**Special Edition: Mad Cow Disease**

[Guest guest]

ORGANIC BYTES #25

Organic and Food News Tidbits with an Edge

12/29/2003 by Organic Consumers Association

**Special Edition: Mad Cow Disease**

 

Feel free to forward this informative publication to family and

friends,

place it on websites, print it, and post it. Knowledge is power.

 

-------

 

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

 

Describing the administration's policy on testing cows for Mad Cow

Disease: " It is " a surveillance system, not a food safety test...' "

 

Describing the Japanese government's policy: " Japan tests too much,

it's

'like a doctor testing every patient who comes through the door for

prostate cancer.' "

 

Dr. Ron DeHaven, Chief Veterinarian, U.S. Department of Agriculture

New

York Times. December 26, 2004

 

-------

 

TAKE ACTION: FAILURE OF THE USDA AND FDA

Mad Cow Disease has officially hit the United States. In Japan and

Europe, every adult cow is tested for Mad Cow Disease at

slaughter--before it enters the food chain. U.S. testing policies are

quite a bit more relaxed. Last year, while the E.U. tested 10 million

cattle for Mad Cow, the U.S. tested only 20,526 cows out of 35

million

slaughtered. Since the Mad Cow Disease outbreak in the UK, which

killed

143 people, the OCA and its allies have pressured the USDA to create

standards that emulate those of Japan and the EU. Yet the USDA

continues

to resist. Speaking of the fact that Japan tests ever single cow it

butchers (1.2 million/year), Dr. DeHaven, the USDA's Chief

Veterinarian,

told the New York Times that the Japanese are doing too much testing.

 

The families and loved ones of those who have died from CJD in the

U.S.

would disagree. Join millions of citizens and sign the Mad Cow USA --

Stop the Madness petition, demanding that the U.S. Government adopt

and

enforce:

~ Mandatory testing for all cattle brought to slaughter, before they

enter the food chain.

~ Ban the feeding of blood, manure, and slaughterhouse waste to

animals.

 

 

Please forward this email to family and friends!

Sign the petition here: http://organicconsumers.org/madcow.htm

 

-------

 

WHAT IT DOES TO A HUMAN

When a human contracts this fatal neurological disease, either

spontaneously or via eating infected meat, it is referred to as

Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD). There are roughly 300 new human

cases

of CJD in the U.S. every year. The percentage of those cases that are

caused by undetected contamination in the food supply is unknown.

Early

symptoms of the disease include escalating neurological and muscular

symptoms, including confusion, depression, behavioral changes and

impaired vision and coordination. As the disease progresses, the

symptoms worsen. The disease is incurable and always fatal.

 

-------

 

MAD COW DISEASE: YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT

Since the discovery of Mad Cow Disease in the U.S. last week, the

USDA

has made repeated statements that consumers need not worry, as the

disease can only be spread to humans and other cows via ingestion of

nervous system tissue from an infected cow, not muscle meat.

Interestingly enough, the USDA did inspections of meat processing

plants in 2002, and found that, due to current killing and mechanical

meat extraction practices in U.S. slaughterhouses, a full 35 percent

of

beef is contaminated with nervous system tissue. Studies have shown

that

many processed meats, such as ground beef, salami, bologna, hotdogs,

contain bits of the spinal column. Of course, T-bone steaks actually

contain cow vertebrae and part of the spinal chord, so according to

the

Center for Science in the Public Interest, these meats need to be

avoided as well, since cooking the meat does not kill the disease.

Beef

stock and beef flavoring also contain remnants of nervous system

tissue,

as they are typically made from boiling the skeletal remains of

slaughtered animals. Boneless cuts can also be contaminated, in that

the

animal is cut in half with a chainsaw, down the spinal column,

thereby

contaminating the surrounding meat. A European study of animals

slaughtered in this manner showed 100% contamination of meat. In

addition recent studies show that infectious agents do show up in the

muscle of the meat, and that Mad Cow and Mad Cow like diseases can be

transmitted in blood.

http://organicconsumers.org/madcow/Greger122403.cfm

 

-------

 

MAD COW ECONOMICS 101

Thanks to Mad Cow Disease, the U.S. beef industry is facing an

economic

crisis. Within 24 hours of discovering Mad Cow Disease in the U.S.,

more

than a dozen nations banned imports of American beef, including the

U.S.'s biggest overseas customers Japan and Mexico. It is likely more

nations will ban imports in the coming days. The U.S. beef industry

will

likely lose the vast majority of the $2.6 billion worth of beef

products

exported last year.

http://organicconsumers.org/madcow/export122503.cfm

 

-------

 

THE POWER OF A PRION

Bovine spongiform encephalopathy, otherwise known as Mad Cow

Disease,

is

caused by proteins, called prions, that fold themselves into abnormal

shapes. Misshaped prions then cause healthy prions to fold.

Together,

they amass into clumps that kill cells and literally leave holes in

the

brain. A cow could have early forms of the disease and still show

healthy behavior. If the cow is not tested before slaughter, that

infected meat enters the food supply, thereby allowing the unhealthy

prions to take hold in others. Because of their unique structure,

prions

are practically invulnerable. Prions are not adequately destroyed by

cooking, canning, freezing, usable doses of radiation, digestive

enzymes, or stomach acid. One study even raised the disturbing

question

of whether even incineration at temperatures hot enough to melt lead

could guarantee the inactivation of prions. Acknowledging their

relative

invulnerability and fact that prion diseases are always fatal, Dr.

Michael Gregor a world renowned expert on Mad Cow Disease, says, " We

cannot risk these pathogens getting any further into the food supply

then they may already have. We need to ban the feeding of all

slaughterhouse waste to livestock as recommended by the World Health

Organization back in

1996. "

 

-------

 

COW CANNIBALS

In 1997 the FDA banned certain practices of feeding rendered bovine

meat

to other cows, based on increased likelihood of spreading diseases.

Yet,

within the beef industry, it is still a common practice to feed

animals

blood, slaughterhouse wastes, and manure. On non-organic dairies

it's a

standard practice to wean calves from their mother's milk by feeding

them bovine blood and later feeding slaughterhouse wastes, in order

to

maximize profits. The problem here is that the disease can also be

found

in the white blood cells. Adding to the problem, unhealthy animals,

known as " Downer-Cows " , are not deemed safe for human consumption,

and

are sent off to rendering plants to make oils and animal protein

products. A 2001 study in Germany found that downer-cows were up to

240

times more likely to test positive for Mad Cow Disease. In the U.S.,

only 10-15% of downer-cows are tested for the disease. Learn more and

take action --- http://organicconsumers.org/madcow.htm

 

-------

 

HOW MANY MAD COWS ARE OUT THERE?

Mad Cow Disease can be contracted via ingestion of contaminated meat,

but, according to current studies, it also spontaneously occurs, on

its

own, in roughly one out of a million cows. Given the fact that the

U.S.

beef industry slaughtered nearly 400 million cows in the last ten

years,

statistically speaking, that should add up to an expected minimum of

400

spontaneous Mad Cow cases inside U.S. borders. Since the USDA only

tests

roughly one out of every 2,000 animals, only one case has been

discovered so far, while the others have slipped through--- possibly

into the human food supply. Of course, that's just counting the

spontaneous occurrences of the disease. In addition to the

spontaneous

cases, there are an unknown number of cows infected with the disease

by

other cows. This has gone undetected, as well. The incubation period

of

the disease is three to eight years, so the detection of one animal

with

the disease suggests the strong likelihood that other cows were

infected

by the same source but haven't been found yet. A 1997 FDA memorandum

predicted that if just one case of Mad Cow Disease was found in the

U.S.

and a total ban on feeding animal protein to animals was implemented,

it's still possible that as many as 300,000 infected cows would be

found

over the period of the disease's incubation period (three to eight

years). In short, due to scant USDA testing, no one knows how many

infected animals have already entered the human food supply.

http://organicconsumers.org/madcow.htm

 

-----------

 

TAKE ACTION

Join millions of citizens and sign the Mad Cow USA -- Stop the

Madness

petition, demanding that the U.S. Government adopt and enforce:

~ Mandatory testing for all cattle brought to slaughter, before they

enter the food chain.

~ Ban the feeding of blood, manure, and slaughterhouse waste to

animals.

 

 

Please forward this email to family and friends!

Sign the petition here: http://organicconsumers.org/madcow.htm

 

-------

 

NOTE TO CO-OP AND NATURAL FOOD STORE SUBSCRIBERS: Organic Bytes is a

great tool for keeping your staff and customers up to date on the

latest

issues. Feel free to forward this email to your staff and print for

posting on bulletin boards and staff break tables. You are also

welcome

to use this material for your newsletters. There's a super-pretty

print-friendly PDF version of this available for free download at

http://www.organicconsumers.org/organicbytes.htm

 

 

 

To to Organic Bytes, send an email to:

biodemocracy-request

with the word " " in subject.

 

To to Organic Bytes, send an email to:

biodemocracy-request

with the word " " in subject.

 

 

 

ORGANIC BYTES is a publication of:

 

ORGANIC CONSUMERS ASSOCIATION

6101 Cliff Estate Road

Little Marais, MN 55614

Phone: (218) 226-4164 Fax: (218) 353-7652

 

 

 

_____________

Biodemocracy mailing list

Biodemocracy

http://lists.organicconsumers.org/listinfo/biodemocracy