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Mad Cow Disease Confirmed In California
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."
are belong to us!
I guessed that only Washington, D.C. could be hit by the disease...
I find it highly unlikely that these cows are mad. How would you test to see if they are insane?
It is completely telling that news of this appeared in the Business Section (currently the second hit on Google News) before it appeared at all in the Health Section.
FTA: The Centers for Disease Control reports that the chance of contracting mad cow disease, even after consuming contaminated products, is less than one in 10 billion, if at all.
I figure since we won't even have 10 billion people for a while yet, we're safe!
Better stay away from ground beef, pink slime, and beef bone and nerves for awhile.
At least we can look forward to cheaper steaks for a while
your thin skin doesn't make me a troll
they need to do the same thing the americans did when they found one cow in canada! but this will never happen, they should at least close off all american beef to americans now, but they'll never do that either. such democracy.
But is that because the Canadians are not as powerful as America, or because the Canadians are more level-headed and less vengeful than America?
I'll just leave this here.
As a Wisconsinite who always snickers a little when I see one of those moronic "Happy Cows come from California" commercials on TV, I'll probably tear something from laughter the next time I see one. Cheese is part of our holy trinity: Beer, the Packers, and Cheese. Californian dairies probably aren't aware of the fact that a cow udder with one teat ain't an udder.
So we only have an estimated population of around 7 billion people, yet as of November 2006 there were 200 individuals worldwide diagnosed with mad cow disease, including 164 people in the United Kingdom, 21 in France, 4 in the Republic of Ireland, the 3 in the US, 2 in the Netherlands, and 1 each in Canada, Italy, Japan, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, and Spain, according to the CDC. Of these individuals, most (170) had lived in the UK for over 6 months during the years 1980-1996; 20 others had lived in France during that time. [taken from: http://rarediseases.about.com/od/rarediseases1/a/vcjd.htm ]
So using CDC math we should only have a 0.7 reported cases........
Never happened. True story.
If TV says it, it must be true!
Prions are primarily present in nerve tissue. The major concentration of nerve tissue is in cuts of meat like the T-Bone, which by their nature may still have traces of the spinal cord. Stick with cheaper, lesser cuts of meat (that aren't pink slime...) such as chuck, shank, and brisket, and you'll be fine.
Occasionally living proof of the Ballmer peak.
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.
Have gnu, will travel.
That only happy cows came from California.
says to the other cow "are you worried about mad cow disease?" "No" "Why?" "because I'm a little teapot!"
I got to the chocolate box before you, that's why the hard ones have teeth marks.
Neither, because they can just switch to using ground moose for a couple months.
But seriously, they probably don't import very much beef from California dairy farms so this is a non-issue.
Many more people go hog wild yet BSE seems to get all of the attention. I suppose because having hog wildness is not necessarily terminal. Though, there's often more collateral damage.
"Prior to this outbreak, standard policy was to shoot, shovel and feed it to the rest"
FIFY.
can exist in a cow for years before symptoms manifest clearly for visual detection, its possible the steak at the supermarket is infected regardless. early symptoms include the inability of cattle to stand properly, so instead of testing the USDA simply mandated that downed cattle cannot be used for slaughter. this of course has been sidestepped as a regulation in the past.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bovine_spongiform_encephalopathy#Regulatory_failures
in some cases, we cant even get it together to regulate things that will cause BSE in cattle
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bovine_spongiform_encephalopathy#Practices_in_the_United_States_relating_to_BSE
we're talking about an industry thats basically run its own government sanctioned regulatory board. this board is a shining example of why an agency charged with regulating as well as promoting is flawed on a fundamental level.
Good people go to bed earlier.
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.
Since I went to college in California... All I have to say is "Mad cows? (sarcastic) Yeah! Where the hell has the FDA been!?!?"
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.
$_ = "wftedskaebjgdpjgidbsmnjgcdwatb"; tr/a-z/oh, turtleneck Phrase Jar!/; print
If that were actually the real policy, then there would never be any outbreaks. The disease only transfers by eating brains and nerves. The cows can only catch it if the farmers are feeding their cows brains and nerves. From sick cows. Which is pretty disgusting considering they are herbivores.
Um, you do realize that this is exactly what they do, right? The remains from slaughtered animals are processed and put back into animal feed.
Curse you and your logically impeccable math. This is propaganda, dammit, we don't need your stinkin' maths.
As I like steak & hamburger a great deal. This had me "spooked" in fact.
(No - Not only for myself, but also my cats (they like when I mix in raw hamburger into their catfood, which also "extends it" to last longer too - (the soft type in cans, might co$t me more, but they're my little pals & worth it))).
* I don't need to get myself sick (or of course, dead either) that way, & I certainly would not wish it on my animals (best cats in the whole world imo & my "best pals" that are constantly amusing, especially during their "CAT BATTLES", & they both just dumped 9 kittens which are every bit as smart + loving as their 2 moms are...).
So again, on that account(s) above? Thanks much!
APK
P.S.=> I just hope they can "contain the situation", so this doesn't turn into somekind of seriously life-threatening syndrome & all that - that would be terrible... apk
As a cattle farmer during the crisis a handful of years back, where american calves/steers were bought by canadians, who ended up with bse, and american and japanese markets blocked all trade of canadian beef because even though the bse wasn't diagnosed until they were inside canada, they were all bought from the u.s. it was pretty annoying. A friend of the family couldnt afford to feed his stock, walked into the field and shot them all, then put the barrel in his mouth. Will we see the same blockade of US beef? I doubt it. And don't i sound like a hypocrite? Eat less meat ALWAYS. do not go vegan or raw food, or whatever. Our ancestors were omnivores (evolutionary, not our european christian ones). But meat every day, or 3 times a day isnt normal, red meats are bad for you. but on topic again, bse should be dealt with swiftly and markets should respond for the short term. but with government funding, or non-profit funding to testing (hello bill and melinda) there should be some confidence so the animals who dont have BSE who are generally slaughtered humanely (lets not bring up halal or kosher...gross) dont die of starvation as a result.
There is a good reason why people should freak out. A Prion disease is by far the scariest thing. Its a renegade Protein, that copies itself. To inactivate it u gotta Autoclave it for an HOUR by nearly 1000 Degrees (Celsius!)
So yes, the more people freak out the better. Since then there will be policy change in the currently very wrong meat industry
By American beef. If you actually read the report from the CDC the 3 people diagnosed in the US all are believed to have been infected when they were living outside of the US. (If I remember correctly 2 were British and it's expected they were infected when they lived in the UK and the 3rd was a Saudi that got infected in Saudia Arabia.) IE worry more about dying from bad spinach or contaminated tap water.
Did you know 80 to 90% of the moderators on slashdot wouldn't recognize a troll even if one dragged them under a bridge.
In response, the California state government passed an emergency bill that doubled public employee pensions, authorized another "fifty blagillion miles" of track to the high speed rail they think is going to be built, and outlawed all businesses with more than zero employees. Governor Brown signed the bill and said to the press, "A vision stands on someone else's feet. The light at the end of the tunnel has its world revealed by trees." before passing out and being wheeled away.
They been so busy screwing with RAW Milk farmers, Cannabis Growers, Pig Farmers, Chicken owners, CODEX, and rolling out Agenda 21 they no longer protect us from jack shit, THEY ARE THE MOTHER FUCKING TERRORISTS.
Anything they touch turns into another fucking witch hunt investigation. Oh it's the Bagged Salad, it's the Jalepenos, it's the salsa. They got it so Gibson can't make fucking GUITARS..
Fuck all you noise generating apathetic motherfuckers. Go vote for your blessed Obama the ineligible foreign infiltrator oath breaker, and destroyer of the Constitution and bill of rights or Romney head of the Morman mafia.
The only non oath breaking candidate who isn't sold out to CFR, AIPAC, the UN, etc. isn't even going to be on my fucking god damn ballot.
This country is so fucked and yet every day the bullshit media distractions keep you like the little children (no make that romper room rejects) that you cocksuckers truly are.
Only buy beef from ranches with 100% grass fed cows. Anyone who has been lucky enough to eat steak in Argentina or Uruguay knows that US beef is tasteless junk anyway. Argentine cows graze naturally on grass and they are the best tasting cows in the world.
Of course not eating animals in the first place isn't a bad idea. It's a filthy habit which unfortunately many of us learn in childhood and find it difficult to break even when, as adults, we are aware of how barbaric it is. I think Mark Zuckerberg has the right idea. Only eat animals that you are able to look in the eye and kill yourself.
Ironically the only way I have ever justified the murder of animals because they taste good is when I think of myself as a scavenger. The animal was already killed by some heartless bastard somewhere. I am just picking at the rotting corpse like a hyena. Even if I had boycotted meat my whole life it wouldn't have stopped the cow/pig/chicken genocide.
Quite an experience to live in fear, isn't it? That's what it is to be a slave.
I see that Britney finally went to the doc and got her diagnosis.
Cow 1: Wow - have you heard about this mad cow disease outbreak? It's terrible isn't it?
Cow 2: It doesn't affect me - I'm a helicopter!
Oh come on, we are no where near December yet. Is this the way the world really is going to end?
with Rosie O'Donnel's body?
Cows in US of A are given a lot of medication (steroids, hormones, antibiotics) to get them into market shelves as soon as possible. BSE takes time to manifest itself. Very likely this prion disease is very widespread, but outbreaks are rare due to rapid growth process of beef cattle. Cattle kept for milk production stays in production much longer, giving the disease enough time to become visible.
You do realize the prions that cause mad cow are not JUST in the brains and nerves. http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2006/07/07/1681124.htm
120 characters ought to be enough for anyone
Don't forget about Kuru, the other well known Prion disease that once ran rampant under Cannibals on New Guinea :-)
In a much heralded crossover, The Man Eating Cow (famous from her brillian hero career in The Tick), appeared on the American version of Iron Chef and was presented with the primary ingredient of lawyers. She promptly ate the host, mistaking him for mad cow infected character Denny Crane from Shatner's role in Boston Legal.
The television critics, emboldened at her role in ending the career of their nemesis of good taste, held many rituals to celebrate her fate and as so often occurs with prophets, proved her good taste by gnawing away both at her spirit and her flesh, introducing mad cow to the television production community and explaining the entire programming line-up over at Fox for the last 10 years.
Here's my personal story: I've followed "mad cow" since it first showed up over a decade ago and made such huge, scary news that Irish farmers were committing suicide.
I've spent hours, and hours, and hours studying the intricacies and details of the disease. I've studied the folding protein concept and the studies "proving" that the prions cause the disease.
I've also, all along, had the opportunity to watch the spread of the disease, and to come to my own conclusions about what it is that happens just-before the disease shows up in a new country.
First of all, to completely destroy -- blow out of the water -- the connection between the prions and the disease: there's no way to show encephalopathy without dissecting the brain physically. In other words you can't find that the brain has encephalopathy without opening the cranium, and cutting it into slices to see the progression. That means, there's no way you can tell the brain has encephalopathy (or not), BEFORE you administer the fucking test, dimwit! There's absolute ZERO scientific control! It's not even a fucking EXPERIMENT! It doesn't prove ANYTHING! HA-HA!
Second of all, whenever news items sufficiently freak people out in a given area, they start cutting the fuck out of the craniums of animals in their area and oh my GOD, they start finding holes in brains. If left alone, to their own devices, never being panicked about anything, they don't, and they don't. Gee, curious, innit?
So there you have it. Go ahead and freak out, because prions once they're in the water table are gonna go straight to population centers because of the lower water pressure near places where it's being drawn from, and they're gonna get right through the filters, and straight into your blood-brain barrier, and you're gonna get swiss-cheese brain, and you're gonna die, you, me, all of us, we're all gonna get swiss-fucking-cheese-brain, and die horribly in a hell of pain and dementia, because the prions are everywhere, already (it's a chain reaction, see) and it's too late, kill yourself. Just kill yourself and bury yourself in a lead-lined, nice and cheap concrete tomb because the prions won't get through the lead (but they very well could get through the pores in the concrete eewwww!)
Or, just shut up. Stop spreading the news. The "disease" will disappear. Strangely and miraculously, civilization will continue on and on for as many generations as the nuclear arms race permits us. Now, whether this is because ministers and, presumably, other heads-of-state are capable of performing their duties while missing most of their brain tissue (at least in France, well at least in the case of one French minister) or if it's because the disease hasn't actually been proven, yet, we don't know.
But I'm not letting YOU slice MY brain open just to settle YOUR indecent fears and angst, so SHUT UP.
"Stratigraphically the origin of agriculture and thermonuclear destruction will appear essentially simultaneous" -- Lee
europe had our bse like 15 years ago.
nuff said?
No, it is also created through natural mutations, which is apparently the case here.
As a Canadian, I've had moose before and it's actually quite good, along the same lines as venison. Moose sausage is absolutely to die for! Personally, I prefer bison to beef anyway, it's much leaner and quite tasty. I tend to stay away from beef as much as possible in favor of fish or poultry.
It's supposed to be illegal to feed cows cows in the US.
Peter predicted that you would "deliberately forget" creation 2000 years ago...
I'd Be Mad Too if i had to live in California.
J
In the mean time hundreds of thousands of ££££s have been spent researching this. The price of beef has rocketed.
It's been a complete waste of money in my view.
Sigs. We don't need no steenking sigs.
What about the other three?
butchered cattle, slaughter and meat regulation. Cut funding for inspectors and now we see this.
I'm not really surprised.
And yes, Bush is gone, be you can't ignore what he did.
And of course every time Obama wants to get money into things the protect citizens, it is a monumental fight.
But hey, keep voting for libertarian policies.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
This appears in the human population at a much higher rate than that, according to one study that found a significant number 13% of Alzheimer's patients were misdiagnosed Creuzfeld Jacob Disease patients. Note that this was a small study, and behind a paywall so the original material isn't easily available. I'll be looking for the original.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?Db=pubmed&Cmd=Retrieve&list_uids=2545230&dopt=abstractplus
Add to this that the disease takes a decade to produce symptoms in people, and it becomes apparent that our testing of cows isn't likely to find anything.
Assembly is the reverse of disassembly.
Except it will increase. The less the food is regulated, the less we know about hos it spreads, them more that will die.
IT's far cheaper dealing with it now then when a million die.
Constant low level vigilance it the cheapest way to deal with these sorts of issues.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Isn't the Montana State Slogan "At least our cows are sane" ?
If that were actually the real policy, then there would never be any outbreaks.
That would be true if every infection was immediately symptomatic.
I do not think it means what you think it means.
quell surprise
Now what is the cheese made from happy cows from California? Maybe it should say mad cows from California :-)