OT: BSE (aka Mad Cow Disease) in the US

[narf poit chez BOOM]

recieved an email once. how do you tell the difference between a normal cow and a mad cow:

cow: Mooooow

mad cow:MoooHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

[parabolize]

US FDA does have restrictions on what to feed the livestock but they are stupid:
you cant feed cows cow brains but pig is ok.
you cant feed pigs pig brains but cow is ok.

[DavidG]

Originally posted by TerranC:

quote:

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Originally posted by Renegade 13:
In my opinion, there is no reason why the US border shouldn't be opened to Canadian beef immediately. But hey, I'm prejudiced

If that happens, the Japanese will freak and close the border on North American beef.

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Which is the problem. I'd like to know how Japan justifies how it is screwing our cattle insustry. It was ONE cow found I think in March. It was detected BEFORE entering the food chain. Not a single other case was found. None of the other animals in its herd or any herd it had been with were found with BSE. Japan had 7 or 8 cases in around 2000 I think. Seems (to my uneducated brain) that this suggests that there is more chance of undetected BSE in Japan than Canada.
It's hard not to suspect that dirty politics is the real reason the ban is still in effect.

[Thermodyne]

LOL, leftover beef byproducts in the US, that’s real funny. Why would they put it into feed when they can make shampoo and SlimJims out of it. Not to mention preformed hamburgers.

On a serious note, the US relies on soy protein for cattle feed to a large extent. (As I thought Canada did) We have a surplus of beans, which makes them cheap. And they add bulk, which eliminates the need to add fillers (sawdust/corn stalks) to the feed.

[Renegade 13]

Originally posted by DavidG:

quote:

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Originally posted by TerranC:

quote:

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Originally posted by Renegade 13:
In my opinion, there is no reason why the US border shouldn't be opened to Canadian beef immediately. But hey, I'm prejudiced

If that happens, the Japanese will freak and close the border on North American beef.

---

Which is the problem. I'd like to know how Japan justifies how it is screwing our cattle insustry. It was ONE cow found I think in March. It was detected BEFORE entering the food chain. Not a single other case was found. None of the other animals in its herd or any herd it had been with were found with BSE. Japan had 7 or 8 cases in around 2000 I think. Seems (to my uneducated brain) that this suggests that there is more chance of undetected BSE in Japan than Canada.
It's hard not to suspect that dirty politics is the real reason the ban is still in effect.

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The Canadian case was detected in May. And Japan has just recently had another case of BSE. About 3 days ago they found a new one.

[Renegade 13]

Originally posted by Thermodyne:
LOL, leftover beef byproducts in the US, that’s real funny. Why would they put it into feed when they can make shampoo and SlimJims out of it. Not to mention preformed hamburgers.

On a serious note, the US relies on soy protein for cattle feed to a large extent. (As I thought Canada did) We have a surplus of beans, which makes them cheap. And they add bulk, which eliminates the need to add fillers (sawdust/corn stalks) to the feed.

I think Canada does use soy protein much of the time. It's been illegal to feed animal protein to cattle for the Last 6 years. Personally, I'd still eat beef if most of the Canadian herd had BSE. It doesn't scare me. Does it really scare any of you??

[DavidG]

Originally posted by Mephisto:

quote:

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Which is the problem. I'd like to know how Japan justifies how it is screwing our cattle insustry.

Well, the European cattle industry wants to know the exact same thing from the US and Canada. The north american states did the exact same thing when they were "BSE-free" to protect their market.

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Well no doubt there is a ton of politics involved but wasn't the European problem several orders of magnitude greater than a single case in Canada?

[geoschmo]

This is an uneducated comment here, because I am by no means an expert. But I thought I read somewhere that the reason for feeding animal protein to animals has more to do with the cost of disposing of it by any other acceptable means then it has to do with the cost of animal protein relative to vegatable protein. Processing of animals into meat results in a lot of waste byproducts afterall. You can't exactly dump it down the drain.

[jimbob]

If you've got a big enough blender you can

Of course it's all politics! I haven't heard a peep about the recent (confirm please) case of BSE in Japan. Certainly we have closed our borders to BSE ravaged countries, but those were ravaged while Canada had a single case. "Irrelevant" says the international community, "any BSE = blockades as experienced by the worst case (i.e. the Europe outbreak)"

[Mephisto]

Yea, this IS full of politics indeed.
Britain had the most cases and IIRC the order of magnitude was something about several hundred confirmed cases.
Other countries like France or Germany had less (round about 100 per country IIRC) cases and many of them turned out to be something different.
It's the old story: if you look hard enough you will always find something. I'm sure there is more then one case of BSE in Canada but its not that much hyped as it was in Europe. People here refused to eat beef meat at all and drastic regulations were enforced so that the market wouldn't totally collapse. As usual - with some distance to it - most people are right back now to their "meat level" like nothing ever happened.
Am I afraid of BSE? Well, I think it is a wise thing to test the meat and have a look that only occasionally some undetected BSE meat will reach me, minimizing the risk. Further I think cattle (that is no herbivore at all) should be feed with remains of other animals.