I really think this BSE thing is almost a non problem. There are probably hundreds, maybe thousands of things currently that are a higher priority, that kill more people. If you want to be healthy, drive big cars, wear your seatbelts and don't piss off the mob.
maxpi - You have it exactly(as usual). You probably have a better chance of winning the lottery than contracting BSE. Certainly Sars and especially the flu are far more dangerous in terms of probabilities for contracting the diseases. I recently read that they have a maybe treatment for it in the UK. At least in the case it was used the progression of the disease was halted but no word on improvement yet, at least to my knowledge.
Just consumed a quarter pound burger at McDonald. With super sized french fries and classic coke, the meal was so delicious. Once a while, I just need a "garbage" meal like this to get high. Nonetheless, I started to feel scared after the climax of pleasure and when I was full. Will my brain go soft after this meal? Please tell me how you cope with the temptation from both the food and the worry.
Threads like this make me glad I gave up meat a few years back. Anyway, a couple of years ago I went to a "Canadian Club" distillery to see how the stuff was made. One interesting thing I learned was that because of taxes much of their profit comes from by-products of the distillery process. As an example the tour guide mentioned heavy alcohol for perfumes and the used "mash" got sent to farms as animal feed. This was scary because the guide mentioned that there was a law as to how many times they could sell this fermented mash to the same farm within a specified time period. In other words, the gov't knew that this mash probably wasn't good for animals, so intead of banning the practice they just limited how much each farm could buy. BTW, as has been mentioned a few times already, if Canada gets BSE then it's the same as the US getting it because of the loose cross border agreements. Enjoy those Big Macs while they are still appetizing!
And you really think that this is been followed....I t was only banned for cattle, how about chicken and pork. There is practicly no control done, and I have it from someone very close to many feeder lot and paclers that it really never has stoped. 20000 cattle tested a year, and how many slaughtered?? Why did the cow . from which the sample was taken because sha had fallen down, was allowed to be processed into the food chain again????
This so-called ban was rather weak. Basically the FDA regulation prohibits the feeding of a ruminant to a ruminant, and even that had an exception for blood. So a cow couldn't be fed to a cow, but a cow could be fed to a pig or a chicken, and then the pig or chicken could be fed to a cow. Moreover, the regulation exempted blood, the point of which had in mind the weaning of calves on the blood of other cows. And this doesn't even get into whether farmers complied with the prohibition in the first place. The bottom line is that farmers and the government have had an incentive to conceal the true incidence of BSE in this country in order to claim the U.S. BSE-free. Well, the jig is now up, and just as they feared, the export market has been slammed shut with the revelation. It is apparent to me that now they are dissembling information to the public to not lose the consuming herd in this country. I wonder how many people are stupid enough to believe the USDA chiefwoman's assurance that the meat from the infected cow that went to market was safe because the brain and spinal cord were removed. It sure would be comforting to see a news conference of her eating a hamburger made from the "safe" meat of an infected cow to prove her point. Ooh yeah, I would pay money to see that.
Personnally I think the discovery of "Mad Cow" in Canada is a big deal. As of Christmas day, I stopped eating meat. Anyone who knows me knows that I love burgers, especially "In & Out" burgers. They are absolutely the best, but it is simply not worth the risk. In my opinion, it is just a matter of time before someone in the US is diagnosed with this (untreatable) disease. The day that news breaks, stocks like Wendy's, Burger King, McDonalds, etc are going to tank (they have already declined several percent each). I wonder if the manufacturers of Gardenburger, Bocaburger, and other meat substitutes are listed on the NYSE? Well, I have to close now. I am starting to have "In & Out" burger withdrawl symptoms. Regards, Steve46
If the feed ban is not working and the practice or violations of the ban are so widespread and prevalent then why don't we have an epidemic. This is not a new problem but an old one being put to rest. The feeding of byproducts in the mineral form has been done for many years. 70 or more years ago steamed bone meal was a major mineral source if not the main one. Nearly all of the mineral supplements had some form of byproduct in them. That practice was rapidly declining several years before the ban so the chances of this kind of outbreak were much higher in the past than now. There are probably violations of the ban out there but they are the exception not the rule. That is why the USDA is so anxious to find the place where the infection occurred and what the feed source was. There are only 20,000 tested per year but those tests are performed on animals showing some type of questionable appearance. Every animal killed is visually appraised for health several times before slaughter so they all are tested in some way. There are also random sample tests along the way for a miriad of things. As in all things there is risk (even in trading) but the risk of contracting BSE from the US food supply is about like winning the lottery.
Nonsense. As opposed to "11 months ago, the word out in the field for several days was that the cow was imported to Canada from US about 2 1/2 years ago. Which means, with the incubation period, she was probably infected in the US. She may have come not too far from where the infected American cow was found. There could also be a link to a mutual feed source."
180 - I can't make sense out of what you are saying so I guess prefacing it with nonsense makes sense.