'MAD COW DISEASE FOUND IN CALIFORNIAN DAIRY FARM'

[Beaaware]

www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/24/mad-cow-disease-california-usda_n_144

www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-17821764

This news story brings back memories of the BSE crisis that started in the UK in 1984. On December 22 1984 a Sussex farmer Peter Stent called out his local vet to examine a sick cow who was losing weight, trembling and had an arched back, soon another 8 cows in Jersey dairy herd fell ill with the same disingenerating muscular corordination, some became aggressive, they changed from being placid into different beasts.
BSE infected cattle were flooding into the human food supply as the level of infection spiralled exponentially from the first sussex cow . In 1986 two herds were believed to be infected, by 1996 200,000 cases were confirmed.

Our ministers ' John Gummer, Kenneth Clarke, John Major, Margaret Thatcher' told us during the years between 1985 - 1996 that beef & vaccines
were safe , how wrong they were! The deaths from Human bse continue to rise, the incubation period for humans can be upto 50 years. This is why Professor John Collinge at the Prion Unit/Clinic in London is trialling a blood test on 5000 samples of blood from the USA to detect vCJD in blood.

I wonder how the USA will respond to this outbreak of BSE, I hope they dont mask over it like they did in the UK, if 1 cow has this disease then I will bet that the many others will have it to, they all have the same feed, what about it's mother did it have BSE and did it enter the food chain?

Here is a link to the prion unit for those concerned, human volunteers are needed in the early stages:
www.prion.ucl.ac.uk/press-media/press-releases/alzheimers/

According to the report you linked, the Californian case is atypical BSE. It is unclear whether this type of BSE can be passed from cows to humans and it is not indicative of an outbreak similar to the British situation as it is a random mutation, not something that is caught.

I'm not suggesting the US should be complacent about it, just pointing out that this isn't as similar as you seem to be suggesting.

'USDA's announcement last week that a fourth case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) has been identified in the United States, in a d airy cow in Central California, is a warning flag that current safeguards against BSE are not adequate and USDA should take additional steps to protect the health of animals and of the beef-eating public'

'USDA has confirmed to reporters that this case is an "L-type" atypical strain of BSE.1 USDA therefore must be especially vigilant, because this may well not be a spontanaous case, but rather may well have been infected through feed, and may be particularly infectious in HUMANS'
'Studies further suggest that the L-type BSE can infect HUMANS, possibly even more easily than 'classical' BSE.

USDA should significantly increase its surveillance for BSE.

In the USA only 1% of the 35 million cattle slaughtered annually are tested for BSE, just 1%.

'Ideally the USDA should test all cattle at slaughter over the age of 20 months for several years, at a minimum USDA should test 350,000 annually for at least three years, including all cows showing nervous system abornamilites, downers, and a random selection of acttle slaughtered at more than 30 months of age and cows sent to the renders.'

www.consumersunion.org/pdf/BSE_Vilsack_5_2012.pdf

I think the beef eating consumer in the USA should be worried.

Must resist temptation..................

I only clicked on this as I had a private bet with myself that this would be you Beaaware, score. Nice one

Ditto, rips

Bwahahahahaha