Important! please read!

[courtnek]

Those of us from the U.S. are aware of and monitoring the mad cow meat distribution problem. A cow was discovered in, I believe, Montana to have mad cow disease. It had already been slaughtered and the meat distributed, so the U.S and the CDC are recalling all the meat that was sold from this cow. So far it appears to have affected Washington, Montana, Idaho and California. All of that meat has been recalled, and now the government is trying to track the course of the cow and where it came from. It is believed that the cow originated in Canada since the U.S. and Canada openly trade in livestock all the time. This has not yet been proven, but they are tracing the cow back to it's beginnings just ot be certain. If the rest of the herd in infected, the entire herd will be destroyed.

So be aware, if you are a Canadian or British or Japanese member,
the borders for exports of meat and dog food have been closed in
Canada, Japan and England. I have read that dry dog food is not affected,
however cannot prove that. Canned food would be affected, as would
raw meat. (beef, and possibly chicken depending on what the chickens were fed).

What you need to look for:

Mad Cow only affects the tissues in the brain and spinal column.
Stay away from "ground beef", instead, choose Ground Chuck or Ground Roast. Those tissues are not affected. Packaged lunch meat, hot dogs,
bologna, all could be affected. Get your ham and stuff from the deli counter, which is not processed.

Know that in Canada they are saying the borders will not be reopened for three to four weeks, so stock up now. I dont know of a timeframe
for Japan and England. Be very careful, for both yourselves and your pets.
There is no cure for Mad Cow if you get it or your pets get it.

Britain has sent us advisors on how to treat it, since they were saddled with a bad case of it a few years back. They are helping us trace the cow back to it's origins as well in case there are more cows affected.

be safe people. I know that the other cuts of meat are more expensive, but we'll get to the bottom of this, and better safe then sorry.

:o

[Guest Anonymous]

I know there was some cases of Mad Cow in Canada some time ago, although I don't remember when :-? Scary :o :-?

[Guest Anonymous]

[quote name='courtnek']I have read that dry dog food is not affected,
however cannot prove that.

courtnek, going by the information from the BSE outbreak in europe, i can tell you that if parts of the diseased cow were rendered into dry food, it will be affected as well. this is how the disease started out, by feeding cows meat meal rendered from sheep that were killed because they were diseased. the same type of meat meal goes into pet foods.

for anyone who is concerned about this and wants more information, chapter 6 in ann n. martin's book "food pets die for" (i have the updated 2002 print) deals with the issue.

according to the wall street journal, the US imported animal protein (meat meal) for cattle feed from the UK until the USDA enacted a ban for imports from BSE-risk countries in 2000.

in 2000, only about 2,300 brains of 35 million heads of slaughtered cattle were examined in the US. the cow from washington that tested positive for BSE was about 4 1/2 years old. the incubation period (the time from infection to the point where symptoms become apparent) for BSE in cattle is about 5 years.

most cattle raised for beef is slaughtered at 18 months of age.

draw your own conclusions. :(

mine is that we are currently dealing with the "closing the barn door when the horse got out" phenomenon. i can't believe how people can be so irresponsible and think that just removing the brain, spinal cord and part of the lower intestine makes it ok to process the meat of a diseased animal. if this had happened anywhere in europe, they would have taken the whole cow and incinerated it, just to be safe.

[courtnek]

mine is that we are currently dealing with the "closing the barn door when the horse got out" phenomenon. i can't believe how people can be so irresponsible and think that just removing the brain, spinal cord and part of the lower intestine makes it ok to process the meat of a diseased animal. if this had happened anywhere in europe, they would have taken the whole cow and incinerated it, just to be safe.

please correct me if I'm wrong, but is it not illegal here to slaughter an animal with this disease for meat sales? The way I read it, the use of feed that has been distributed from an infected animal is now illegal, although sometimes some less caring farmers still do it. If the animnal shows sign of the disease, from what I'm reading, it is supposed to killed. Is that wrong?

[imported_Kat]

BSE (Bovinespongieform encepalopathy) has already been rife in the UK for well over a decade. The human form of CJd (Creutzfeldtzjacobs disease) when I learnt more about it, has resulted in me not eating beef for around 10 years now. CJd takes up to 15 years before the full effects are shown so don't think because one stops eating all beef now that you will never get it..a common misconception. Dogs however can not contract any form of BSE in a canine form and there have never been any documented cases of this.

Without going into a great deal of detail this is because the structure of the dogs brain is a lot different from ours and dogs contain different neurotransmitters to us (chemical messengers in the nervous system that deliver messages to tell a muscle to contract for example).

[mouseatthebusstop]

it was crazy here a few years ago when we had some cases in the UK
we went on holiday to malta and as we got off the plane we had to walk over sponge soaked in disinfectant We were told not to wear any other shoes we had with us because they had not been treated

[kendalyn]

Not all cases of spongieform encephalopathy are caused by beef or ingesting infected meat. There are many types of spongieform encephalopathies caused by prions besides CJ disease. A prion is simply a disease causing protein. They are very mysterious so far and the mechanism of disease is not well understood. However, it is known that diseases caused by prions can arise spontaneously (may be caused by a mutated homozygous gene that causes greater susceptibility without infection) and can also be hereditary. In the case of heredity, Mendelian transmission is shown where the prion is an autosomal and dominant trait. Many people believe that ingesting meat from an animal infected with BSE is the only way to develop the disease. It's not the case.

[courtnek]

Thank you K.

The article I was reading stated deliberately that "downers" are cattle that cannot walk for physical reasons, like a birth defect, not disease. But that is the Govt talking, so who knows?

:evil:

[Guest Anonymous]

"downers" are cattle that can not stand up/walk into the slaughterhouse on their own for any reason, be it a broken leg or weakness due to a disease or whatever else.

they are supposed to be inspected more thoroughly than healthy animals and diseased ones are not supposed to be processed for human food, but what actually happens at the slaughterhouse is a different story.

the US beef industry has a powerful lobby that has donated a lot of money towards political campaigns, so they basically have the power to control which laws are passed and which are not. corporate greed and money wins again. :(