Mad Cow

[Rudy]

Whats everyone think?

For those of you that don't know Just a bit south of here they found their first case of mad cow. The U.S has closed their borders to any cattle from Alberta. They have quarantined a lot of ranchers, and have taken all precautions. There is no other cases to date. Really sad really as while I understand the rational I had a friend who used to produce beef. He says that triple Alberta beef is sluaghtered prior to being 3 years old. Mad cow has never developed and apparently can't develop in a cow at this age. I feel really bad for ranchers of Alberta as this was an isolated case and there will be a lot of cattle slaughtered for precautionary measures and it will hurt them more than it already has not being able to sell this beef.

Man sure has a habit of screwing things up with all the steroids they put in feed these days. It is a real shame.

Anyway I have made a habit to eat beef every day to support the cause. Steak to support a cause?? We need more causes like that to support.

Hence my signature.

[aharris]

Mad Cow is a tough one. So little is really known about it. According to my husband, if prions are present in the beef you're about to eat, you run the risk of getting it whether the animal actually showed any symptoms fo the disease or not. He says it becomes even harder to get it from tainted beef if you cook the beef thoroughly. The main danger comes from eating raw calves' brains like they do in some places.

In my mind, these cautionary procedures are permissable when I consider that the disease I might get will reduce me to a quivering lump of human jello on its way to killing me. I'd be more likely to disagree if we were talking about the slim possibility of getting something curable.

I agree with you that this is all likely not necessary, but do I agree with you enough to play Russian Roulette? I don't know.

I'm not sure why you mentioned the hormones though. I don't think they have anything to do with Mad Cow.

[CanFish11]

Been around cattle all my life. From what I have heard I am amazed as well as are many others that raise cattle that this was ever heard of by the public. Here is the story the cow that was brought to the sale ring was down (ie. could not even walk). Nobody but the mentally challenged brings cows to sale like this anymore. 99.5% of ranchers would have given her a bullet and this would have never hit the press and from what it looks like it would not have gone any further. This happens all the time. Now because of one meat head the whole industry and potentially a large portion of the economy could be in shambles.

[Overawed]

First SARS now this. I hope Canada pulls through this. I eat steak once a week Rudy, I'll try to up the ante, but I am in America where we pump our meat full of hormones.

[SGypsyMermaid]

sure wish that i could eat a steak for the cause, but my arteries would never forgive me!

[Rudy]

Aharris. I may be misinformed about the hormones, I don't think I am, but then again I am just going by what people here say. This is what I was told the disease originally developed from. It is not neccesarily the hormones that cause it, but the other crap in the feed. Maybe someone else can clarify.

Ow my wifes aunt and uncle spent 4 months in China. They went over and spent a while in Bejing and learned about Sars. (due to communist government they don't hear about it prior to this) Her Aunt was quarantined when she got back to naning as she stayed in China to finish her contract. Her uncle came home and they did not quarantine him. Only reason...because he lives in a tourist town and they were worried about the reputation. Give me a break. We handled the sars thing wrong. We did nothing but ignore it. We should have tried to stop it. But I tell you if my daughter gets it. Jean Chretians ass is grass.....

Deny it like he did the Iraq war and it will go away. I am not a political person, but I do know thy neighbor.

I fly an American and Canadian flag on my fence. I am a proud Canada, but I am also proud of our neighbors. I am just saddened that we live behind a person (chretian) who has no idea what he is talking about and does NOT speak for most Canadians.

Oh crap. I should go to bed.

[CanFish11]

The best and quickest fix for Canada would be Klein for PM. I don't think that the Easterners would allow it though.

[Overawed]

Rudy,

I hear the same thing from one of my agents in Toronto, she is just ashamed of him mostly. I think she would agree with everything you say. Amazing how life is sacrificed everyday for money.

I love Canada, and my country as well. I have been slightly opposed to the Iraq deal because it has shifted the war away from the more important enemies, the ones who attacked us. But, I figure that our intel has come up with evidence to make this attack worthwhile. So I just sit and hope it all turns out for the best.

[Rudy]

The best and quickest fix for Canada would be Klein for PM. I don't think that the Easterners would allow it though.

Isn't that the truth. It is amazing though I talk to many Easterners on a daily basis and they all dislike Chretian, and liberal still get the votes. It makes no sense.

OW in the words of Don Cherry. It does not matter whether the reasons were right, or wrong. You stand behind your friends no matter what.

[Overawed]

Good words Rudy.

[aharris]

I think the reason that Mad Cow as such a problem in Europe is because they used to mix animal by-products into the feed. The going theory is that the parts of infected animals were ground up in the feed and fed to previously healthy ones spreading the problem.

They probably came up with that theory based on a group of cannibals who first exhibited the type of disease we're talking about. It was common practice for them to eat the dead, but only women and children who never got any other meat. They got one guy who had this stuff and then they all got it. The more of them who died of it, the more who got from eating the ones who died.

I'm not sure how you get one case out of an entire herd. Although, I remmeber that they've quarantined and slaughtered whole herds here in the US just on the suspicion that they might have been fed tainted feed (right after Europe had that big scare). We've banned animal by-products in our livestock feed, or at least banned any European feed in order to avoid this, but since they won't accept our beef, I don't see a problem.

I'm puzzled about your lone case though. I thought Canada grew enough of their own grain to be able to avoid feeding animal based feed to their animals, but I could be wrong. Maybe this is just a sign of something more ominous.

On the liberal note: You'd be surprised at how many people you could talk to who hated Bill Clinton, too, but he still carried the White House for two terms.

[Chet]

There are several different TSE type diseases known to science. It's funny how the different strains react in different animals. Mad cow disease is the most well know, but there is also Chronic Wasting Disease, which affects deer and elk, Scrapie, which affects sheep, and I believe Kuru, CJD, and Alzheimers are the human versions. Mad Cow and Scrapie are supposed to be transmissable from animal to animal only be comsumption of infected raw tissue or bone meal, which is fed as a supplement in food or salt licks. CWD, however, is transmissible from deer to deer by contact, be it nose to nose, shared water source, or urine and feces. CJW is believed to be transmissible between people by blood transfusions, etc. At the same time, there is some evidence to suggest that there may be a genetic predisposition to CJW, as there is toward Alzheimers. Anyway, I thought I would throw all that out there, as I recently became interested in this subject, since I am an avid deer hunter.