Mad cow disease

Toufa Bouchouar

Mad cow disease paper

Bovine spongiform encephalophathy ( BSE), which is mainly known as mad cow disease has infected the society and has put the lives of individuals at risk. This was very frightening to the people that ate meat during that time. The terrified people would not even want to eat hamburgers at MacDonald, steak at restaurant and much more. What also alarmed the people was the fact that there was a possibility of getting the human form of mad cow disease. This was called variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) which is through tainted blood, but this was only a theory which was later proven wrong. Authorities in the United Kingdom said there was an adult who died from vCJD in early December 2003. They believed that he obtained this illness by a blood transfusion during surgery seven and a half years earlier. His donated blood came from what they thought was a healthy person in 1996, who apparently died three years later from vCJD. No one really knows what causes BSE, but what theories the scientists say might cause this disease is a protein called a prion. This occurrence made the people even more worried, this would also lead to business failure for the beef industries.

Canada’s beef industry was shattered on May 20, 2003 when they found out that a cow in northern Alberta was tested positive for mad cow disease. Canada at the

time was the third largest exporter of beef in the world. After the mad cow incident during the months of June July and August the values of the Canadian exports went down to practically zero. Before the whole incident in 2002 the Canadian market was worth about $4.1 billion. Canada also exported most of its meat to the United States, and at

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that time it was the world’s largest beef importing country. The US also had a case of mad cow disease on December 23, 2003. This horrible disease is a chronic, degenerative disorder that affects the central nervous system of cattle. The infected cow was from

a farm in Washington. After killing the cattle, it was sold out with out the owner’s knowledge that the cow was infected with the deadly disease. Right when the US department of agriculture (USDA) found out, they launched an emergency investigation that involved the United States and Canada. Canada and the States had a goal ...

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was to find out where this disease started and to stop it before it was too late.

Some people say that all slaughtered cows should be tested, but the problem is that many of these cows are very young and the disease will not show up in the cows until they have reached 30 months of age. DeHaven also said that “This is a disease with a very long incubation period-typically three to eight years.” He also states that” To suggest that we would test all animals regardless of age at slaughter is not consistent with the science and what we know about the disease.” A professor at the University of Maryland says that the disease will replicate in some tissue parts of the body during incubation periods, and only after three years it will reach the brain. Today the tests that are used to detect the disease will only be revealed in the brain of the cattle if it is younger. The problem with that is the younger cows might be infected and the test won’t reveal it in the tissues or blood until the cow gets older. People also use other things from the cow like milk which includes dietary supplements, but the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition say that there is not scientific evidence that milk and dairy products may contain any risk for getting the illness to human. Also that people should not be worried about drinking milk and other milk product.

Some people have suggested that the federal government should take further actions. The suggestions were like tightening the slaughter control and feed regulations, like the way the European government did to stop the BSE from more spreading.” You shouldn’t equate the actions that the Europeans had to take with the actions that we need to take because the situation in the two continents was very different when the BSE was discovered in each continent,” said Murray Lumpkin, M.D. The reason of that was because in Europe it had reached and epidemic stage in their cattle inhabitants. The cases that were identified were thousands; and the Europeans had to put in place measures not only to keep the infection from spreading but to also contain a large epidemic that was starting. “Based on their experience, we put many BSE firewalls in place before we had any evidence of disease,” Murray Lumpkin, M.D.

When getting mad cow disease there is no cure or vaccine, also there is no way to stop it from happening. The thing that we can do thought is stop it from spreading. There are many measures Canada can take to stop this from spreading and making the cattle industry stronger and also open again. Canada should regulate and have a closer watch

on the import of meats. Also not allowing all resources from non-ambulatory cattle

in human food, and taking away certain parts of the cow’s tissue from our (human) food

chain. Elimination of certain nervous system tissues in meat that is acquired by an industrial technology to cut meat from bones which is called advanced meat recovery. Not allowing a method called air-injection that is gently dazzling cows wile slaughter which has a high possibility that poses the brain tissue, which has a high chance of having the disease. What would also be good is to band some extra materials from the animal feed. The parts of the cow that are at high risks from getting the disease are the skull, brain, eyes, vertebral column, and spinal cord of cows than are at least 30 months of age. They also say that the small intestines and tonsils might contain the BSE. These parts that are named should nor be giving or sold to any one. After killing the cows the high risked infected areas should be thrown away immediately and not to be sold ever. There are other parts of the cow that can obviously be eaten. Throwing away these parts make the cow a little safer to eat but it is better to be safe than sorry. Testing the cows also before slaughter should be a must. When the cows are tested they should not be sold until they are tested over the age of 30 months and the tests results came out negative

for the disease. The country that tests every cattle before slaughter is Japan. This process

is costly but at the end worth it from starting an epidemic or killing the lives of people. Also feeding hormones and antibiotics are good for the cattle.

Looking into the industrial system that might be responsible for this horrible event and other infectious situations should be stopped immediately and closed down from

the food supply. These companies some times have ways for covering their tracks which they should be punished for. Right now in Canada there is a low risk of the BSE to harm the humans. People shouldn’t be afraid of getting mad cow disease because there is such a low risk, but if they are worried there are many ways from making sure that the meat they are eating is safe. Knowing were your meat comes from is a great way to start.

If you are also a person who loves to eat meat and you decide to still keep on doing so, your best way to protect your self if to know where the animal is raised. Getting the meat from a local farmer is safer and if you can go and visit the farm to see what is going around. Ask questions to the farmer and keep a good eye out on knowing how the farmer

takes his work seriously. Good questions to ask are how do you raise your animals? Do you get them tested for mad cow disease? Are they feed any antibiotics with their food. Are also hormones given to the animal Questions like those. Great farmers you should look for are the ones who don’t feed their animals with animal products but pasture which is. Something to look out for is if your farmers name and phone number does not appear anywhere, odd are that the meats they are selling were not raised properly.

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