Mad Cow Disease Found!

The cow's are mad as hell, and they're not gonna take it anymore!

Coincidentally, the hilarious song "Cows With Guns"
by Dana Lyons also comes from the state of Washington.

Hmmmm ..... Download the mp3 (4.8MB) at:
http://www.ampcast.com/music/12031/artist.php

Read the lyrics at:
http://www.danalyons.com/lyrics/lyrics_for_public/cows_with_guns_lyrics.html

You be the judge!

The comment, from some public figure, about this cow being the tip of an iceberg, has an imagery that is indescribable.
I must admit with a little chagrin that, as a teenager with two or three illicit beers under my belt, I did engage in the age-old ritual of cow-tipping. No, not giving them our spare change; rather, making them fall over.
Seriously, we're getting pay back from the rest of the world for how we were so quick to ban imports from Canada etc. This could get serious. -rjb-

I was concerned about the arrival of SARS in Toronto, disturbed over the reaction to one cow with mad cow disease, and positively outraged (not to mention embarassed) over our (US) tarrifs imposed on Canadian timber. After reading this,




maybe my reaction should be to gloat. That won't be my reaction, but maybe it should be.

I'm actually sad to see this. It would be easy to gloat but I live in the heart of cattle country. There are more cows here than people and this fiasco hurt.
The Single case of mad cow disease had a devastating effect on the economy. The sick cow, all adjacent neighbours cows, all related or herds of origin, all herds fed the same product were destroyed. Everything. Farmers were paid a pittance in return.
While I don't know any farmers who feed their cattle laced feed, the owner of the cow was feeding his cattle an american product. All his other cows and all other stock was tested before being destroyed and no other cases were found. Not one.
So it appears it is a spontaneous case.
incidentally Elk get a form of TB.
farmers lost their farms and and some in desperation destroyed all hope by taking their lives. Thousands of people were out of work because cattle business dried up overnight. Businesses declared bankruptcy, many community's economies are still in tatters.
I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy.
I hope the american farmers don't fare the same punishment.

But it's time to call a spade a spade.
People freak over one cow. Diabetes rates have skyrocketed, heart disease in the number one killer and cancer kill millions and yet, I don't see the panic.
I hope this causes a complete overhaul of the beef industry and makes it safer for us all.

Merry Christmas.

I agree with the perspective.

Hmmh, I remember when all this happened in Europe (and hundreds of farmers went bancrupt) and what especiall the Americans said about it ... .

GOP
Published on Wednesday, December 24, 2003 by the Associated Press
GOP Congress Scuttled Meat Protection Measure
by Mark Sherman

WASHINGTON - Legislation to keep meat from downed animals off American kitchen tables was scuttled - for the second time in as many years - as Congress labored unsuccessfully earlier this month to pass a catchall agency spending bill.

Now, in the wake of the apparent discovery of the first mad-cow case in the United States, the author of the House version of the cattle provision wants to press the issue anew when Congress returns Jan. 20 from its winter recess. The massive, $373 billion spending bill covering several government agencies is still pending in the Senate.

"I said on the floor of the House that you will rue the day that because of the greed of the industry to make a few extra pennies from 130,000 head, the industry would sacrifice the safety of the American people," said Rep. Gary Ackerman, D-N.Y., chief House sponsor. "It's so pound foolish."

The provision dealing with downed cattle didn't even make it into the compromise version of the legislation that House and Senate conferees brought before Congress late in the year.

The Agriculture Department estimates that 130,000 downed animals that are too injured or sick to stand or walk unassisted are slaughtered every year.

The provision, which started through the legislative process as an amendment to an agriculture spending bill, would have effectively prohibited the sale of livestock too sick or injured to stand or walk unassisted.

The agricultural spending bill passed - with the provision intact - on a Senate voice vote in November after failing by three votes in the House in July. But congressional negotiators did not include it in the broader, $373 billion omnibus spending bill that passed the House this month and which is still awaiting a vote in the Senate.

Rep. Maurice Hinchey, D-N.Y., a negotiator who voted for the measure in the House, said Democratic negotiators never had a chance to fight for the proposal.

"The Republicans, the leadership, shut off the conference, they closed it down, and this is one of a number of provisions which were handled in a backroom deal without the Democrats there and with only the Republican leadership," said Hinchey.

Lawmakers and congressional aides said they consider it very unlikely that Congress would reopen the multibillion-dollar bill to deal with the issue. "I can't imagine that it would be," Rep. Henry Bonilla, R-Texas, an opponent of the measure, said.

A day after the government announced the first apparent case of mad cow disease in the United States - in a downed animal - lawmakers and interest groups on both sides of the issue said they had been vindicated.

The Humane Society of the United States has warned repeatedly that if the meat from a lone cow with the brain-wasting disease found its way into the food supply, other countries would cut off U.S. beef imports and consumer confidence would be shaken. "We are already seeing that play out," said Humane Society Vice President Wayne Pacelle. Japan, Taiwan and Mexico, the three largest importers, banned U.S. beef.

But opponents of the legislation said USDA inspectors might never have discovered the apparent presence of the disease, formally known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy, had Ackerman's legislation been in place.

Banning the sale of downed animals would prevent USDA inspectors from detecting possible cases because the animals would never reach the slaughterhouse for inspection, they said.

"The fact that it was caught is the significant thing for the consumer," said Rep. Charles Stenholm, D-Texas, the senior Democrat on the House Agriculture Committee. Stenholm has argued that federal inspectors are in the best position to keep sick animals, as opposed to those that can't walk but are otherwise healthy, out of the food chain.

Agriculture officials also have insisted that the food supply is safe because the animal parts most at risk of carrying the disease, the brain and spinal column, had been removed. "Muscle cuts of meat have almost no risk," Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman said.

In the House, most Republicans as well as conservative and farm-state Democrats opposed the measure.



Both chambers passed similar provisions in their versions of the 2002 farm bill, but negotiators stripped the measure from the final version of that bill.

In both years, the National Milk Producers Federation lobbied successfully against the provision.

"If you don't allow movement off the farm, then you miss the opportunity to diagnose the problem," said Chris Galen, spokesman for the federation.

I agree. Feeding cows meat is just not natural.

Ceili
You're right. It's innocent people that get hurt with the ban and that's the sad part.

Their reticence has and will cost them more than all the measures they oppose. At least four countries have now banned imports of US beef.

Actually, it are momentarily these countries:
Japan
Canada - partial ban
South Korea
Singapore
Taiwan
Malaysia
Thailand
Hong Kong
Russia
Australia
South Africa
Brazil
Mexico
Ukraine
China

Sorry it's taken me so long to respond, hb. Funnily enough, Dick's was included in local TV coverage of the story. The company claims they never use downer cows, so no need to worry. Who knows; it's hard to imagine Dick's seeking only elite animals, but I'd like to believe them!

Oh, sigh. I live in a county with some wonderful small business dairy farming, with farmers using thoughtful methods. I hope these farms aren't going to be affected...

I feel bad for the farmers and others in subsidiary industries who will be affected by this.

However, as a citizen of the country which the whole world believes is resposible for this disease's existence in the first place, I feel slightly smug knowing that even the mighty Americans have been stupid enough to feed dead cows to other cows, and now they must reap what they sow.

:wink:

Two cows are standing in a field talking about Mad Cow Disease .

"Are you worried about all this?" asks one.

"Not really" says the other. "It won't affect me."

"Why's that?" enquires the first.

"I'm a helicopter!" comes the reply...

What a horrible disease and the fallout grows worse with every outbreak. Prions seem totally bizarre. Does anybody understand them?

The flood of information out there struck me. The entire story's horrible -- not just for health and safety issues but for the anger it engenders and the pain for the farming community. In truth, I think that it might be most horrible for the lack of respect we've given the animals. Have we lost any pretense about being humane? It's animal husbandry at its worst.

The story shows such an awful disrespect for life... even life that is (if you will) a planned sacrifice. That's all wrong. And dang, it is a terrifying illness, too! Those initial symptoms are described as "subtle and ambiguous" and may include: insomnia, depression, confusion, personality/behavioral changes, strange physical sensations, balance disorders and/or memory, coordination and visual problems. ... average one year from onset to death.

<goes away shaking head, shuddering & muttering... I'm gonna become a vegetarian - only eat fish & maybe the occasional bird...>

The US cattle industry is not allowed, at least legally, to feed rendered animal parts to cattle, and has not been allowed to do so since 1997. Also the Japanese, who have many fewer cattle than the US and does not to my knowledge feed them imported feed, have been been testing all their cattle and have come up with some interesting results. They have found evidence of mad cow disease in cattle as young as 23 months. There are now two cases of mad cow disease in North American, out of a herd that must number over 150 million animals. Both cases are in the western part of the continent. Elk, which are common in this area suffer from a similar prion infection and exhibit similar symptoms to that of mad cow disease. There are it would seem to me three possibilities here. First that the infected cow was feed infected feed, which would seem to me unlikely. Second, as the Japanese evidence suggests, prions can occur naturally or are the result of some environmental condition. Prions are the reverse transcription of a protein that is crucial for the retention of memory. The third possibility is that the disease has jumped from one species (Elk) to another (cattle). I have no idea which of these possibilities is the most likely but I doubt the problem is as straight forward as Grand Duke suggests.

FDA cited Tacoma firm...



That's an easy law to violate!

Even if the disease jumped from elk to cattle in the western states, it wouldn't explain the earlier outbreaks in Europe, would it?