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Biotech Science

New Mad Cow Test on the Horizon? 184

Posted by Zonk from the moooo-mooo-mooooo dept.
pin_gween writes "Prions are thought to be responsible for mad cow disease and its human variant, Creutzfeld-Jakob disease. Until now, the only way to positively ID those infected was to dissect the brain. Canada.com has an AP wire reporting that researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston have 'developed a method of multiplying the number prions in a blood sample so a blood test then can detect them.' If perfected, it would make the blood supply safer; transfusions can spread the disease between people. It could also open up more blood donations for the Red Cross: in the U.S., people who have spent more than 3 months total (since 1980) in the UK or 6 months total (since 1980) in Europe are banned from donating."
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New Mad Cow Test on the Horizon? More

New Mad Cow Test on the Horizon?

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  • Donation (Score:3, Interesting)

    by seti ( 74097 ) on Monday August 29, 2005 @03:41AM (#13425607) Journal
    In Belgium, I am banned from donating blood because i was born in 1978, and lived in the UK till 1980. I left the UK when I was two years old.
    • Isn't that kind of thing stupid? I don't think there is much difference between one western country and another in terms of average infection rates of most diseases.
      • I totally agree. It's been twenty-five years since I have lived in the UK, and I'm not expert on VCJD, but if i haven't developed any illness by now, I don't think I ever will. Also, VJCD has occurred a couple of times here, so it's a bit of a stupid rule.

        The UK however has had a lot more cases than other European countries. Other countries have been France, Belgium and the Netherlands, but to a lot lesser extent than the UK (probably about 90% of cases).
        • The number of cases in the UK is still extrememly low per head of population though.

        • Re:Donation (Score:4, Informative)

          by packeteer ( 566398 ) <packeteer@@@subdimension...com> on Monday August 29, 2005 @04:09AM (#13425701)
          I don't want to scare you since you are probably fine but you very well could have prions in you. Temember there is no way to test and just becuase you have no symptoms doesn;t mean you dont have it. You can be exposed to the prions that cause VCJD and not get sick for 30-40 years.

          I know someone who is not allowed to donate blood in the USA. He has never been to europe. His grandfather died of CJD and contracted it in the United States. Becuase there is a possability he carried it when he has children and his grandchildren COULD have it. There is no way to test them. The only way they will know is when they get older they could get sick.

          • Re:Donation (Score:5, Insightful)

            by wbtittle ( 456702 ) on Monday August 29, 2005 @09:09AM (#13426985) Homepage
            Sorry, you fail.

            Pop quiz buddy. You are about to die. You need blood. You have a choice. DIE, or take the blood of a person who might, maybe, possibly, if 7,000,000,000 things went just right have a stray prion in his system, which might just might transfer to you and then 25 years from now cause you to die of nvCJD.

            What do you choose. Death today, or death 25 years from now.

            The policy is stupid. It kills people. The blood supply is severely strained as a result.

            The definition of a rare blood type is not AB-, it is the type of blood you need when you need it and it is not there.

            Less than 200 people have died of nvCJD in the world in the last 30 years.

            Anyone worried about catching it and dying may as well shoot themselves right now, cause they are also worried to death about getting every other disease on the planet except for the ones that might actually kill them (like the flu).

            GRRRR

            • I see where you're coming from. Hell, I was surprised I couldn't donate blood because of the UK restriction. However, maybe the reason only 200 people have died from it is because of the severe restrictions?

        • Re:Donation (Score:3, Informative)

          by Tim C ( 15259 )
          "Probably"? Every time I see that, I read it as "I don't actually know, but my prejudice is that...".

          So, here are some actual numbers, courtesy of the World Health Organisation [who.int]. As it turns out, you underestimated it, at least for the period in the report.

          Still, it's worth pointing out that the UK population is in the region of 60million or so, so the number of cases is tiny.
      • Not stupid at all. Many people were infected by eating british beef infected with BSE (Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy(mad cow disease)). No one has been infected by eating Australian beef, there have been no reported cases yet in North America (although infected animals have been found there).

        Quarantine seems to be working well for BSE, so infection rates are significantly different between different western nations.

    • Re:Donation (Score:2, Informative)

      by Hannah E. Davis ( 870669 )
      There's a similar law in Canada. From the Canadian Blood Services websites [bloodservices.ca]:

      Possible Exposure to CJD or vCJD: People are not eligible to donate blood or plasma if they have spent a cumulative total of three months or more in the United Kingdom (U.K.) between January 1980, and December 31, 1996, or if they have spent a cumulative total of three months or more in France between January 1980, and December 31, 1996, or if they have spent a cumulative total of five years or more in Western Europe outside the U.

    • Re:Donation (Score:2, Interesting)

      by hattig ( 47930 )
      Amazing, the problem only arose in the UK in the mid-80s as well due to the Conservative government allowing their farmer friends to cut costs by feeding animal waste to bovines.

      It isn't as if BSE is UK only, there are plenty of cases throughout Europe and the US as well - not on the same scale as the problem *was* over here, then again you didn't have pure evil corruption in government at the time. As an aside, I notice that BSE is occuring more often in the US these days ...
      • Amazing, the problem only arose in the UK in the mid-80s as well due to the Conservative government allowing their farmer friends to cut costs by feeding animal waste to bovines.

        A good example that the "free market" fundamentalists are wrong in not acknowledging that not everything under the sun works well just because it's a "free market solution".

        The Conservative government under Thatcher is perhaps better described as free market radical. Actually, this is a trend seen in most European conservative

  • Alternative test (Score:5, Funny)

    by Boomshanka ( 788195 ) on Monday August 29, 2005 @03:42AM (#13425613)
    will it determine if the woman I am about to marry will turn into a mad cow down the track.... now that would truely be a useful test.
    • I think it is a simple gender test, if she is female then she will. Women.

      On a ligher note:

      X-Bender: Oh, so, just 'cause a robot wants to kill humans that makes him a radical?

      Did anyone else notice the X-* headers that slashdot returns? Funny.
    • "will it determine if the woman I am about to marry will turn into a mad cow down the track.... now that would truely be a useful test."

      Look at her mom.

  • Mad Cow Test on the Horizon? (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    If she stops talking to you and refuses to say what's wrong... that's a pretty good indicator.
  • but i dont like the fact that they kill hamsters to find out if the cows are ok ...

    is there really no other way to make these tests than to kill innocent animals ? a hamster may be small but its still torturing and i'm ideologically against it. i wont go shout under their window with a sign in my hand but i definetly dont approve it. if we think it's normal to sacrifice one species animals for the sake of cheaper cow meat, what will keep the aliens from testing on us using our own behaviour as the excuse ?

    i
    • I suspect that the scientists wouldn't have used hamsters (or any lab animals) if they didn't have to, at least in part because procuring and maintaining lab animals ain't cheap and requires a fair bit of paper work. We don't really understand much about prions (well, we know what they are and what they can do, but we have no idea -why- they're like that, or how they work), so this makes it very difficult to just model a simulation or fiddle around with some tissue culture. This makes some animal testing
      • i guess you see my point, but i dont think most people do.

        ofcourse most of us dont give much thought about the rats/mice/hamsters used in the tests, and sometimes the sacrificing is just necessary to save the healthy animals/humans that have survived so far.

        but i for example have a cat at home, i'd rather infect the biologist that wants to experiment himself than my kitten, no matter the purpose.

        i guess most people with pets couldn't even think about giving their cats/dogs/birds for some animal testings now
    • If we're nice to hamsters, how will that prevent aliens from experimenting on us?

  • To be fair (Score:4, Funny)

    by MillionthMonkey ( 240664 ) on Monday August 29, 2005 @03:49AM (#13425639)
    Prions can also be spread via cannibalism- although cannibals can rest assured that as far as prions are concerned, eating brains is still much, much safer than receiving transfusions.

    • Re:To be fair (Score:2, Interesting)

      by ookabooka ( 731013 )
      I thought that stomach enzymes broke down prions(and other protiens) and also in the small intestine. I suppose one rouge molecule that didnt react would get through to your bloodstream and start replicating?
      • Usually that is the case but the prion in question is VERY inert which is what led to contamination of surgical instruments and transmission of the disease. Standard autoclaving was not sufficient to destroy it. This is also what leads to the disease since the body can not break it down and it accumulates in the cell bodies eventually poisoning them.

        The prion has to come into contact with the normal protien to replicate and it's effectiveness depends on the specific structure of both. Since different spi
    • "Prions can also be spread via cannibalism-"

      Which, of course, is what started the latest outbreak of mad cow disease to begin with. Domesticated ruminant animals are not, by their nature, cannibals. Human greed overturned common sense when we started putting bovine blood and bone meal in animal foodstock as "suppliments".

      • Re:To be fair (Score:2, Insightful)

        by juan2074 ( 312848 )
        And, oddly enough, there is no talk of banning animal parts in feed.

        Instead, we will just test for the disease, hoping to eliminate diseased cattle from the food supply.

        Why try an ounce of prevention when we can spend more on the pound of cure?

  • Blood test since 2003 (Score:4, Informative)

    by polysylabic psudonym ( 820466 ) on Monday August 29, 2005 @03:55AM (#13425662) Journal
    According to New Scientist magazine [newscientist.com] there's been a blood test for BSE (Bovive Spongiform Encephalopathy(Mad Cow Disease)) since 2003. The more tests out there the better, of course. Better tests mean quicker testing, means more US cattle tested, means fewer cases hiding, means fewer cases of vCJD in american humans.
    • It may seem to be nitpicking, but all humans belong to only one species, therefore i would guess it would benefit the whole human race, not just only the humans living in America.

      If it was just an unfortunate phrase, then i'm sorry that i'm still talking about it, i just wanted to make sure it gets corrected.
    • The article is about a new method of making the current test more accurate and faster, it is not a new test.

      You are precisely correct in that vCJD is thought to be caused by injesting BSE contaminated meat whereas CJD is classified as either inherited or 'sporatic' - i.e., no known cause or risk factor.

      BSE is thought to be a Transmissable Spongiform Encephalopathy (TSE) where CJD is not known to be transmissable unless the victom is eaten - as the disease Kuru is/was in cannibals who ate the brains of their

  • heard this on the TV a while ago... (Score:5, Funny)

    by IchBinEinPenguin ( 589252 ) on Monday August 29, 2005 @03:59AM (#13425672)
    cow1: Do you worry about mad cow disease?
    cow2: Why should I? I'm a rabbit.

  • I hope they don't expect a lot more donors (Score:4, Insightful)

    by wizrd_nml ( 661928 ) on Monday August 29, 2005 @04:03AM (#13425685) Homepage
    in the US, people who have spent more than 3 months total (since 1980) in the UK or 6 months total (since 1980) in Europe are banned from donating.

    So with over 80% of Americans not even having a passport [gyford.com], is that really a problem?

    • In situations like this, it's less a question of getting more donors and more a question of not alienating people who are willing to donate blood. Not only do you lose that person from the donor pool but, if they feel slighted by the criteria, they can discourage others from coming in.

      I worked at the Red Cross for a number of years and by far the least pleasant duty I had to perform was explaining to perfectly healthy people, whose blood was also probably perfectly healthy, that they couldn't donate beca

      • I stopped donating blood a while back. Now I'm in the medical field, so I understand how important it is to donate and all that. The problem with our current blood donation system in terms of "donator service" is twofold. First, they ask an incredibly annoying battery of questions for high risk screening, which turns a lot of people off. (I don't care about that personally.) But second, they reject people for some of the most ridiculous reasons which makes me not even bother. An example of the latter is rej

        • Re:I hope they don't expect a lot more donors (Score:5, Informative)

          by Mccavity91k ( 801094 ) on Monday August 29, 2005 @07:48AM (#13426445)
          We do not reject people that have taken Tylenol, unless they're donating platelets (Tylenol, like asprin, is a blood thinner). As far as the drugs go, it is on a case by case basis because some drugs change your blood in many ways. As far as the Benadryl goes, the place I worked at would not have deferred you for that, as long as the allergies were chronic, and not possible a cold or flu.

          Remember, this blood will go to sick or injured people that aren't in the right shape to have to worry about what drugs or viruses are in their bloodstreams, and how they'll react with what they're already on.

      • As a regular donor, I concur with this. It is extremely frustrating to be turned away (temporarily) for some of the most absurd reasons, especially if it's after they've already poked your finger.

        My favorite reason was that I went to Nayarita, a state in Mexico with a "malaria risk." The fun part is, I was only 5 miles across the border into the region (from Jalisco, which is "safe") and I stayed on the beach and out of the jungle. As a result, I could not give blood. (This is despite the fact that I had b

  • cost and time (Score:3, Insightful)

    by silverkniveshotmail. ( 713965 ) * on Monday August 29, 2005 @04:08AM (#13425699) Journal
    i didn't notice the article mention once how long it would take to get results, or how much it would cost.

  • There is also another test... (Score:3, Informative)

    by CrackedButter ( 646746 ) on Monday August 29, 2005 @04:11AM (#13425711) Homepage Journal
    It involves taking a swab sample from the tonsils, its been news to me for at least 4 or 5 years. At the time the only other test was to take a cross section of the brain test that, of course, you're only capable of doing that from somebody who had already died of the disease.

  • Mad Cow and CFD is a hype - it is safe. (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    The entire mad cow disiease and Creutzfeld-Jakobs Disease is a political hype created by over-zealous politicians.

    Read one of the last chapters in the Matt Ridley book "Genome - the mapping of a species".

    The facts are

    1) To be able to get CFD, you need to have a genetic defect, making you suspectible to prions. If you don't have that genetic defect, you can eat 100 fresh non-cooked brains of mad cows and never get CFD.

    2) The risk of getting struck by the disease, if you have the genetic defect, is something

    • Re:Mad Cow and CFD is a hype - it is safe. (Score:5, Informative)

      by Grym ( 725290 ) on Monday August 29, 2005 @06:37AM (#13426148)

      "The facts are..."

      "+1 interesting" as it may be, from that point on the parent was utterly wrong.

      Some definitions: TSE is the general name of the TYPE of disease. Bovine Spongiform Encephalitis (BSE), or "Mad Cow's Disease", is the specific name of the disease as it appears in bovine, or cows. Creutzfeldt-Jakob (CJD) disease is the specific name of the disease at it appears in people.

      Some common points of confusion:

      • There are multiple forms of CJD, dependent upon how it is contracted
      • cCJD, or Classical CJD is a genetic form
      • In cCJD, YOUR BODY produces the malfolded protein (prion) which causes the disease. This is rare and ONLY manifests itself in the elderly (>55). It is a rare genetic defect (about 1:1 million) that causes this.
      • nCJD (or sometimes nvCJD) is the acquired form of the disease. It can be acquired from contact with any infected bodily fluid and, of course, meat. It can affect anyone of any age.
      • A person can get nCJD by contact with a cow with BSE OR a person with cCJD. This is why they aren't allowing blood transfusions of possibly infected people.
      • All people are susceptible to the disease. It's simply a matter of contracting the disease. This is difficult to do if you: 1. Don't practice cannibalism (prevent contact to CJD) 2. Slaughter cows without coming into contact with the brain or spine (prevent contact to BSE) and 3. Prevent contact with an infected patient's spinal fluid (this really only applies to healthcare professionals, but it's fundamentally no different from #1)

      -Grym

    • Given the odds, you can expect perhaps 10-20 cases of CFD in Europe in the next 50 years, unless the victims dies in a car accident beforehand, which is much more likely.

      I hope this is true, but the figures from the CJD observation unit don't back it up. http://www.cjd.ed.ac.uk/figures.htm [ed.ac.uk]

      Since 1990 the number of deaths from definite or probable vCJD is 150.

      This is for the UK only (not the whole of Europe), is a figure for deaths rather than just cases and for a period of much less than 50 years.

    • Amazing (Score:3, Interesting)

      by WindBourne ( 631190 )
      Back in 1980-81 (yes, 1980), I was working at CDC with Reagan speaking against Herpes as being the big killer. At the time, we were looking at a new something sweeping through the gay community. Of course, CDC went to reagan as soon as he became president to ask for money (prevention, not cure). It was turned down. One of the underlieing assumptions that reagan operated under was that it would spread in the gay community (none from CDC said that, but ppl in the reagan admin did). In addition, it was assumed

  • Tough work (Score:4, Interesting)

    by pedestrian crossing ( 802349 ) on Monday August 29, 2005 @04:34AM (#13425779) Homepage Journal

    I have a friend who worked in a lab that was trying to develop a test for MCD, and my hat goes off to the people who do this kind of work.

    Since so little is known about the exact infection process, known infected brain samples have to be handled -very- carefully. Working in a high-level biohazard environment is not easy, and is very stressful.

  • Banned (Score:5, Insightful)

    by dcw3 ( 649211 ) on Monday August 29, 2005 @04:39AM (#13425798) Journal
    I'm an American who lived in Europe for six years. From the time I returned to the US, until the ban was enacted, I was able to donate blood on a regular basis. I was surprised, when I was filling out the standard donation questioneer, to find that they had changed the rules, and I was suddenly unable to donate. Does this really make any sense at all? Are Europeans not donating blood? Has there been a single documented case of someone contracting Mad Cow through a blood donation? If so, are the risks of getting it worse than those of not having an adequate blood supply?

    • Re:Banned (Score:3, Informative)

      by Spad ( 470073 )
      The chance of somebody contracting CJD from a blood transfusion donated by someone who'd visited the UK for 6 months is essentially negligible, but it only takes one case for the media to turn it into a circus and blame the government for not protecting people.
    • One person dying from lack of blood is better than 1,000 people dying from a brand-spankin-new epidemic that they were infected with 5 years ago but didn't know it.

    • Re:Banned (Score:2, Interesting)

      by DrMindWarp ( 663427 )
      Has there been a single documented case of someone contracting Mad Cow through a blood donation?

      The answer is very probably. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4699349.stm [bbc.co.uk]

    • Re:Banned (Score:2, Informative)

      by Mccavity91k ( 801094 )
      Speaking as both a previous blood donor center technician and as a medical laboratory tech, which includes transfusion services (not to mention the fact that I'm an American currently living in Europe, and can't donate either), the person that made this article is using older limitations. The current limitations (for vCJD) are: lived in Europe for > 6 months between 1980 and 1995, or lived in Europe for greater than 5 years from 1980 until the current year (these are the limitations for the Armed Servic
      • Personally, I'd rather err on the side of caution, and use what blood we have, instead of making that decision for another person.

        I agree. People make value judgements about surgery with the assumption that a blood transfusion is safe, or at least as safe as we can make it. Changing that would require a re-appraisal of risk across the board by doctors and patients. I know that the blood supply is perennially low, but I think the current balance is about right (and I do donate blood).

        One of my children had

    • They're going to have to change the rules again. The current rules say nobody from a country that has BSE. Well, America now has BSE. So, either their donations are going to be very slim, or the rules are going to need revising again.
    • I think it's more a question of mounting nationalism. They're not so much worried about mad cow disease but contracting royalist tendancies or damaging the flag worship gene. European blood is downright unAmerican... and if you've been their long enough your blood might be suspect too.

  • VCJD in the US (Score:2, Funny)

    by jcaren ( 862362 )
    Of course, we all know that this disease does
    not occur within the states, mainly because
    it is a federal offence to even mention the
    possiblity of it :-)

    I ask you what is safer, wipe out the disease
    or discussion (and therefore action).

    Jacqui

  • eat steak eat steak (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 29, 2005 @04:55AM (#13425838)
    I saw this on the news today at the end of their headlines, they then switched to a commercial without flashing a logo or any pause. The commercial started with a little song "eat steak, eat steak..."
    Not sure if that was intentional or not but it was a bit disturbing.

  • Donation Bans: Poster is Wrong (Score:4, Informative)

    by Kevin Nichols ( 775719 ) on Monday August 29, 2005 @05:16AM (#13425892)
    The poster is wrong in stating that anyone who has lived 6 months or more in Europe cannot give blood. It's not actually that strict. The full details are here: RC Donor Eligibility [redcross.org].

    • Re:Donation Bans: Poster is Wrong (Score:5, Informative)

      by oneiros27 ( 46144 ) on Monday August 29, 2005 @08:04AM (#13426543) Homepage

      It used to be. They've relaxed it recently. (I know, because I was trying to figure out why there was the ban, as I'm in the group banned, and freaked me out even more when the relaxed the rules, but I was still in the banned group.)

      Here's the notice they've been sending out whenever we have a blood drive at work:

      Effective March 1, 2005, the American Red Cross has significantly changed the restrictions for deferral of donors who have traveled to various parts of the world. Previously, the restrictions were 3 months total from 1980 to 1996 in the UK and 6 months total for the UK and Europe.

      Now, the criteria is as follows for deferral:

      Since January 1, 1980 through December 31, 1996-

      • Spent a total time that adds up to 3 months or more in any country in the United Kingdom.
      • Were a member of the U.S. military, a civilian military employee, or a dependent of a member of the US Military that spent a total of 6 months on or associated with a military base in any of the following areas during the specified time frames-
        • From 1980 through 1990-Belgium, the Netherlands (Holland), or Germany
        • From 1980 thorough 1996-Spain, Portugal, Turkey, Italy or Greece

      Since January 1, 1980 to present-

      Spent a total time that adds up to 5 years or more in Europe (includes time spent n the UK from 1980 through 1996 and time associated with the military bases in Europe as outlined above)

      The rest of the deferral requirements remain the same.

      From the research I did, there were suggestions that military folks were likely to visit the UK -- I couldn't find anything that suggested that have reason to believe that there was tainted meat on the bases.

  • Oh my, yes (Score:3, Funny)

    by payndz ( 589033 ) on Monday August 29, 2005 @05:57AM (#13426023)
    Until now, the only way to positively ID those infected was to dissect the brain.

    Am I the only one who imagined Professor Farnsworth saying that, with a degree of relish?

    • Leela: Is this some sort of brain scanner?

      Farnsworth: Some sort yes. In France it's called a "guillotine."

      [He pulls a lever. Leela gasps and jumps out of the way, narrowly missing the blade.]

      Leela: Professor! Can't you examine my brain without removing it?

      Farnsworth: Yes. Easily.

      [Futurama 4:12]

  • Actually... (Score:2, Funny)

    by Torfbolt ( 791759 )
    I thought everybody already knew THE Mad Cow Test
    http://www.cybersalt.org/cleanlaugh/madcow.htm [cybersalt.org]
  • <dumb joke>
    If you tip a cow, and it gets up and charges you.. chances are it's mad.
    </dumb joke>
  • Sample questions from the "Are you a Mad Cow?" test:
    1. Do you often feel your section of the pasture has a higher percentage of weeds
    2. Do you have frequent dreams related to tipping? Do you land?
    3. Do you often have difficulty "showing affection" in the stall?
    4. Do you read Slashcow?
  • See also this non-invasive heartbeat-analysis test:

    BSE breakthrough as heartbeat test reveals first symptoms [guardian.co.uk]

    "When an animal is infected with prions, its heart rate becomes more variable. All you have to do is take five minutes' worth of electrocardiograms and feed these into a laptop computer fitted with special software. Within seconds, it can tell you if you are dealing with an infected animal or not.'"

  • a different Mad Cow theory (Score:3, Interesting)

    by nido ( 102070 ) <nido56@@@yahoo...com> on Monday August 29, 2005 @01:24PM (#13429160) Homepage
    I think Mark Purdey [markpurdey.com], a British Organic Beef farmer who's never had a mad cow, has a much more plausible & comprehensive theory concerning the development of Mad Cows.

    Executive summary:

    In the early-80's, there was a warble fly epidemic in the british cow fleet. Warble flys punch holes in cow hides, making them unsuitable for high-quality leather products. In their infinite wisdom, the british government decided that all british cows needed to be treated with a pesticide that kills warble flies.

    The pesticide was a synthetic organo-phosphate (an oily concoction), that was applied along the spine of the cow. Not only did it kill warble flies, it also chelated (removed) copper from the cow's system.

    Then in 1986, chernobyl went off, blanketing the countryside with radioactive isotopes. Copper-deficient cows picked up some of these radioactive minerals to replace the copper they'd lost to the pesticide.

    There's also something about manganese (commonly used in textile manufacturing) substituting for copper.

    As an organic farmer, Mark Purdey had no intention of using a synthetic pesticide on his cows. So he sued, and was allowed an exemption to using this pesticide. He's never had a mad cow, not even amoung his cows who are reformed carnivores, so he must be doing something right.

    Much more information on his website.
  • Mad Cow Disease (CJD), is caused by the accumulation of prions, once a very rare self-replicating type of protein, in a cow. Which developed because cattle are being manufactured in the most economical way possible: feed cattle the unsaleable remains of their processed siblings, like brains. Most economical, that is, in terms only of the immediate bottom line, which is all the cattle industry is responsible for. In the longer run, the costs of CJD in humans, including people fleeing the beef market in terro
    • Firstly, "Mad Cow Disease" is not CJD. "Mad Cow Disease," is Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE), a so-called Transmisable Spongiform Encephalopathy. TSE's occur in several species, including sheep and goats ("scrapie"), deer (Chronic Wasting Disease, or CWD), cattle, and man. CJD is a TSE which occurs in humans, as is Kuru, a disease found in the cannibals of New Guinea. To date, no proof has ever been found that a TSE can jump species, indeed, scrapie, in particular, is known not to be transmisable
      • From vCJD (Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease) [cdc.gov] page at the CDC:

        Evidence for Relationship with BSE (Mad Cow Disease)

        Since 1996, evidence has been increasing for a causal relationship between ongoing outbreaks in Europe of a disease in cattle, called bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE, or 'mad cow' disease), and vCJD. there is now strong scientific evidence that the agent responsible for the outbreak of prion disease in cows, BSE, is the same agent responsible for the outbreak of vCJD in humans.
        • That is the government-enodrsed theory, yes. I personally know researchers and physicians who remain unconvinced. Too much of the research is affected by cauality fallacies, as well as questionable assumptions stemming from the lack of sufficient research on CJD prior to the BSE outbreak.
          • Do you believe that HIV causes AIDS?
            • Honestly? I really have no way to know: I haven't researched the issue for myself. I know there are people who don't believe it, but I don't know any personally. The TSE issue is one I have researched, and am close too, as my family has raised sheep since 1984. I've learned a lot from USDA ispectors and also from my professors when I was an Animal Science student in college. I'm Catholic and un-married, so I'm not sexually active; therefore AIDS has never been a concern of mine. TSE's, on the other ha
  • If you've never seen a mad cow before this is how they behave http://www.totallytom.com/MadCow.html [totallytom.com]
  • They can't be easily destroyed. How do they plan to dispose of them?
  • See..? John Titor was right...

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