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

[narf poit chez BOOM]

sounds perfect. of course, we'll need a command structure...which do you want, Dictator or Supreme General?

[Renegade 13]

Umm, Supreme General sounds better. Dictator has such nasty connotations. But dont' count on me to fill that role. People like that have a weird habit of being assassinated. I'll find some other poor slob the fill that role.........you want it??

[narf poit chez BOOM]

ok, now that i've woken up, so to speak...ok, your Supreme General. now, for Dictater, we need a pupp-i mean, glorious leader. i really must stop that. i, of course, will be in charge of Food Preparation and Serving. including the taster's, naturally. yes, yes, all food served in the palace will be served and checked by my minions. except, of course, and only, in the exception of the Supreme General. gotta have some balance of power.

and, of course, we can't have people bringing food in. might be poisoned. very unsanitary.

[ January 03, 2004, 04:16: Message edited by: narf poit chez BOOM ]

[Kamog]

Surely the cheese would be safe to eat? ...as long as it wasn't made with milk from a mad cow.

[Wardad]

the tasters will not die right away from MAD COW disease.
BWAHAHAHAHAHA

[narf poit chez BOOM]

your humor is appreciated.

of course, Wardog, being from the us, you are the mortal enemy of the Empire Of Canada. of course, a delightfull mind like yours could always immigrate...want to be a Head Chef?

i will have to set my cooks to finding out where Kamog is from...

[ January 03, 2004, 05:57: Message edited by: narf poit chez BOOM ]

[Atrocities]

Most of the people around here, here being less than 200 miles from both the farm and the slaughter house where the cow was from, feel that it is the eco-terrorist doing it.

Most people can not figure out how a desease in England with no decernable or possable method of transport could contaminate a cow halfway acrossed the world.

They go on to note that the farm is ideal located, less than 300 miles from the Canadian boarder and some feel that it was through canada tha these eco-antibeef-terrorist attacked.

Of course this is all to be expected. The "sky is falling" consiracy theoriest do raise an interesting point though. How did the cow contract Mad Cow desease unless it was dilibrately contaminated. And if it was dilibrately contaminated, then who did it?

[narf poit chez BOOM]

how about 'the farmer was feeding the cow cow'.

[David E. Gervais]

MHO.. We had a 'single' case of mad cow Last year and caught it really fast. The US had a 'single' case very recently, and they caught it very fast.

It seems to me, there is no real reason to panic and the beef in both Canada and the US is Safe.

I for one am not paranoid and would feel perfectly safe eating a nice juicy steak from either Canada or the US.

Here's a question, If we discover a new way to detect a desease that we otherwise would not be able to detect, does that mean that the desease did not exist prior to our being able to detect it? For all we know we have been eating 'mad cows' since the early days of settlement. What I never hear is 'just what happens to a human that eats 'mad cow' infected beef?' Do we go mad? is it diarea for a week? do men spontaniously become pregnant? What is the 'real danger' I would like to know how this really affects us.

Does anyone here know the 'effects, side-effects' of eating 'mad-cow' infected beef?

nuf said, Cheers!

[ January 03, 2004, 10:15: Message edited by: David E. Gervais ]

[DavidG]

Originally posted by David E. Gervais:
MHO.. We had a 'single' case of mad cow Last year and caught it really fast. The US had a 'single' case very recently, and they caught it very fast.

It seems to me, there is no real reason to panic and the beef in both Canada and the US is Safe.

I for one am not paranoid and would feel perfectly safe eating a nice juicy steak from either Canada or the US.

Here's a question, If we discover a new way to detect a desease that we otherwise would not be able to detect, does that mean that the desease did not exist prior to our being able to detect it? For all we know we have been eating 'mad cows' since the early days of settlement. What I never hear is 'just what happens to a human that eats 'mad cow' infected beef?' Do we go mad? is it diarea for a week? do men spontaniously become pregnant? What is the 'real danger' I would like to know how this really affects us.

Does anyone here know the 'effects, side-effects' of eating 'mad-cow' infected beef?

nuf said, Cheers!

Well if you eat BSE infected meat you have an extremely slim chance (slightly less extremely slim than if you eat the brain or spinal cord) of contracting vCJD, a nasty brain wasting disease similar to BSE. (hence the name 'mad' cow disease) It is 100% fatal, I believe within a year. How slim a chance? Well consider that in the UK they have had 130 cases of vCJD and it is estimated that 2,000,000 BSE infected cattle went to market. In NA there are 2 confirmed cases of vCJD. One in Canada and one in the US. This in itself should prove our beef is safe.

but hey let's have some more proof. Apaprently even in cattle with full symptoms the BSE agent is not found in the beef.

And some more. Most cattle go to slaughter before the age of 30 months. BSE is very rarely found in cattle less the 30 months old. (ie in the EU 8.5 million cattle tested in 2001, found 2147 case of BSE and only 2 in cattle under 30 months and they were 28 and 29 months old, In 2002 10.2 million cattle were tested and no cases found in animals under the age of 30 months)

And even more. Evidece seems to indicate that the only way BSE can be transfered is by cattle eating contaminated food. Since the USA and Canad have both had a ban on feed containing animal by-products since 1997 it would seem that even if we have a few isolated cases of BSE it is not being spread.

Now if we were to look at all the other zillion ways you can die from eating contaminated food BSE would seem to be a minor concern.

Reference links:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/ma...eatsafety.html

http://www.beef.org/documents/BSE%20...11-17-2003.pdf

[ January 03, 2004, 13:39: Message edited by: DavidG ]