‘Two cases of mad cow disease in
Texas & Alabama seem to have resulted from a mysterious strain that could
appear spontaneously in cattle, researchers say.
Government officials are trying
to play down differences between the two US cases & the mad cow epidemic
that has led to the slaughter of thousands of cattle in Britain since the
1980s.
It is precisely these differences
that are complicating efforts to understand the brain-wasting disorder, known
medically as “bovine spongiform encephalopathy”, or “BSE” for short.
“It’s most important right now,
till the scientists tell us otherwise, that we treat this as BSE regardless.”
the Agriculture Department’s chief veterinarian, John Clifford, said in an
interview.
The Texas & Alabama cases –
confirmed last year & this one respectively – are drawing international
attention.
At a meeting in London last
month, experts presented research on the US cases & on similar ones in
Europe.
These cows appear to have had an
“atypical” strain that scientists are only now starting to identify. Such cases
have been described in about a dozen cows in France, Italy & other European
countries, as well as Japan.’
Mad
Cow Cases In Texas, Alabama Appear To Be Mysterious Strain
The irony in this situation
for the US is that it has stubbornly refused to introduce a mandatory regime
for testing its cattle herds, unlike Europe & the UK, thereby continuing to
render its historical export markets, such as Japan, inaccessible.
More importantly, the failure
of the FDA to adequately address US beef cattle feeding practices means that
the hideous BSE disease is more likely to lead to significant rates of
infection amongst US beef consumers.
See my blog from October last
year a real weapon
of mass destruction
meanwhile, in the UK …..
‘Experts will meet today to discuss how
to treat about 4,000 apparently healthy people told they are "at
risk" of getting the deadly human form of mad cow disease.
The potential sufferers were identified by the
Edinburgh-based National CJD Surveillance Unit based on blood transfusion
records, but it is not known for certain whether they will actually get the
disease.
There is currently no test to show whether or
not they are infected, although research is being done to develop one.
The Scotsman understands that the CJD Clinical
Governance Advisory Group (CGAG) will meet for the first time today after being
set up by the Department of Health to give advice on monitoring, care and ways
to "better understand the disease".
Some of the 4,000 received transfusions from
people who then developed variant Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease (vCJD). Others
donated blood to people who then developed it.’
Experts To Pool
Ideas On Response To vCJD
Petrol fumes and CJD (2)
According to Mark Purdey — a farmer turned scientists on the subject of mad cow disease and CJD — the problem stems from an imbalance in trace elements in the food, water and soil of stock and people. In his comprehensive study he found out that in all cases there was more manganese than copper in the "trace" elements of "Mad Cow" and CJD environments.
This increase of manganese led to the replacement of copper atoms with manganese atoms in prions — rogues proteins that creates themselves in bodies, but usually are harmless with the copper atoms — to become dangerous and start the degradation in the brain.
His studies also indicated that commonly used insecticides on the back of cows, often led to the creation of 10 times more prions than "normal" in the spinal cord of cows, some of these prions being "manganese"-prions, leading to the Mad Cow disease.
His studies also showed that feeding animal compounds in feed-stock to grazing animal also let to the concentration of "manganese"-prions...
His study of CJD affected areas in Central Europe showed that the soil and water contained far higher traces of manganese there than any other regions...
CJD-Affected parts of bodies (blood, hormones, HGH, etc accidentally used in the medical industry can lead to recipients contracting the disease as prions duplicates themselves naturally.
Read more on this site at "Petrol fumes and CJD"...
not to forget the rice .....
‘Last week, the US Department of Agriculture announced that US commercial long-grain rice supplies are contaminated with "trace amounts" of genetically engineered rice unapproved for human consumption.
The genetically engineered (GE) rice is known as Liberty Link (LL) 601. Its genetic code has been modified to provide resistance to herbicides and is illegal for marketing to humans because it has not undergone environmental and health impact reviews by the USDA and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). LL601 was field-tested from 1998 to 2001 under permits granted by the USDA, but Bayer Corp Science, the developer of the experimental rice, did not seek commercial approval for it.
The contamination was only disclosed after Bayer notified the USDA itself. Currently, the government relies on self-reporting from food companies to determine genetically engineered (GE) contamination, rather than a federal testing system. The USDA dismissed concerns that companies may not always "self-report" or even be aware of their mistakes, which would lead to further undetected contamination of unapproved GE food.
It appears a separate company first detected the contamination in January of this year and that Bayer may have known about the contamination since May. But the government was not notified until July 31. It took another 18 days for the USDA to tell the public.’
Biotech Firm, Govt. Hid Rice Contamination From Public
mad as ever .....
‘Since the first confirmed case of mad cow disease in 2003, U.S. beef producers have struggled to sell their products abroad. Pork producers fear that a similar market closure could one day hit them if there were an outbreak of, say, swine fever or hoof and mouth disease. The creation of an animal tracking ID system is largely intended, then, to give foreign importers some piece of mind by establishing a way to quickly trace back diseased animals to their source and quarantine that specific herd, while letting the rest of the industry go about business as usual. But the program conspicuously does nothing to address the root causes of livestock disease -- improper diet and a confinement system that encourages epidemics. Instead, say small producers, the proposed plan will simply drop unnecessary costs onto those farmers who are already using best practices.
"I believe big business is behind it," Davis said. "It's a way for the giant, monopoly beef industry to export more meat. The whole thing about tracking disease is a bunch of BS to brainwash the general public."
Essentially, taxpayers, ordinary meat-consumers and ranchers are poised to spend tens of millions of dollars on a scheme that will improve the bottom line of the meat packing corporations without improving the health of the animals from which they profit.
But opponents of the plan point out that the tracking system does nothing to prevent animal disease. Rather, it's about controlling disease outbreaks after they've already occurred -- identifying and quarantining certain areas, while keeping the rest of the meat industry running. The tracking system, then, is a way for meat corporations to sell more beef, pork and chicken abroad, without really addressing the root causes of animal disease -- confinement, massive overcrowding, improper feeding, and poor care.
"ID systems only solve sort of the marketing problem," Bob Scowcroft, executive director of the Organic Farming Research Foundation said. "An ID system does not address the causes. What are the fundamental issues we need to address to solve the disease problems? They are feed, confinement, overuse of antibiotics."’
Government Food Safety System A Sham