Cedardell,
I think your working yourself up over nothing. The transmissible end of these diseases has been crossing species barriers in the lab under very specific procedures which will not happen outside the lab.
If you are really concerned about transmission, then you first need to understand prion diseases better. If you take time to learn about amino acids, ligands, lysomes, etc. etc. Biology at its basic chemical levels, will show you that this is not an infectious organism. It is poisoning caused by imbalances and excesses.
One of Dr. David Brown's papers shows how, after mice were injected with Rocky Mountain Laboratory scrapie prions, the mice had elevated levels of manganese in their blood, brain, and liver. Copper was chelated out of the brain and copper levels rose in the liver, but dropped everywhere else.
Pre-mortom tests should be capable of detecting the elevated levels of manganese in the blood. Or other metals, perhaps?
If you are concerned about carriers, you are probably one yourself. Aging takes place because proteins are folding improperly and our body is unable to produce healthy normal proteins as it did when we were younger. Damage to our DNA is constant.
Dolly the sheep, remember her. She had the cells of a six year old sheep at birth. Somehow cloning cannot stop the cell's life clock. She died of diseases common in much older sheep.
Have some faith in God, and if you are really concerned about CWD and BSE in your area, ensure your animals are getting adequate supplies of copper in their diet. And test your feed, soil, water for metals and nutrients. Well water in our area has been shown to contain up to 700 parts per billion of manganese. I was just told that the USDA recommended maximum level for manganese in drinking water is 50 ppb. Huge difference here. But our government has no suck limitations or recommendations.
It is a common practice in Canada to spread the drilling mud from Oil and Gas rigs on the farm or pasture lands near where the well is being drilled. Don't let them spread it on your land. It could be placing some very bad metals on the surface that will definitely effect your cattle herds health. A southern AB ranchers cattle developed wasting disease after licking concrete/ and pipes that came out of a gas well and were lying on the ground. He won his case in court. Barium and other products caused Wasting Disease in his cattle very similar to deer and elk.
Avoid the use of organophosphates. Phosmet is also called IMIDAN in the USA. I have read it is used to kill Alfalfa weevils by spreading on the grass stand. Don't expose your cattle to this. Of course, wild deer and elk cannot be stopped from grazing on lands that have been recently treated with any type of chemical.
I am told many insecticide sprays contain products like aspartane, to make them more tasty(sweet) to the intended bug. This will also entice wild herbivores to consume the crop after insecticide application. These products are killing the bugs, what do you think they are doing to anything else that eats it, including humans.
Everyone is concerned about testing for BSE, CWD, but don't forget the testing that is going on now that is showing PCBs, dioxins, furadans, etc. etc. chemicals that are showing up in our own breastmilk, fats, and blood.
Don't blame the cow for having residues, don't blame the grain or water for the residues. Man sprays this ****, Man buys it and applies it to the land. Keep its use to a bare minimum if you can.
I may not have answered you questions, but time will make us all wiser. I am sharing these thoughts with you so that we can help each other.