That is confirmed by one of the links given by acquiunk. Interesting in view of cavfancier's earlier comment.
CI it was an AP report, here is a CNN reprint
Link to CNN report
PRIONS : our next door neighbour is a microbiologist. he explained to me recently that one of the problems with prions in a medical/hospital setting is that it is next to impossible to clean medical instruments that are infected with prions. if, as an example, a patient is infected with BSE or kreutzfeld/jacob(the patient may appear completely healthy, but nevertheless be infected/a carrier) and has an invasive procedure performed, the medical instruments would not usually be disposed of, but thoroughly cleaned/disinfected (i understand there are a variety of standard procedures followed in this process). apparently the problem with prions is that they survive the usual cleaning procedures. the neighbour explained it in a fairly simple way; he said that prions are extremely small and have an unusual adhesion quality(much like a very strong glue), they might "hide" in small "openings/cavities" present in stainlees steel surgical instruments and might therefore be transmitted from one patient to another for extended periods of time - sounded kind of scary. ... just as an aside, when we were in vienna two years ago the restaurants serving beef carried a notice on their menus : "beef from meat imported from the united states" , obviously to reassure their customers that they need not worry about infected european beef. ... a british vet was interviewed on CBC-television during the summer. he stated that he could not understand that north-america had not completely outlawed the use of meat-by-products/offal in the production of animal feed products. he said that british farmers had paid a very heavy price for their use of animal protein in feed production and north-american farmers surely should not have to face the same problems further down the road. but ... btw : MAPLE LEAF pork and chicken sold in canada carry the label : "from grain-fed animals, no animal protein used in feeding" ... hope that's true. hbg
The problem seems to be located in Alberta at the moment and to cattle born before 1997. I think it should also be noted that the Canadian and American cattle industry is essentially all one herd, as they exchange animals constantly. This is a North American problem.
Here's a disclaimer by a Rueters article.
Canada Says Premature to Say U.S. Mad Cow Was Canadian
9 minutes ago Add Business - Reuters to My Yahoo!
OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada on Saturday took issue with the U.S. assertion that a cow with mad cow disease discovered in Washington state had probably come from Canada, saying it was too early to reach firm conclusions.
Reuters
Slideshow: Mad Cow Disease
Delayed 20 mins - disclaimer
Quote Data provided by Reuters
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (news - web sites) said it believed the cow diagnosed with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE (news - web sites)) was imported from Canada in August 2001.
"It would be premature to draw such a conclusion at this time ... As yet, there is no definitive evidence that confirms that the BSE-infected cow originated in Canada," chief Canadian veterinarian Dr Brian Evans told a news conference.
Quote:The problem seems to be located in Alberta at the moment and to cattle born before 1997.
If this is true, we will be devastated.
Quote:I think it should also be noted that the Canadian and American cattle industry is essentially all one herd, as they exchange animals constantly. This is a North American problem
This is true. I think our tracking methods are different though.
Quote:It also said the cow was 6 1/2 years old, two years older than the owner thought, which has ramifications because of the 1997 ban.
The owner of the cow was a veterinarian. If he couldn't tell the age of the cow, the beef industry has more problems than this disease.
I think its so typically American to blame another country. God forbid that this could happen to the mighty USA.
Nobody is blaming another country Wilso. As I pointed out the cattle industry in that part of North America is essentially one unified industry. It is also for example the same environment and basically the same population. The problem is, at the moment, to find where that cow came from. It make sense to me that the source was Alberta as there is already one know case of the disease there and these things tend to come in clusters. But cattle from that cluster are going to be found all over the western and central portion of North America.
I agree that using the word "blame" is wrong in this context. When humans are confronted with this kind of disease, we must all work together to find it's cure/solution to eliminate Mad Cow disease. As Acquiunk stated, our two countries have exchanged meat products in huge numbers forever. That's not about to change; we must both work at the solutions.
"mad cow disease" and "chronic wasting disease". while the official line seems to be that there is no connection between these two diseases, i have read reports that some animal scientists "suspect" that there may be a connection betwen these two. apparently "similar" prions are present in both of these diseases; but the scientists think that it will be a long-term project to determine whether are not there is a connection. many articles - just too numerous to list here - can be found in google. hbg
Can this disease be passed through milk and dairy products?
I'm with Wilso on this. In case anyone hasn't noticed, the current US administration is blameless in everything they do these days. I also noticed that this was a premature judgement broadcast over an American network. We'll just have to see how this unfolds.
CeralKiller
No, as far as known.
Wilso, cav: ditto
Enough about Mad Cow Disease - child's play. What you guys want to really put the shits up the population is an outbreak of Foot & Mouth. They had to cull & burn about 3 million cows & sheep here in 2001.
HeHe! They just started officially in this 'business':wink:
Those hoof-and-mouth animals were sometimes well-loved and it tore farms apart.
It is likely that this poor cow came from somewhere. Whether or not it is Alberta, that's a fact to be seen. Whether or not this is caused by feeding offal, that's a fact to be seen.
It shouldn't be a blame game, it shouldn't be someone gloating over another's misfortune. I certainly did not feel that way when I was in Scotland in 2001 and carefully cleaning my shoes. I thought it was sad, an economic hardship, and pitiful for the animals and farmers.
<goes away, shaking head>
The pain and fear of this entire business degrading into happiness at another's misfortune is a really ugly part of the entire problem. My country is filled with a lot more than the asses of Washington D.C.
it seems to me that the really sad thing is, that it is preventable ! as the british vet being interviewed on canadian tv said : "why not take advantage of what british and european farmers have learned at great expense ". of course, being able to save even a penny a pound on cheaper animal feed is no doubt a great attraction, particularly in large feed-lot operations. hbg.
MAD COW DISEASE
when reading more and more of the mad cow disease, i remembered discussing the problem of salmonella infected chickens with some farmer friends of ours some years ago and think i found some interesting parallels . out of curiosity i did a bit of "research" regarding "chickens and salmonella" and how this is viewed in canada/usa when compared to germany. in canada we are constantly being warned NOT to eat raw eggs, to cook chicken thoroughly and observe strict hygiene-procedures when handling chickens(and other fowl) in the kitchen. as an example, mrs h. (who trained as a nurse in germany) always keeps a jug of javex and a bottle of lysol in the kitchen to disinfected EVERYTHING ( !!! ) in the kitchen, particularly when handling chickens. we have noticed when visiting germany, that chicken is not nearly as inexpensive as it is in north-america. perhaps two or three years ago we learned that chickens in germany are FREE OF SALMONELLA ! however , a price has to be paid for this . checking google i found out that chickens in germany are immunized/inocculated against salmonella (which increases the cost of raising chickens, but greatly reduces the risk of contracting salmonella from chickens). i think this brings me back to mad cow disease : we can either save a bit on the price of our foodstuff and accept a greater risk from contracting foodborne diseases or pay i higher price for our food and decrease the risk of getting sick from food we eat - is the choice ours ? if anyone is interested , here is a link from the CDC (pretty scientific for me) :
www.cdc.gov/ncidod/eid/vol6no5/rabsch.htm hbg
But is it really good in the long run to innoculate against salmonella?
Briefing -- THE NEED TO CURTAIL ANTIBIOTIC USE IN FARM ANIMALS TO PREVENT
INCREASED ANTIBIOTIC RESISTANCE IN HUMANS
Salmonella can be controlled by routine kitchen hygiene & cooking.
I don't think hbg means antibiotic use, piffka, but immunizing the chickens, as in vaccinating them, so they don't carry salmonella. How that works re the salmonella (if present in the chicken raising system in the first place) I don't know; I guess if they are immunized the salmonella don't reproduce, and presumeably the site is cleaned of them to start with.
