Mostly OT: Mad Cow Disease and Whistle Playing

Whistle
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Well, as many have heard by now, a cow in Washington State USA has tested positive for Mad Cow disease (Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy) on a screening test at a meat packing plant.

Final analysis and determination of whether the animal is actually infected is being done in Great Britain Laboratory.

As a veterinarian, I thought it might be appropriate to make available some facts about this malady and what the risks may be to consumers of beef and the beef industry.

BSE is caused by a prion. A prion is a sub-viral particle of genetic code too simple to even be considered a life form.

There is exactly one way to catch this disease…that is to eat the under-cooked brains or nervous tissue of an infected animal.


Cows contract the disease in exactly one way, by being fed meat and bone meal (made from infected cows) which has been improperly processed.

The feeding of rendered sheep or beef by-products to sheep or cattle has been illeagal in the USA for some years (especially since we saw what happend to the poor Brits). It cannot be transmitted from cow to cow in any other way.


Cows infected with the disease are entirely unable to play the whistle.



Doc

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Quote @ Doc Jones

There is exactly one way to catch this disease…that is to eat the under-cooked brains or nervous tissue of an infected animal.

People weren’t meant to eat cows anyway. And neither were cows!

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Thanks for this info, Patrick. When someone gets a filet mignon steak, that doesn’t have brain, obviously, but does it have nerve tissue in it?

(Dan likes his filet medium rare. I have a meat aversion since becoming pregnant, but I worry about him.)

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This mad cow is/was located in a farm about 50 miles from where I live, in Mabton, WA., between Yakima and the Tri-Cities. There are horrible looking cattle farms scattered all around E. Washington, with cows penned up in muddy corrals. Iowa Beef has a huge slaughter house production not far away.

Glad to be a vegetarian. :slight_smile:

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The chances of getting BSE from a rare steak even from an infected cow are infinetisimal. The chances of getting E. coli, however, are fairly good.

Cook your meat. :smiley:

Doc

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Quote @ Doc Jones

Cook your meat. > :smiley:

Or don’t kill the cow in the first place.


Oh, I forgot :smiley: <— that.

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Come on, Cran and other vegetarians…this is potentially valuable information for carnivores. Please don’t turn this into a debate.

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People weren’t meant to eat cows anyway. quote]



This is true! Unfortuneately we’ve run out of wooly mammoths and buffalos. :smiley:

Doc

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“..we’ve run out of wooly mammoths and buffalos.”


“…and replaced them with orchards and waving fields of grain?” :smiley:


psssst…you can still order buffalo steak in many restuarants around the states. :angry:

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I tried for a year to be a vegetarian. If I could do it biologically (long-term), I would. But I have the blood type of a true carnivore, and even though I followed nutritional advice for a vegetarian diet, I got very, very sick. Now I cannot even force myself to eat meat, so I am anemic (on and off). Luckily, I have learned that there is iron in dried fruit. Still, after I have this baby, I will probably eat meat again.

I read a book called Kindred Spirits, thinking it would be full of heart-warming sotries of people and their animals, but instead it was about the horrors of animals in industry (food animals, horses producing urine for birth control pills, etc.) and it absolutely BROKE MY HEART. I don’t recommend it.

I do not believe that we are biologically set up to be vegetarians, but I wish we were.

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I second Jessie’s comments. I have never seen those that eat meat put down vegatarians for their eating habits, but EVERY time this sort of subject comes up there are the few vocals that just HAVE to stir the pot again.

Sheesh. :roll: Agree to disagree and get on with your lives.

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some, but not all hard working people can do it, and stay healthy

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Sorry, folks. I didn’t see this thread until after I posted my own topic.

Yes, were were designed to be vegetarians: Adam and Eve ate of the fruit of the trees in the garden. They didn’t eat meat. Not until God had to cover their sin did meat-eating enter the picture. Part of our fallen state.

Anyway, with the proper combination of foods, vegetarianism is possible. My folks made the switch several years ago when my mom was diagnosed with adult-onset diabetes (for which I am at-risk).

I like chicken and fish and pasta, not a big beef fan (though occasionally I’ll enjoy a filet mignon). Love veggies! :smiley:

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What I don’t get about all this is, when Europe and especially Canada turned up with BSE, the government banned all beef products from those countries, on the premise that it is unsafe to consume anything from an infected cow. There were screaming front page headlines about"Mad Cow Found in Canada! Imports of Canadian Beef Banned!" Now that it has turned up here, the message is, it’s still safe to eat the meat, just don’t eat the brains…blah blah blah. The animal, which could not walk, was slaughtered on Dec. 9 and fully processed and distributed to other plants before the results of testing came back.

First they say that no parts of this animal entered the food supply, then there is this quote from CNN:

"On CNN’s “American Morning,” Veneman said that product from what appears to be a sick cow “has gone into further processing plants from the initial slaughter plant, and we are now tracing that product.”

She said a recall for about 10,000 pounds of meat had been issued.

“We’ll be tracing that forward to see where the product went and to remove it from the food supply,” Veneman said. "

In other words, they really don’t have any idea where the products went or whether it has already been consumed.

I don’t get this double standard. When it comes from another country, BSE is a plague to be avoided by strict control measures, but when it originates here, it is “no cause for panic, continue consuming beef as usual” and “downed cattle are still safe to eat, so process them as usual”. I smell a rat, and it has the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association lobby written all over it.

That is my final rant for the day, I promise!

Robin

15

Ok, I recognize and respect that this is your view. My view is that Adam and Eve are a myth and did not exist, and that the real proof of what we are biologically meant to be is in what cavemen ate, as they were biologically driven. They ate meat.

Anyway, with the proper combination of foods, vegetarianism is possible.

For some blood types, this is true. But not for all.

My folks made the switch several years ago when my mom was diagnosed with adult-onset diabetes (for which I am at-risk).

While there is fat in meat, and too much fat can cause us to be overweight, and being overweight puts us at risk for diabetes, diabetics must watch their SUGAR intake, not their protein. In fact, the recommended diet for most diabetics is high in protein and low in sugar (fruit has tons of sugar, by the way).

I agree with vegetarian morality, but I cannot do it biologically (long-term). You people who say I could are simply incorrect.

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Sorry, friend. But this is based on beliefs that not all of us share.

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“I do not believe that we are biologically set up to be vegetarians, but I wish we were.”

Maybe your wish has just come true…

Biologically, humans belong to the same phylum, class, order, and genus as anthropoid apes (frugivores)…flat teeth, flat nails, long convoluting intestines.

But even the healthiest people in the world are not completely vegetarian, like the Hunzas who have been known to live an average of well over 100 years. They hunt and eat sheep once a year.

Millions, perhaps billions, of pregnant women around the world are vegetarian. Funny thing…I’ve known women who were under the superstious impression that they needed to drink lots of milk when nursing, rather than food that actually helps produce human milk, such as salads. If smoking, drinking, and other drugs are harmful to a fetus during pregancy, it must stand to reason that diet can also have a direct effect…good or bad.

I agree that everyone’s system is programmed differently. Many people find legumes to be positively poisonous to their systems. Others find a vegetarian diet inadequate and require an advanced academic approach to diet to learn what meat substitues are best during transition, so they can maintain a good sense of well being. Vegetarianism is not as easy to obtain necessary nutrition as a diet of flesh. Nutrition is more seperated into many different sources.

Gotta love the nay-sayers who always pooh-pooh a little sharing and education when this subject comes back around.

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I agree that diet is very important to well-being, both during and outside pregnancy. I was not pregnant when I tried, for a year, to be a vegetarian and got very sick. I am pregnant now, and all I crave are salads and cheese, and other grains. I cook vegetarian sources of protein (other than cheese) and I still became anemic, so I got right on it and started eating dried fruit and dried tomatoes. I think our bodies tell us what we need to eat, and with some education, we can learn to make certain substitutes. However, I do not doubt that my vegetarian-caused sickness (over ten years ago) was real. Before I was pregnant, meat (in its various forms and from its various sources) was an important part of my diet, and I believe it will be again after I give birth.

I am not opposed to education! I would love to be able to be a vegetarian (except sushi, which I can’t eat now anyway), but I don’t believe I would be healthy long-term if I didn’t eat animals. Go ahead…change my mind. I would certainly be willing. But if I get sick again, I’ll blame you.

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Hey, don’t misunderstand me. I said “vegetarianism is possible.” No guaranteed or even desired. It’s everyone’s cup o’ tea.

I assume my religious paradigm does not match everyone’s. My point was and still remains my contentions, that the human body was designed to handle a vegetarian diet. But with all the junk we put into it, and expose it to in the environment, it is very difficult to return to a healthier diet and lifestyle. For some, it may be nigh impossible.

My biggest concern is the double standard already mentioned regarding the so-called safety of the food supply chain. Even our milk has growth hormones in it! We can’t seem to leave well enough alone. Pick up a tomato in the supermarket and you’re likely holding a hybrid grown under artificial conditions. Yeech!

Ah well…

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Yeah, organics are expensive, but they’re really good. Tomatoes have become a serious staple for me lately. And feta cheese (yeah, I know I’m not supposed to have that, but too bad…this kid is getting every other advantage. I don’t smoke or drink coffee or alcohol…let her deal with soft cheese).