Myths and other such nonsense about BSE/Mad Cow Disease...
Sadly, the whole thing has been soooooo over reported, understated, misunderstood. I don't think you can separate the bull from the meat of the story. I do know that when Ms. Winfrey televised her show in the 90's, I was outraged (and still am) at her irresponsible journalism. I was happy when the beef producers sued her...just unhappy when they lost.
For those of you who truly want a little background on the disease, read on...if not, well, live on in ignorant bliss and believe every word from Oprah is gospel...
BSE is in a class of diseases called spongiform encephalopathies. These aren't new. Several domestic animals have forms of it - scrapie in sheep and goats for example. The problem emerged in cattle in the 1980's when rendering plants began changing some of their practices. And the world started on its health kick demanding less fat in their hamburger. The series of events evolved simultaneously so to speak. Carving up carcasses is not pretty work. Due to injuries and the time consuming process of trying to remove the offal (anything deemed unfit for human consumption, rendering plants streamlined some of the processing. Along this time, nutritionists were trying to figure out how to make cows lean. Due to a cow's unique digestive system, the bacteria in their stomachs only allow for a certain percentage of protein to be metabolized. So scientists discovered ways to by-pass the bacteria by heat treating certain things - soy hulls for example. But soy can be expensive when you're feeding a large number of cattle. Thus, they hit upon the idea of heating bone meal and blood meal left over from the rendering process - waste not, want not, right? And for those of you who find the idea disgusting, go to your local garden store and you'll find things on the shelf...to deter pests from getting to your plants and such. All natural...
Well, the public hears "cows eating cows" and cries outrage. What???? Cows are herbivores...so how can this be?? Well, the average joe and jane do tend to overeact when they get images of cannibalism implanted in their brains. The problem started in the UK at about the same time this rendering process was changed...so now, instead of eliminating areas that contained large amounts of nervous tissue, these fell into the scrap bag for animal consumption. Now, one other important factor exists in the UK and other countries that have seen major outbreaks. A large small ruminant population and indemic areas of scrapie. Yes, that's right...that one disease that happens to closely resemble BSE. The particles that cause the disease BSE (scrapie is actually caused by a virus - an organism smaller than bacteria) is called a prion - just part of a virus. The suggested means of how this new disease emerged is that the scrapie virus mutated into this form - which is infective to cows and humans alike.
To complicate things further, the UK was a little slow to reveal all the possible implications of the "tainted feed" to countries who had imported beef from them. When it was eventually disclosed, the U.S. banned not only all beef exports from the UK (and any countries with confirmed cases of BSE) but any bovine products such as semen and embryos. And all countries were encouraged to ban the use of ruminant by-products in cattle feed. For a list of countries who have reported cases of BSE, see
here
As a by-product of all this fear, the Red Cross has now placed a ban on blood and blood products from any individuals living in Europe during the decade or so when the bovine outbreak first emerged. Even though there has been no evidence that the disease can be transmitted this way between people. In the UK, to date, there have been less than 100 human deaths attributed to Creutzfeld-Jacob's disease (which is a new twist on an old disease hence you will see it called "new variant"). Cases of CJD have been seen in the U.S. - usually attributed to person's eating infected elk or deer meat - two other species with their own naturally occuring form of this disease.
For more information about the human disease, go
here - at least if you trust the FDA.
When the initial shock dies down, I hope things return to a more normal level of paranoia in this country. But I really don't know where things are headed. I do suspect these are going to be lean times for beef producers.
If I find out more information, I'll be happy to pass it along to those interested.
