Mad Cow Disease Confirmed In California 274
New submitter wave9x writes "The United States Department of Agriculture confirmed today that the nation's fourth case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, sometimes referred to as 'mad cow disease' was found in a dairy cow in California. The animal has been euthanized and the carcass is being being held under State authority at a rendering facility in California and will be destroyed."
No wonder (Score:4, Informative)
I'll just leave this [unc.edu] here.
Don't eat T-Bones (Score:5, Informative)
Private BSE Testing (Score:5, Informative)
There was a suggestion to do private testing for BSE by individual ranchers the last time there was an 'outbreak'. The idea was to market their product as having been tested. But that was banned by the USDA [life-enhancement.com].
Re:American Culture (Score:4, Informative)
That and we're more likely to see the effects of trouble in the beef industry than we are to actually get Mad Cow. But, hey, it's fashionable to take pot-shots at America right now.
Re:American Culture (Score:5, Informative)
It's definitely telling... telling that you didn't see the disclaimer on the bottom of the Google News page:
The selection and placement of stories on this page were determined automatically by a computer program.
Re:American Culture (Score:5, Informative)
Indeed. Four cases of a disease in cows (in the US), with three humans infected is indeed extremely threatening. Never mind the UK had an actual epidemic, with over 180,000 cases in cows, and still only had 176 people infected (from Wikipedia). In my mind, that makes BSE less dangerous than... well, just about everything. Hell, there have only been 280 reported cases of infected humans from BSE, ever. Tell me again why people should be scared? Yes, health officials should be careful: damned careful. The average person? Don't worry about it.
No one said nothing should be done. They did what needed to be done: euthanized the cow and dispose of the corpse properly.
Natural case, not transmitted through feed (Score:5, Informative)
Ever since we stopped feeding ground up cow parts to other cows, the rate of BSE has dropped to near zero; it's only when cow engage in cannibalism that the disease spreads to enough cattle to produce a measurable risk to any human.
Re:Fault: Obama (Score:5, Informative)
If that were actually the real policy, then there would never be any outbreaks. The disease only transfers by eating brains and nerves. The cows can only catch it if the farmers are feeding their cows brains and nerves. From sick cows. Which is pretty disgusting considering they are herbivores.
Um, you do realize that this is exactly what they do, right? The remains from slaughtered animals are processed and put back into animal feed.
Re:Dang (Score:5, Informative)
Re:American Culture (Score:5, Informative)
It doesn't mean that the cow are fed cow meat at all. The prion [wikipedia.org] that cause BSE [wikipedia.org] can be created naturally through mutation, and then reproduce. This kind of mutation happens very occasionally, but it does happen often enough that we have seen it happen several times. This is believed to be such a case; to quote the Associated Press coverage [ap.org]:
Eivind.
Re:Don't eat T-Bones (Score:3, Informative)
Cooking the meat doesn't help: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/02/science/02qna.html
Re:American Culture (Score:5, Informative)
Your referenced source says "Odds of being killed sometime in the next year in any sort of transportation accident: 77 to 1," which you paraphrased as "you kid will be killed by a car (77 to 1)."
And there is obviously something wrong with this one, since your chances of dying next year aren't even 77 to 1. Perhaps they meant the chance that, if you die next year, you will die in any sort of transportation accident is 77 to 1.
Or maybe they just made it up, since your referenced source has no referenced sources.
Re:American Culture (Score:5, Informative)
BSE is poorly tested for in the USA (regulations not adhered to or relaxed) , this is why many US beef products are/were unwelcome in Japan.
Human infection is understated, symptoms and diagnosis can take 10 years to manifest. There are postmortem studies performed in the 90's that indicate over 25% of diagnosed dementia and Alzheimer's victims were actually BSE infected individuals.
These studies were not widely distributed and testing has been allowed to become relaxed for purely economic reasons. ... See the UK incidence.
Humans don't get BSE (Hint: The 'B' stands for 'Bovine') - they get Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease (CJD). They're both prion diseases but the actual prion involved differs. It is believed that BSE prions from food can trigger invalid folding of the CJD prion in humans and thus CJD but the details are not completely understood. Both BSE and CJD can also be triggered through genetic defects, either hereditary or through mutations.
Re:Don't eat T-Bones (Score:4, Informative)
This cow was destined to be fed to other cows (it was tested at a 'rendering' facility). So, statistically speaking, other infected cows have been processed and eaten by cows destined for food.
Supposedly, high-risk portions (brain, spinal cord) are excluded from being turned into cowfeed, but have to wonder - do they get every last prion?
The sooner they stop this nonsense, the better.