Mad Cow Dangers.

Posted by: ScottRezaLogan

Mad Cow Dangers. - 03/19/04 04:02 AM

What do People Think here, About the Mad Cow Dangers, or Lack Thereof?

I'm one who Thinks there is a Great and Potential Danger here! Europe has Only Borne this Out. Now it has since Come to American and Canadian Shores. We're Walking on Eggshells and a Time Bomb!

There are just Too Many Cracks for Things to Fall On Thru! Infected Cows or other Animals Becoming Part of the Feed Supply, and also that of Other Species besides just Cattle as well!

It Has Crossed Over to Humans. Deer out West have something Akin to this, as Do some Other Animals.

With All the Cross Species Feeding that Ends Up Going On, We may Well Come to Have to Worry About More than just Eating Beef!

I Love and Enjoy Beef!, and Wish the Industry OK to Well! But I've personally Decided to Foregoe it!

Chicken, Turkey, and so on, has so far Not yet joined that list!, and Hopefully, in my Liking and Loveing them so!, -Hopefully they Never Will! But I Must Keep a Basic Watch Out there, as well!

Though the Malady is Rare within the Totality of the Entire Issue, at least as of yet, -I Don't Wish to Take the Risk in Eating Beef. It Does Seem to be Something Too Much of a Potential Risk! (Though Naturally Grown Beef Shud be Perfectly Allright!)


(I've Substantially Cooled it on Meat, a Long Time Ago, in any event. To the extent I was ever into it anyway. Though Neither have I ever been a "Rare Meat Eater", or Pure Veggie! So it's Not like I'm Foregoing a Central Culinary Practice or the Like! But with Too Much Mad Cow Storm Clouds Hovering Over, Beef Unfortunately has to Step Off my Menu!)

I've heard just the Other Day, that they Think Mad Cow type Prion Proteins, are Very Similar to Certain Normal Brain Proteins anyway!

So when one Species, or even one Individual Animal within a Species, -Eats the *Brain Tissue* of Another that is so Infected, -The Whole Thing can Get Transferred and Set Off! Brains are the Bane!

From certain New Guinea Natives who once Widely Ate the Brains of Enemies that they Slayed in Battle! To People and Animals Doing the Same, regarding the Brains of Other Animals! To Such Infected Brain Tissue, however yet Rare, Getting Ground into the Feed that's Fed to All Sorts of Other Poultry, Cattle, and Livestock! It's just Too Prevalent!, and Too Much of a Potential, Possible, Risk!

And with there being usually a Many Year's Long Incubation Period, It might be Wise to Take Preventative Precautions Years Ahead!, -Say About Now, as I Have Done.

I can either End Up being Glad I Did, or Find that I had Engaged in a Needless Forfeiting Exercise!

Vice Versedly, -Those Still Willing to Run this Risk!, -Can either End Up being Sorry they Made such a Risky Wrong Choice!, or Successfully Coming Coming Out None the Worse for Wear!, in Having Not Forfeited.

I Bank to Not Running the Risk! I Think that Mad Cow Dangers and Potentialities are just that Much over the Possible Risk Threshold! I Won't Run or Risk It!

And I'm Not One Normally or Naturally into Cows and Cattle anyway! As a Topic. The Possible and Likely Enuf Dangers, however, are Such that I Must Make it my Business, to Remain Basically Informed and on Guard!

As to Survival and Preparedness Relevance?

It's a Public Health Danger and Matter! It Can Start Becoming a Lot More Common! Along with Many New, Developing, and Older Diseases! Even If and While Relatively Rare, -If You are the One Such Unfortunately Happens *To*!, -Then that Rarity is Cold Comfort! This is a Part of our Basic, Entire, General Health Maintenance and Preparedness!, both Personal and Public.

Along with Brewing or Upcoming Environmental and Climate Changes!, -It is One of Those "Other Important Areas of Survival Prep!", that we Must Concern Ourselves with, either here at Home, or Anywhere in the World! Depending on How TEOTWAWKI Things either Get or Not Get!, We may Find Ourselves Having to Bug Out to some Other Part of the World! We Shud Get at least a Nodding Acquaintence with some of these Other, More *Non*-Typical, "Exotic" Areas of Preparedness and Survival! Mad Cow and Other Dangerously Looming Diseases and Health Concerns!, are but One of Them! A Broad Subset of Such More "Exotic" Survivi-Prep Concerns! This is it's General, Comprehensive Relevance, Here.

Some may Feel that there is Less, or Quite Likely can be Less, Potential or Present Danger here, than I Feel may Well be the Case!

But I Think there Quite Likely Is!, and I Think it or it's Possibility is Such!, that I Do Not Wish to Run Such a Mad Cow Risk!

At Least Think Over the Issue, and Keep Running Tabs!

Where Do some of you Stand, Pro, Con, or Somewhere Tween, on the Entire General Mad Cow Etc, of a Matter? [color:"black"] [/color] [email]ScottRezaLogan[/email]
Posted by: aardwolfe

Re: Mad Cow Dangers. - 03/19/04 05:46 AM

I think that the "danger" from mad cow disease is one of the most over-hyped, irresponsible pieces of journalism.

There have been two - count 'em, 2 - cases of mad cow disease in North America - one in Canada, one in the US. The one in the US wasn't even a beef cow, it was a dairy cow.

There has been (I believe) exactly one fatality from mad cow disease in Canada, and that was contracted from eating beef in England.

I just had Alberta Roast Beef dip for lunch today, and thought nothing of it. I figure I'm more likely to be killed by lightning while walking to my car in the parking lot than I am to contract Creutzfeld-Jakov disease from eating contaminated beef.

Frankly, it's just so far down my list of things I should worry about that it doesn't even register as a blip on the radar.
Posted by: DBAGuy

Re: Mad Cow Dangers. - 03/19/04 08:05 PM

As long as cattle are fed VEGETARIAN diets (sheesh!) we should be ok.

You would think this would be the normal diet for a cow !
Posted by: aardwolfe

Re: Mad Cow Dangers. - 03/19/04 11:24 PM

A far greater health risk, IMO, is the fact that most US and Canadian cattle are fed on grain instead of grass; this leads to fattier beef which increases the risk of heart disease, stroke, and numerous other health problems. If there's any reason to avoid eating beef products, that would be it.

Plus, the beef industry's greedy habit of dosing the cattle with anti-biotics is almost certainly contributing to the rise of anti-biotic resistant microbial beasties, which is not a good thing. <img src="images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />
Posted by: ScottRezaLogan

Re: Mad Cow Dangers. - 03/20/04 12:16 AM

Two Further Great Points you Mention! -Which can Take their Place in Both our Views. Granted, There've Only been Two Mad Cow Cases in North America so Far. It May or May Not Come to Rise Substantially. [color:"black"] [/color] [email]aardwolfe[/email]
Posted by: Anonymous

Re: Mad Cow Dangers. - 03/20/04 12:29 AM

Scott,
You may find this link useful <img src="images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />
http://viswiz.imk.fraunhofer.de/~steffi/madcow/madcow.htm
HTH,
Ed
Posted by: Chris Kavanaugh

Re: Mad Cow Dangers. - 03/20/04 01:16 AM

Tommorow is National Meatout Day promoted by vegetarians <img src="images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />. I am going to a indian restaurant with my G/F. Food quality, both nutritionally and ethically always has options. Free range, certified organic raised livestock are becoming increasingly available. Many dietary traditions such as Kosher insure superior foodstuffs. Buffalo have never been given antibiotics or growth hormones and are free range ( that, is an understatement; having dabbled with the beasties with cutting horses <img src="images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" />.) There are many things in the world that are scary. People need to understand there are options, often simply the way things were done before this Fritz Lange Metropolis we call the global economy. When something like this comes to my attention, I walk up and give it a good kick in the ribs. <img src="images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />
Posted by: ScottRezaLogan

Re: Mad Cow Dangers. - 03/20/04 03:05 AM

Furthermore, You may be Right, You may have Something there! It Still is Quite Rare, and May Remain Rare to Infrequent. But I Still wouldn't Want to Personally Take the Risk. Enuff such Risk may by now be there. This may come to Brew into something Bigger! Though even there, it's still a Question of How Much so. That can range from Relatively Little, to X Amount More. Concerning it's Long Incubation Period, Who Knows How Many People may have Gotten Infected so, by the Time their Symptons would Start Showing? At least it's Not Communicatively Infectious / Contagious. So Far as I Know, anyway. So it Won't Spread like Wildfire, in that Fashion.

In it's Present and Perhaps Continueing Small Liklihood, It's Not even Registering as a Blip on your Radar Screen is Understandable. In the Same League as Worrying about Lava Flows from Mt. Etna Reaching us!

I Think it's Now "Large" and Question Mark Iffy" Enuff!, that I just Prudently Don't Want to Take the Risk!

Aids, BTW, Started Off as Small Too! That Does Not Neccessarily Translate into Mad Cow also Mushrooming Larger. But Grow it Might! [color:"black"] [/color] [email]aardwolfe[/email]
Posted by: aardwolfe

Re: Mad Cow Dangers. - 03/20/04 08:42 PM

It's your choice, of course, but it now looks as the case in Washington state has been traced to tainted feed from Canada that was sold before we enacted new legislation to tighten up the controls on cattle feed. In other words, that particular problem is now corrected.

I think most people simply are not very good at judging risk. AIDS is not even in the top 10 of deadly illnesses, I believe; there are diseases most of us have never heard of that kill far more people in North America every year than AIDS ever did. We freak out about AIDS because it's been so hyped by the media; yet most of us go happily on eating McDonald's Big Macs and fries, tailgating other drivers on the freeway, or doing other things that are far more likely to kill us, mostly because it's too much trouble to change.
Posted by: ScottRezaLogan

Re: Mad Cow Dangers. - 03/21/04 03:16 AM

True, Aids (And Mad Cow) is Plenty Smaller on the Overall Scale of Things, than Many Other Things!

And the Media Does have a Way of Over-Emphasising some things! While Under / Mis / or Non-Emphasing Other Things!

Be Something a Current Topic or Buzzword of the Times or Not!,-

-One's First Safety and Preparedness Concern, of course Is and Shud Be, -the Things that are Most Perilously / Potentially *Likely* to Occur! Rather than various Things Far More Lower on the Probable Totem Pole! Whatever Such Things Truly Be.

These More Likely Possibilities, -Are the Lines that our Neck can be Far More Likely Rideing On! We Wouldn't Always Want to Bet our Life or Best Interests!, on the Media Scale of Things!

I'll Admit that Both Mad Cow and Aids, are Far More Towards the Bottom of that Totem Pole!, -Than Many Other Things in Life Far Closer to the Top!

(I am Still Concerned Enuff, though. And will Continue to Personally Refrain from Good Ole Beef!, for the Good Time Being, or the "Duration".)

[color:"black"] [/color] [email]aardwolfe[/email]
Posted by: ScottRezaLogan

Re: Mad Cow Dangers. - 03/21/04 03:24 AM

Thanks for your Link. Havn't Looked at it yet, but Soon Will. [color:"black"] [/color] [email]eodman[/email]



Posted by: RYE_TYLER

Re: Mad Cow Dangers. - 03/21/04 11:28 PM

First let me say I understand your concerns regarding beef and the possible effects of BSE. Myself, I am a rancher and market cattle throughout Calif.,Oregon and Nev. The problem I have ( in general and not just with this post) is the fact that most people are completely clueless when it comes to food and food production. As someone who has a very personal stake in the industry, I can say there are places where there is room for improvment, but you have a 100% chance of having a plane crash into your house and kill you in your sleep than dying of a beef induce illness. Unless you happen to choke on a ribeye. The problem is media hype. Bad news sells and shock gets headlines. Cattle get BSE by eating bone meal, for the last 7 years bone meal has been banned for livestock consumption. The united states beef supply is safer than it was 20 years ago. Remember this is just like any other business, why would we try to promote an product that is bad for you or has health risks. The same people that make a living in this industry also eat their product everyday........ Thanks Rye
Posted by: Anonymous

Re: Mad Cow Dangers. - 03/21/04 11:59 PM

RYE,
Welcome to the board and thanks for the post. It always helps to get input from someone with an insider's view of the perceived problem.

Ed