Mad Cow outbreak (BSE)

[PrntRhd]

There is an outbreak of Mad Cow disease in Washington state of the USA, this is the same disease as had exploded in Great Britain. It can result in human forms of the disease if contaminated meat or other material is injested. Cooking will not destroy the infecting agent. No treatment exists to save victims from a wasting death from brain destruction. link for CJD (http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/diseases/cjd/bse_cjd_qa.htm)
And Paul Komski's link regards BSE: here (http://www.oie.int/eng/publicat/rt/2201/A_R2219.htm)

Paul,
CJD was first identified in cannibals in New Guinea, they ate their conquests' brains.

[Paul Komski]

Kuru (http://www.as.ua.edu/ant/bindon/ant570/Papers/McGrath/McGrath.htm), which is similar but not the same as CJD, is the disease that was spread by cannabilism in New Guinea. The type of cannabalism was Mortuary Cannabilism (http://www.crimelibrary.com/criminal_mind/psychology/cannibalism/2.html?sect=19) and which involves eating one's relatives rather than one's conquests.

CJD, which is similar but not the same as "New Variant CJD", occurs very rarely but yet sponaneously in the human population and has been known about for some time.

New Variant CJD appears to be caused by the same prion that causes BSE in cattle. TSEs (a general name for these prion-related Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies) affect numerous species. The symptoms are caused by the brain becoming like a sponge.

Prion proteins were the first pure proteins to be discovered to be infectious agents. They cause the spongey brains by "irreversibly" changing their own SHAPE from what is normal. Once changed they can cause adjacent prions (normal consituents of brain architecture) to also change shape - and so over time a cascade occurs and the brain becomes spongey because of the quantity of these "bad quality bricks" that normally help the brain to keep its shape.

It takes a high enough temperature (or the correct chemicals such as some ketone derivatives) to denature these prion proteins and render them "safe". That temperature is much higher than cooking or even normal autoclaving temperatures. It has to be high enough to physically denature these prions.

One of the big questions is exactly how these prions move from the gut to the brain; it does seem that eating them is the most likely route of transmission. Eating as little as 2 grams of meat-and-bone meal is supposed to be capable of infecting a cow.

Here in Ireland ALL cattle have their brains tested with the Enfer Test (http://europa.eu.int/comm/food/fs/bse/bse21_en.html). Only cattle that are under 30months of age or that have a negative Enfer Test are allowed into the human food chain. Certain specified offal (brain, spinal cord, spleen, eyes, etc) is not supposed to enter the food chain at all. The whole herd with an infected animal is destroyed here - though not everywhere.

CJD - the original or the new variant - is a devastating and (so far) incurable disease - that for some reason appears to affect a preponderance of young people. The reason for it appearing mostly in the young is also not yet understood.

Correction: CJD mostly affects the elderly; new variant CJD (probably the same as the BSE agent) mostly affects the young.

[YODA74]

There is an outbreak of Mad Cow disease in Washington state of the USA

1 cow dosen't constitute an outbreak (yet) and the farm has been quarantined, and besides it was a Dairy cow which they don't use for beef (food market)so quail the rumors until they get the facts straight.

[kayofcircles]

Hear, hear, Yoda! Just for once, let's wait to panic until we have some "facts."

[Paul Komski]

The vast majority of cases of BSE in cattle have been seen in Dairy Cows/Herds. Possibly because they are fed far more "concentrates" than corn-fed prime beef in order to stimulate milk production.

Most prime beef is also killed whilst under 30-36 months and since BSE seldom manifests itself in Cattle till they are at least 5 or 6 years old it would be rare for the disease to manifest itself in younger animals. This doesn't mean that they are not incubating the disease.

If anyone believes that Dairy Cow meat doesn't enter the human food chain - then that is pure deluded thinking.

One case is an outbreak though it is not an epidemic.

I agree that there is no need to panic - but with the experience of what has happened over here and in other countries - it would be wise to be extremely cautious.

Quarantining the herds is not a great way of containing an epidemic since it appears the disease is contracted through what was eaten by the animals (probably 3, 4, 5 or 6) years previously. It has not been shown that animals pass the disease from one to another by contact - though there may have been a few cases where a cow could have passed it on to her calf.

There is good rationale for destroying a whole herd - since it is likely that other animals in the herd will have been fed similarly. There is also good rationale to strictly police what happens to BSE-designated offal and ensuring that slaughterers do dispose of such materials properly.

Fair compensation to affected farmers is also very important. If none - then farmers will try to hide cases from scrutiny. If too good - farmers could be tempted to actually introduce the disease.

[PrntRhd]

The Secretary of Agriculture made a statement on food safety on Christmas Eve about the safety of the food supply. That statement was technically accurate at the time if the meat from the slaughtered cow could not have passed through the distribution system. She assumes that the meat will be found and destroyed.

The cow was sent across state lines to slaughter.

The slaughter house sends meat to Albertons supermarket (one of the largest in USA) and others.

90 percent of the beef had not been accounted for as of yesterday AM.

Most dairy cows are salvaged into beef, a Holstein cow is huge and typically is close to 2000 pounds when mature.

I hold a degree in Biology and grew up on a dairy operation. There is no joy in telling you that this is a very serious problem. If the meat is not found there will be CJD cases in 3-5 years. Statistically there is little problem, unless you are the one who ate it.

[PrntRhd]

Todays's Update:
WASHINGTON - Meat from a Holstein sick with mad cow disease has now reached retail markets in eight states and one territory, but still poses no health risk, Agriculture Department officials said Sunday.


AP Photo


AP Photo
Slideshow: Mad Cow Disease




Dr. Kenneth Petersen, an Agriculture Department veterinarian, said investigators have determined that some of the meat from the diseased dairy cow slaughtered Dec. 9 in Washington state went to Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana and Guam. Earlier, officials had said most of the meat went to Washington and Oregon, with lesser amounts to California and Nevada, for distribution to consumers.


"The recalled meat represents essentially zero risk to consumers," said Petersen, of the USDA's food safety agency.


He said the parts most likely to carry infection — the brain, spinal cord and lower intestine — were removed before the meat from the infected cow was cut and processed for human consumption.


Mad cow disease, officially called bovine spongiform encephalopathy, is a concern because humans who eat brain or spinal matter from an infected cow can develop a related brain-wasting illness, variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (news - web sites). In Britain, 143 people died of it after an outbreak of mad cow in the 1980s.


Despite their assurances of food safety, federal officials have taken the precaution of recalling 10,000 pounds of meat from the infected cow and from 19 other cows slaughtered Dec. 9 at Vern's Moses Lake Meat Co., in Moses Lake, Wash.


Officials say they are still recovering meat and won't know how much has been returned until later this week.


Dr. Stephen Sundlof, head of FDA (news - web sites)'s Center for Veterinary Medicine, said: "We expect by now that many of the customers who may have purchased some of this meat have been notified by the grocery chain. If not, they can contact those stores" related to the recall.


Petersen said the slaughtered cow was deboned at Midway Meats in Centralia, Wash., and sent Dec. 12 to two other plants, Willamette Valley Meat and Interstate Meat, both near Portland, Ore. Petersen has said that much of the meat is being held by those facilities.


Willamette also received beef trimmings — parts used in meats such as hamburger. Officials say those were sold to some three dozen small, mom-and-pop Asian and Mexican facilities in Washington, Oregon, California and Nevada.


Supermarket chains in the West — Albertsons, Fred Meyer, Safeway and WinCo Foods — have voluntarily removed ground beef products from the affected distributors. Safeway has said it will look for another supplier.


Despite assurances that American beef is safe, Japan and more than two dozen countries have blocked U.S. beef imports. Jordan and Lebanon joined the list on Sunday. U.S. beef industry officials this week estimated they've lost 90 percent of their export market because of the bans.


U.S. agriculture officials arrived Sunday in Japan to discuss maintaining beef trade even as the United States investigates how the Holstein in Washington state got sick.


Dr. Ron DeHaven, chief veterinarian for USDA, said on Sunday that science has shown certain meat cuts are fairly safe from infection. Among those are whole cuts without bones, such as beef steaks, roast, liver, and ground beef from labeled cuts like chuck or round.


DeHaven said this suggests the trade restrictions "are not well-founded in science."


Investigators have tentatively traced the first U.S. cow with mad cow disease to Canada. This could help determine the scope of the outbreak and might even limit the economic damage to the American beef industry.


The tentative finding traced the cow to Alberta, the same Canadian province where scientists found a lone cow infected with the illness in May.





DeHaven stressed that officials still haven't confirmed this because U.S. records outlining the animal's history do not match ones in Canada. Canadian officials have said it was premature to reach a firm conclusion.

The department said DNA tests will help resolve the matter.

Canadian documents show the cow had two calves before it arrived in the United States, contrary to U.S. records which said it had never born calves.

Also, Canadian documents say the diseased cow was 6 1/2-years-old, but U.S. records say it was younger, around 4- and 4 1/2-years-old.

The cow's age is significant because it may have been born before the United States and Canada in 1997 banned certain feed that is considered the most likely source of infection.

A cow gets infected by eating feed containing tissue from the spine or brain of an infected animal. Farmers used to feed their animals such meal to fatten them.

The FDA is looking into whether the cow ate contaminated feed — a difficult task because the animal may been infected by feed it ate years before it appeared sick. BSE (news - web sites) can incubate for four to five years.

Sundlof said it takes as little as half a gram of infected material to sicken an animal.

"Even if a small amount amount of brain or central nervous system (material) were to get into cattle feed, there is the potential for even that very small dose to result in the disease," Sundlof said.

Officials are less certain how much would infect a human. "It's not known what dose would infect humans, but it would higher for humans than for cattle," Sundlof said.

Investigators have considered other ways the disease could spread. Although scientists have never found a case of mad cow infection being passed from a mother cow to its calf, they want to test the sick cow's calves as a precaution.

They also are seeking to determine whether the strain of BSE, a disease caused by a misshapen protein, is the same as the one that struck Europe in the 1980s and 1990s.

[PrntRhd]

Well, today they say the recalled beef did not get shipped to Guam and Hawaii after all, here is Reuters article today:

HONOLULU, Hawaii (Reuters) - None of the U.S. beef recalled because of mad cow disease had been sent to markets in Hawaii and Guam, according to Federal meat inspectors.

Hawaii originally was one of eight states and Guam where parts of a 10,000-lb shipment of tainted beef were thought to have been sent.

But after reviewing shipping records, inspectors found that Hawaii and Guam had not received any of the recalled meat, said Daniel Puzo, a spokesman for U.S. Department of Agriculture (news - web sites)'s Food Safety and Inspection Service, on Wednesday.

"None of the recalled meat was sent to Hawaii," he said.

More than 10,000 lbs of beef were recalled after officials discovered that a cow infected with mad cow disease was slaughtered and mixed with meat from 19 other cows on Dec. 9 at Vern's Moses Lake Meat Co. in Moses Lake, Washington.

Most of the meat was sent to markets in Washington and Oregon, according to Matt Baun, a spokesman for the inspection agency. All of the meat has been accounted for, he said, adding, "We are making sure the product is either being held or sent back to the point of purchase."

Formally known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE (news - web sites), mad cow disease is caused by misshaped proteins called prions. It is fatal and can be spread by eating contaminated meat. The human variation of the disease is blamed for at least 137 deaths, mostly in Britain.

Two dozen countries have banned U.S. beef because of mad cow, pushing cattle prices down by nearly 20 percent. Ordinarily, 10 percent of U.S. beef is sold overseas. The exports are worth $3.2 billion a year.

Meanwhile, investigators were trying to pinpoint whether the first U.S. case, a Holstein dairy cow in Washington state, had the same feed source as the Black Angus cow in Alberta, Canada, discovered early last year to have the disease. The Black Angus, which was born in Canada, was Canada's second case of the disease. The first infected animal found in Canada, in 1993, had been imported from Britain.

DNA tests were under way in both countries to determine if the Holstein was born in Canada. Results were expected next week.

[PrntRhd]

It came out today that bones from the BSE cow were shipped to San Jose California and sold as soup bones here, and one market has recalled them, also 6 restaurants received shipments of the beef and may have served it but the names of the restaurants are not disclosed. It turns out the US Dept of Agriculture cannot order recalls of tainted beef, only advise voluntary recalls?

[Paul Komski]

World News by Joanne Fox:- USA.

Responding to last month's discovery of a Holstein infected with BSE, the US Agriculture Secretary has called for a national livestock identification system. The lack of a comprehensive ID system was highlighted when it took US vets six days to find the infected Holstein's birth farm in Canada. Three weeks later, US officials have located only 19 of the 81 dairy cows that crossed the border from Canada with the cow in 2001. The USDA plan, while sketchy, calls for tagging of all 105 million US cattle with an electronic code. Officials estimate an ID programme could cost $600(€471)million to launch and $100(€79)million a year to maintain.


First with BSE and then with Foot and Mouth disease (as well as with TB and Brucellosis) it became crystal clear over here that an effective animal passport and traceability system was absolutely crucial in two respects:- (1) for epidemiological reasons in monitoring outbreaks of disease and (2) for the reasons of creating and maintaining consumer confidence.

Such confidence is needed by both domestic consumers and for foreign importers of beef. Retail butchers here, for example, have to publicly display the full details about the origin and slaughter of all animals, whose beef is on sale in their shops.

It just seems a great shame that, with the known experiences on this side of the Atlantic, that such a traceability scheme was not up and running in the USA long before this case of BSE arose. :( The figures above look large but are under $10 per animal.

[pentachris]

Here's (http://www.newsleader.com/news/stories/20040115/localnews/228963.html) an interesting link that makes a seemingly obvious point: cuts of beef are safer than processed beef.

[Paul Komski]

It is an obvious point perhaps but although certain parts of the dead animal can and are designated as "BSE-specified Offal" it is still not known what part or parts are actually implicated in transmitting vCJD to humans. The brain and spinal cord are perhaps the most obvious but most of the gut, the lungs and other body parts are also so-specified for theoretical rather than known reasons.

It is now highly likely that at least one case of vCJD has been passed from person to person by blood transfusion. It is also probably necessary for the infective prion to travel via the blood-stream at some point in its journey from the gut to the brain. So, since muscle contains blood, it seems probable that it could transmit the disease at some point in the genesis of the disease. Like most things to do with BSE and vCJD, more is unknown than is known.

On the other hand, dealing with everything that is not muscular meat will create enormous logistical problems if it is all to be destroyed rather than any of it to enter the human food chain. Such destruction is complicated by the fact that after it has been denatured, it must then be totally destroyed so that none of it can have the possiblility of being turned into meat-and-bone meal and get back into the animal food chain - the very thing which is thought to have created the initial pandemic in the UK.

I am a beef farmer with a herd of Aberdeen-Angus cattle. I have no problems with eating my own cattle since I know they have been fed totally on grass. I have little problem in eating beef from local butchers in rural Ireland because their beef is mostly sourced from outlets similar to mine and most animals are also under 18-months of age. Since BSE I don't eat beef from supermarkets, large retail restaurants/burger-outlets or hotels, since the origins of their products is not transparent.

[PrntRhd]

Just read the replies, see this article regards the attitude vs the risks:
EVANSVILLE, Ind. (Jan. 15) - Fear of mad cow disease hasn't kept Cecelia Coan from eating her beloved deep-fried cow brain sandwiches.

She's more concerned about what the cholesterol will do to her heart than suffering the brain-wasting disease found in a cow in Washington state.

"I think I'll have hardening of the arteries before I have mad cow disease," said Cecelia Coan, 40, picking up a brain sandwich to go at the Hilltop Inn during her lunch hour. "This is better than snail, better than sushi, better than a lot of different delicacies."

The brains, battered with egg, seasoning and flour, puff up when cooked. They are served hot, heaping outside the bun.

They are traced back to a time when southern Indiana newcomers from Germany and Holland wasted little. Some families have their own recipes passed down over the generations.


"I think I'll have hardening of the arteries before I have mad cow disease."
-Cecelia Coan

A little mad cow hysteria won't scare this crowd, said Coan, a bank teller who likes her brain sandwich served with mustard and pickled onions.

"You're going to die anyway. Either die happy or you die miserable. That's the German attitude, isn't it?" Coan said.

The local delicacy is served at area German-heritage restaurants like the Hilltop Inn, a former stagecoach stop in the Ohio River city that opened in 1837. They're also popular at annual festivities like Evansville's fall festival, where they typically sell out early at church booths.

The only thing that will stop many of the sandwich's fans from buying them is its availability. New rules from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service will ban selling brains of cattle 30 months or older.

The 30-month cutoff is used because the incubation period for cattle to develop the disease is many months to many years, said Denise Derrer, spokeswoman for the Indiana State Board of Animal Health.

But some Evansville-area meat suppliers, such as Dewig Brothers Meats in Haubstadt, have stopped selling the cow brains completely. Since it opened in 1916, the supplier had saved the brains to sell to individuals and restaurants. The going price was from $1.50 to $2 a pound.

The decision means customers will have to switch to pork brains, which they tend to not like as much because they are smaller and more difficult to work with, owner Tom Dewig said.

Consumers, however, are not likely to tell the difference.

"The taste is really carried in the batter," Dewig said.

Although some people consider eating cow brain an area novelty, it is not just limited to Indiana, Dewig said.

In California, in cities such as Stockton, cow brain is commonly sold as taco filling and sold from trucks. They are referred to by their Spanish name, "sesos."

In Texas border towns, barbacoa, made from the cow's head and brain, is served during the holidays.

Across the Ohio River in Kentucky, eating squirrel brain served with fried eggs was once considered a rural delicacy in some parts. Its popularity declined, however, after researchers in 1997 found a possible link between eating squirrel brains and contracting mad cow.

Mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, eats holes in the brains of cattle and is incurable. Humans can develop a brain-wasting illness, variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, from consuming contaminated beef products.

Federal officials said after the case of mad cow was detected Dec. 23 in Washington state that the meat supply was safe.

The cow brains would have to be cooked to about 1,200 degrees to kill the rogue proteins called prions that cause the disease, said Derrer of Indiana's animal health board. That temperature is more than double that of deep frying.

It will take more than one case of mad cow disease, however, to keep Nick Morrow, a 45-year-old pipefitter from Evansville, from eating the brain sandwiches he's enjoyed since a child.

Morrow talked his buddy, Scott Moore, into eating at the Hilltop Inn just so he could have one.

Mad cow disease was far from his mind.

"Well, I haven't won the lottery yet, so I don't figure I'll get that," Moore said as a hot cow brain sandwich cut in half sat on a plate before him

[PrntRhd]

They found 5 more cows from the Canada herd:

By ROXANA HEGEMAN, Associated Press Writer

KINGMAN, Kan. - While farmers tried to boost consumer confidence shaken by the country's first case of mad cow disease, federal agriculture officials announced they had tracked down five more animals from a herd of Canadian cattle that included the infected Holstein, slaughtered in Washington state.


The finding brings to 19 the number of cows located from the 81 head of Canadian cattle that entered the country in 2001.


Also in Washington, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (news - web sites) said it has found prohibited animal tissue in feed from six Canadian animal feed companies since the mad cow discovery last month. The discovery is significant because it may help investigators trace the source of infection.


Feed tainted with tissue of an infected animal is the most likely means of spreading mad cow disease, a fatal brain-wasting illness.


Mad cow is a concern because humans can get a related illness, variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (news - web sites), from eating contaminated meat. That concern prompted countries to close their borders to American beef last month.


Also Friday, top agriculture officials from the United States, Canada and Mexico failed to reach agreement in Washington, D.C., on reopening their borders to beef products and live cattle.


The United States has been pressing Mexico, a large market for American beef, to lift its total ban on U.S. beef and cattle that was imposed last month after scientists diagnosed the U.S. case of mad cow disease.


Canada wants both the United States, its biggest trading partner in cattle and beef, and Mexico to lift restrictions that took effect after the Canadian mad cow case in May.


U.S. Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman said no decisions were made about resuming trade.


The United States for now has put off allowing Canada to ship across the border young cattle — considered less likely to have the brain-wasting disease because of its long incubation period.


Mexican Agriculture Secretary Javier Usabiaga said his country would reopen its borders once Mexican officials and consumers were confident that beef from the north was safe.