of the lack of autopsies, no one wants to autopsy all the cases, we don't know. In the UK they ran tests on appendix and tonsil tissue and found indications of vCJD. They did an extrapolation that indicated thousands probably had the disease in Britain.