For Release January 4, 2004
Going Mad over Mad Cow
AGRI-VIEWS
by Chuck Otte, Geary County Extension Agent
When the news broke right before Christmas about a cow in Washington State
having "Mad Cow Disease" I knew it was going to be an interesting holiday
season! I don't care for the term Mad Cow disease. It is not very descriptive
and creates something akin to cries of "mad dog"! The disease is Bovine
Spongiform Encephalopathy or BSE.
BSE is a degenerative neurological disease caused by a virtually unknown
organism called a prion. It is smaller than known viruses and there is much more
that we don't know than we do know about this! It was originally found in Great
Britain in 1986 and thousands of cows were stricken with it. This prion resides
in the brain and spinal cord of infected animals. If the infected tissue is
processed into cattle feed, as was often done in the past, it can infect more
animals with BSE. This infection takes a long time to incubate and express
itself so virtually all cases are seen in older stock cows or dairy cows.
There is a similar disease in humans called Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease or CJD.
Like BSE, there is much that isn't known about CJD. But it is also a
degenerative neurological disease and randomly strikes about one in a million
Americans every year, affecting both vegetarian and meat eating humans alike.
When humans ingest infected cattle brain tissue the BSE organism can cause a
disease in humans called variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease or vCJD. During the
time that BSE was popping up everywhere in Britain and Europe it was discovered
that people were developing vCJD. In total, it appears that less than 200 people
developed vCJD in Britain and Europe, in fact it may be less than 150. Compare
this to the 250 Americans that develop CJD every year.
So what does all this mean to the American meat consumer? In a nutshell I'd say,
"Beef, it's what's for dinner!" The disease is spread through cattle feed. The
United States has prohibited the use of beef protein byproducts in cattle feed
since 1997. The infected cow appears to have come from Canada which has not had
the same restrictions until recently. Thousands of cows have been tested for BSE
in the USA over the last ten years. This is not an infectious organism that is
going to spread across the USA like a plague.
In response to this single case, the USDA has just instituted addition
restrictions on livestock slaughter, making it even less likely that another BSE
infected animal would enter the food chain. If you are fond of head cheese or
beef brains, it is probably going to become harder to get those specialty food
products from now on due to further restrictions. Methods of processing meat
animals is continuing to evolve because of this single animal.
What everyone needs to do is to put this whole situation into perspective. The
most dangerous thing that most of us do every day is to get in our cars and ride
or drive somewhere. Yet we don't even give that a second thought. Compared to
most of the rest of the world we have so few concerns about our food and water,
that we take it for granted. We put ourselves at the greatest food risk simply
in the way we handle food, especially left overs.
So, spend some time studying the stories in the newspaper and on the Internet.
Stay abreast of what is happening. Call me if you want more information on BSE
or other food health concerns. And then set yourself down and enjoy a good
hamburger, steak or roast! I know I will!
-30-
Return to Agri-Views Home Page
Return to Ag Home Page