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First U.S. Case Of Mad Cow Disease Suspected

I just saw a news story about it. I've heard already that some restaurants are taking filet mignon off their menus because of the increasing prices of beef. I wonder if we'll less beef entrees now because of this?
 
I would expect you'll see more since beefs going to be made real cheap after the stocks build up a bit as a result of fear of the 1/1000000000000 odds of catching madcow. Well, that's what happened here in Canada, at least.

haha: "This incident is not terrorist-related," Veneman said. "I cannot stress this point strongly enough."

I wonder how many people are going to blame this on Canada..
 
i find veneman's comments less than assuring...considering the ag dept is unsure how the cow contracted the disease. she almost makes it sound as if the cow spontaneously developed it rather than the sickness resulting from the known forms of transmission..ie: eating infected cowfeed.

and what the heck does "she's certain it's not the result of terrorism" mean? talk about diversionary doublespeak. if it was a mad cow bomb i'd suspect something...jeezzz.

i have zero confidence in our food oversight. i think the article mentions they've tested 20,000 plus cows for the disease...what is that, about one calender day's worth of slaughtered livestock?

prepare for lame explanations and numerous placations regarding the strict rules and regulations of the beef industry.
 
and what about the special services? marine? that was court martialed for deriliction of duty or whatever, but was later found to have the human form of BSE. stories about him implied he just got it spontaneously, and mentioned nothing about the deaths in the UK and how those poor people aquired the disease.
 
I for one have eaten a lot less beef ever since i learned about Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy in my HS biology class. The nasty part is it can infect humans with no symptoms until up to 15 YEARS later! And there's no way to get rid of it. Can't "pasteurize" or anything like that because it's not an organism or virus, just a malformed protien called "prion" or something. Anyone read "Fast Food Nation" or "Mad Cow in America"? I've been meaning to check those out for some time. Now have an excuse: defense for those that say USDA is doing a good job with this one.
 
No wonder when they feed cows with their own meat.
It is really disgusting, people should stop eating all animals that eat themselves.
 
Originally posted by Megaquad
No wonder when they feed cows with their own meat.
It is really disgusting, people should stop eating all animals that eat themselves.
Click to expand...
In the Uk it started when we fed sheep remains in cattle feed.

Anyone read "Fast Food Nation"
Click to expand...
Yeah, I've read it and I haven't eaten a hamburger since.
 
Originally posted by caveman_uk
In the Uk it started when we fed sheep remains in cattle feed.
Click to expand...

Like everything it started when people started keeping official records, (what a coincidence) the sheep version of Spongiform Encephalopathy is and has commonly been called "scrappy" in folk lore. Their are lots of forms for lots of species, the human form is called CJD.
The biggest change to have come from this shock revelation is a change of government regulation, with CJD and also more recently "Foot and Mouth" the "LAW" is now allowed to come onto private property, commercial or otherwise and "kill" whatever livestock it feels like, this includes personal livestock known as "pets"

Watch out USA they're gonna try to change the Law from underneath yer feet.
Can you say Police State.
Oh and the reasoning behind livestock getting Spongiform Encephalopathy so quickly and humans still not making a significant mark on the chart is said to be because of canibalistic leanings in our distant evolutionary pasts.
 
Venneman was a former beef industry lobbyist so her proclamation that it has only affected one animal is little more than industry cheerleading. You can bet your booty that my beef consumption is going to slacken even further even though it has never been that big.

I haven't read anything lately but there was speculation that the cow found in Alberta to have Mad Cow might have originally come from Montana. Although the US has made much of its laws surrounding animal feed, it seems that the reality is that it hasn't been well observed. Oh well, the world could do with a few less beef eaters anyway.....
 
its about time..

Canada had a small Mad cow thing a while ago ,the United states made a big fuss and bashed canadian beef

so im glad that the United states is infected now.. and i hope they recieve the same wrath they portrayed on others.

im not trying to be mean.. and im sorry if i come off that way.

Merry Christmas
 
Originally posted by adamfilip
its about time..

Canada had a small Mad cow thing a while ago ,the United states made a big fuss and bashed canadian beef

so im glad that the United states is infected now.. and i hope they recieve the same wrath they portrayed on others.

im not trying to be mean.. and im sorry if i come off that way.

Merry Christmas
Click to expand...

I hope hope that you are now serious when you say, "i'm glad that the United States is infected." This is indeed a very serious matter. My hope is that our government will find the source and satisfactorily irradicate the problem. This is a global problem that will need cooperation.
 
It makes me more aware of where my meat comes from, I haven't bought beef from the regular grocery store in a long time. I prefer to get the organic grain-fed beef when I do eat it. It's amazing how much better quality meats taste too, as a nice side benefit. Costs more but oh well. I'd like to avoid madcow thanks.
 
"The bans came within hours of news about the single suspect cow, in the north-western state of Washington.

The move was led by Japan, which bought $800m of US beef last year - one-third of US exports of the meat.

Officials are trying to trace the cow's birth herd and find out where it may have been infected.

Mexico, Brazil, Russia, Ukraine, and a number of Asian counties from Singapore to South Korea were among those who moved at once to bar imports of US beef."


how come americans only ask for cooperation when they are the ones hurting?
 
Originally posted by mactastic
It makes me more aware of where my meat comes from, I haven't bought beef from the regular grocery store in a long time. I prefer to get the organic grain-fed beef when I do eat it. It's amazing how much better quality meats taste too, as a nice side benefit. Costs more but oh well. I'd like to avoid madcow thanks.
Click to expand...

Growing up in Montana, all I ever knew was grass fed, organic beef. Of course it wasn't known as that then but.... The taste is better and if handled by a small slaughter house, the chance of e-coli and BSE contamination is much less than if it is processed by a big meat packer. Organic beef is much less likely to be sent to a feed lot for fattening, lessening its chances of contracting some nasty illness.

A couple of years ago, a small Washington state food store chain bought its own beef herd and contracted with a rancher to raise it to its specifications. The reason being that the majority of beef processed by the big players is tasteless. It seems to be a growing trend. In Germany one of the hottest trends in farming after the BSE scare was for people to buy a pig, cow, goose, etc and have it raised a certain way ie grass only, no wheat/corn/barley. For people with wheat or corn allergies, it was the only way to be able to eat meat without having an allergic reaction to it and for those who distrusted the "system" it was a way of exerting control over their food.

While H. Ford's assembly line works great with vehicles and computers it is disastrous when applied to raising animals.
 
Originally posted by Ugg
While H. Ford's assembly line works great with vehicles and computers it is disastrous when applied to raising animals.
Click to expand...

Well said. And I think the same applies to food production in general. Agricultural crops and food service among other things.
 
i love how these stories progress...gotta love the spin.

first it was said that the cow was detected before it entered the retail food chain. then, veneman assurred everyone that the infected parts were not sent to retail...huh? so i'm suppossed to feel better that the head wasn't processed ( do we even eat the heads?) while the rest of the body has been deboned and is now most likely frozen patties in some grocery store?

ntm, the amazing testing process of scanning the tissue while the rest of the cow is rendered for sale. kinda like trying to put toothpaste back in the tube if you ask me.

and what the hell does her "confidence in our food supply" really mean? that is such ambiguous feel-good tripe.
 
To show my faith in our country, had strip steak for our Christmas Eve meal. Would have been T-Bone but the store ran out. My wife got it on sale.
 
That's what you get for eating meat. Become vegetarian...There's no mad spinach disease.

Yes, I know there's Hepatitis, etc., but it just seems that there are a lot more problems associated with devouring dead flesh than there are with eating plants and fruits.

I feel bad for all the cows that are going to be slaughtered over this, though.
 
CJD

Its makes me shudder reading about how this is unfolding in the US. We went through all this about 5 years ago in the UK. The guy from Canada who says he his glad about this should retract that remark, not put a sugar coating on it. Have a look at someone rotting away from this hideous disease before you say things like that, those words may come back and haunt you.
You guys should focus your concerns more on the company that fed that cow rather than the breed of cow in question; that's how it spreads. Also don't listen to your government or government science bodies too much. They are motivated by money and will put spin on the truth to make the problem seem non existant. I know this sounds like a sentance from a cheap novel but it is true. I still remember a governemnt minister in the UK feeding his daughter a burger and grinning that beef was safe, even when it was killing people. The disease spread over a wide area in the Uk simply because the government refused to face up to the implications, ie collapse of butchery and beef farming industries. And don't believe that you could only get this from eating cow brain soup. There was more than one case over here of people going down with this after eating a high amount of beef cuts, not brain or bone. It is still a relatively new disease and we learnt the hard way that the experts can talk out thier collective backsides at times.

Crucify the animal feed manufacturers, be safe and good luck.
 
crucify the farmers who feed garbage to the animals, because they have no respect for the animals or the people who eat them. itdoesn't matter who makes it, they don't have to use it.


then how about the government that approves it, and the citizens who won't get out and vote for or against them.

if canada could tag all its animals, surely the US can do the same.

US trade actions on beef and softwood (building lumber) have put tens of thousands of Canadians out of work or bankrupt.

and did you know that beef slaughtered and consumed in the same state does not have to be federally inspected?

yum, yum!
 
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