Mad Cow Disease and Dog Food

I saw something on this recently, which unfortunately I deleted. You might want to check the ASPCA website for information.

I've read there is no equivalent for BSE in dogs, but there is in cats, FSE.

One of the devastating aspects of Mad Cow in humans is mental fuddlement at an early age. Since the life span of dogs is so much shorter (and the incubation period for Mad Cow Disease is a time without symptoms) if dogs can catch Mad Cow the disease woud seem less horrid.

How do cats normally become infected?

Swiss cat diagnosed with feline form of mad cow disease
July 17, 2001 Agence France Presse by Vik Iyer


A Swiss cat has been diagnosed with the feline form of mad cow disease, thought to have been spread through infected pet food, in the first such case in the country, veterinary officials said Tuesday.
The six-year-old animal had been suffering serious problems with its nervous system and was put down, and was later diagnosed with feline spongiform encephalopathy (FSE), the cat-borne variety of mad cow disease.

The pet was thought to have been infected by cat food containing either brain or spinal column from cattle contaminated with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), better known as mad cow disease.

The feline form of the disease is closely linked with the cattle-borne variety and was first reported in 1990 in Britain, whose meat and livestock industry is still reeling from a BSE epidemic which swept through the country's herds.

Britain has reported around 90 cases of the feline disease among the nation's pets, while Norway has also witnessed a case, despite being clear of the bovine brain-wasting disease.

The disease also affects the domestic cat's bigger cousins and has been reported in pumas, cheetahs, lions and tigers held in zoos and fed with infected meat.

Swiss veterinary authorities insisted that the disease posed no threat to humans, adding that dogs also appeared to be safe, with no reported canine form of mad cow disease.

Um, as long as humans don't eat cat food. I think some senior seniors may resort to it.

Talking off the top of my head here, I think some of the danger happens when various animal bits get ground up into pet food and sent through the system.

I have a friend of a friend who died of the human form not so long ago....he was a veterinarian. Kreutzfeld Jacob's, or a name like that. I forget how he was supposed to have gotten it, but it wasn't, of course, through eating cat food. The sad thing was, he had figured out that he had it...what a nightmare.

I think our meat supply(for people folk in the us) is going to be a risk soon.

No dogs have been discovered with mad coww disease

MAD COW DISEASE: ARE OUR PETS IN DANGER?

Technical Bulletin 8_12

With all the recent talk about mad cow disease, there has been some confusion regarding the safety of our pets. First, let's discuss what mad cow disease actually is. The technical name of mad cow disease is bovine spongioform encephalopathy (BSE). It is caused by a modified type of protein called a prion protein, which has some very unusual characteristics. The disease has a very long incubation period, from 3 to 9 years. Prion proteins affect the brain, giving infected brains a sponge-like appearance. Thus BSE is a slowly progressive degenerative disease of the nervous system. Affected cattle show incoordination, aggression, nervousness and loss of body weight. There is no treatment, and most die within 6 months.

What species are affected? Prion diseases are found in a number of species, including cows, humans, sheep, goats, mink, elk, mule deer, and cats. There have been NO reports of this type of disease in dogs. A prion-type disease has recently been described in cats in England, but no cases have been seen in the United States. The disease in sheep is called scrapie, and in mink it is called transmissible mink encephalopathy.

Is mad cow disease present in the United States? NO. U.S. cattle are BSE-free. There have been no reports of prion disease in cats in the United States. However, sheep in North America are not considered to be scrapie-free. There have been occasional cases of scrapie in isolated sheep flocks within the last 10 years. But before you worry about eating roast lamb for dinner, let's talk about transmission.

How is the disease transmitted? Prion proteins are located in nervous system tissues, which basically means brain and spinal cord. The disease is transmitted by eating these tissues. In Britain, cows contracted BSE by eating scrapie-infected sheep meal. The feeding of scrapie-infected sheep meal to cows was banned in Britain in 1988, but since the disease has such a long incubation period, the disease has continued to surface. The feeding of sheep meal to cows has never been a common practice in the United States. How have people been infected? People may be infected with prion disease by eating brain and other nervous tissues from infected animals. Striated muscle meat (steaks, roasts, ground beef, etc.), fat, bone and milk are NOT infective, since these tissues do not contain the BSE- causing agent.

Are our pets safe? Cattle in the United States are BSE-free, and thus do not pose a threat to the pet or human food chain. The United States has not imported cattle or processed beef from the United Kingdom since 1989, thus no British meat is used in our pet foods. Lamb used in pet foods or for human consumption is derived from animals less than one year of age, prior to possible infection. Since prion disease has recently been described in British cats, caution is being exercised by the pet food industry regarding lamb-based foods for cats. All lamb used in cat foods should be obtained from certified scrapie-free flocks. As stated previously, no disease of this type has ever been reported in dogs.

Buckeye Nutrition is dedicated to providing your pet with high quality products that are nutritious and safe . We hope that this article has been informative, and has helped ease any fears you may have had regarding mad cow disease and your pet. If you have any questions regarding general public health and human food safety, you may wish to call the USDA's Meat and Poultry Hotline at 1-800-535-4555. If you have questions regarding our pet foods or nutrition, please call 1-800-898-2487.

Patricia Schenck, DVM, PhD
Veterinary Nutritionist