Ok, folks. Let's back off from the nationalism and look at a few facts which, unpleasant though they may be, remain facts.
1) BSE is TSE is Scrapie is vCJD. It is present in both countries and has been for some time. The US form, and probably the form in Canada, differs slightly from the British experience...
"research by Dr. Richard F. Marsh of the University of Wisconsin indicates that a U.S. version of spongiform encephalopathy already infects U.S. dairy cows.
"Marsh is an internationally-recognized expert in the study of TSEs. In 1985, he discovered an outbreak of TSE in mink in central Wisconsin. The mink had gotten the disease after being fed the remains of Wisconsin dairy cows. Over the years Marsh experimentally transferred the TSE from mink into two holstein steers through inoculation, then back from the cattle to mink, showing that it was both transmissible and fatal in both species.
"This U.S. version of TSE, however, did not produce the behavioral symptoms--staggering and drooling--that made the disease obvious in British cattle. Instead, the two steers experimentally infected by Marsh died by simply collapsing, mimicking a common cow ailment in the U.S. called "Downer Cow Syndrome." Over 20,000 "downer" cows die each year in Wisconsin alone. A U.S. BSE agent could be hidden in this large population."
2) The currently 'approved' tests in both our countries are limited to those of Prionics and Biorad. Nothing wrong with those tests except they are arguably not the best and absolutely not the safest. Both tests require infection to the point of visible symptoms before they are able to detect BSE prions. There is a better test - which works on live animals (urine) - but it has three things going against it.
- it is not controlled by either government;
it detects the PrPsc prion BEFORE there are symptoms; and
it proves the entire animal is a risk, not merely "SRM"s.
3) Politics, not science, determines policy. Politics is based on money. Just as the Church in the middle ages denounced everyone who suggested the earth was not flat, so Big Money denounces anyone who endangers its position today.
4) USDA suggests on their web site that as little as one gram of bone meal from an infected animal can pass on BSE, yet that same group claims only some, commercially valueless, bits of cattle are a danger.
If the live test is used, the odds are very good infection will be found to be rampant. Compare BSE to AIDS. If most people were executed before their 25th birthday, the world would not have an AIDS epidemic. There would be tons of HIV, but very little AIDS. So it is with BSE. By slaughtering cattle when they are the tastiest, very very few have time to exhibit symptoms.
Just like hiding our heads in the sand over BSE, we ignore the possible vCJD deaths in our countrIES by labelling them Alzheimer's. From
1996
"Has a meat-borne form of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease already spread into the U.S. human population? Despite denials from the U.S. government, at least two statistically alarming clusters of CJD have already been reported in the U.S.
"CJD has been mistaken in the past for Alzheimers, a disease that afflicts some four million Americans. The beginnings of a CJD epidemic in the U.S. could therefore be occurring already, misdiagnosed by doctors and hidden within the country's huge population of dementia patients."
There are special interests involved here, interests that the average producer doesn't usually consider.
1) Giant feedlots. If as little as 1% of a herd were infected and therefore worthless, many of the giant margin-based lots would go under.
2) Packers. Both on the herd ownership side and the liability side.
3) Government. Big Time. In both countries.
Unlike tobacco, the government not only has accepted, but also
demands responsibility for meat safety. That makes them liable. Perhaps criminally liable.
So... BSE in the US does not come from Canada, nor is it the other way around. Since people can spontaneously develop kuru, a similar disease, from cannibalism there is no reason not to suspect forcing cannibalism on cattle in the form of feed made from beef by-products as an originating source for BSE.
It looks like the test of which I speak, which neither government will help in validating, will be validated in the next 12 months by the OIE istelf. After which time the truth may set us free!
