Big Muddy rancher
Well-known member
Oldtimer said:
Oldtimer you can look at the ad. It was posted on the original article with a link. Clean those Glasses. :cowboy:
R-CALF Runs Ad in the "Washington Post"
- Thread starter Bull Burger
- Start date
Help Support Ranchers.net:
Oldtimer you can look at the ad. It was posted on the original article with a link. Clean those Glasses. :cowboy:
Northern Rancher
Well-known member
Maybe we'll export some beef to Japan -R-Calf will send someone up tobomb our packing houses than George W will build us some new ones. No less a flight of fancy than R-Calf drivel. My Dad god rest his soul would of described R-Calf this way-'They flew around in every decreasing circles till they disappeared up their own ass.' I think there will be alot of U.S. cattlemen standing out in the pasture wondering what was I thinking when this is all said and done. I think the R-Calf leadership is a perfect example of the Peter principle-they've risen to the level of their own mediocrity.
A
Anonymous
Guest
Northern Rancher: "My Dad god rest his soul would of described R-Calf this way-'They flew around in every decreasing circles till they disappeared up their own ass.'
ROTFLMAO!
How true!
I don't know how they still walk after blowing off most of their toes.
~SH~
ROTFLMAO!
How true!
I don't know how they still walk after blowing off most of their toes.
~SH~
SASH
Well-known member
I think the Peter Principle states that a person will rise to his own level of incompetence. But same difference. Your point is well taken.
Sandhusker
Well-known member
~SH~ said:
Sounds like the USDA trying to justify opening the border or trying to explain why they banned testing.
Northern Rancher
Well-known member
SASH-I stand corrected -but glad you got the point.
A
Anonymous
Guest
Big Muddy rancher said:
Big Muddy- thanks -- been tired lately- too much weather and not enough sleep--- Now that I've read it- tell me what is false in it....Looks to me like it is just the facts of the situation...
Canadian beef is definitely a higher risk statistically...
A US Federal Judge did make that statement....
The US Senate did vote against USDA's rule.....
And the USDA has been trying to weaken our import regulations from what was in effect in May 2003.......
Or shouldn't we tell the public the facts?.......
Wish I knew who the cowboy was- looks like a fellow I know.........
A
Anonymous
Guest
Sandhusker: "Sounds like the USDA trying to justify opening the border .."
What could be any easier than that?
1. SRM Removal
2. Increased BSE surveilance in the highest risk categories
3. Only UTM cattle considered for importation at this time
4. Feed ban compliance.
5. BSE positives removed from the food chain and removal of associated cattle via Canada's traceback system.
6. Importing Canadian boxed beef now.
7. Canadian OTM cattle within our system now.
GARSH, THAT SHAR WERE DIFFERCULT!
What's pathetic is watching R-CULT paint themselves into a BSE "fear mongering" corner and fools like you that cannot understand the consequences of supporting such insanity.
Here's hoping you never have to do damage control for R-CULT's stupidity on unjustified BSE "fear mongering".
~SH~
What could be any easier than that?
1. SRM Removal
2. Increased BSE surveilance in the highest risk categories
3. Only UTM cattle considered for importation at this time
4. Feed ban compliance.
5. BSE positives removed from the food chain and removal of associated cattle via Canada's traceback system.
6. Importing Canadian boxed beef now.
7. Canadian OTM cattle within our system now.
GARSH, THAT SHAR WERE DIFFERCULT!
What's pathetic is watching R-CULT paint themselves into a BSE "fear mongering" corner and fools like you that cannot understand the consequences of supporting such insanity.
Here's hoping you never have to do damage control for R-CULT's stupidity on unjustified BSE "fear mongering".
~SH~
Sandhusker
Well-known member
~SH~ said:
How about research that suggests prions are in tissues other than SRMs?
How about the fact that we don't know for certain how BSE is transmitted?
How about the fact that we don't know for certain how BSE orginated?
How about the fact the USDA said the risk was "low", but couldn't define what "low" is?
How about the fact that the USDA went from zero tolerance for all the world (health) to making concessions just for Canada (money)?
GAWWWL DANG! THAT SHORE DO PUT A DIFFERNT SPIN ON IT
Oldtimer said:
To State you produce the safest beef in the world you must have some kind of proof of this and I don't mean not finding any BSE in your herd because the U.S. cattlemen are not exactly jumping up and calling the USDA when they find a dead cow to have her tested are they? The USDA testing slaughter animals is not the best way to insure the world you don't have a problem . It was recommended to test the 4Ds but the U.S. isn't doing that. And this may be nit picking but R-CALFers seem to think they are Cattle producers and the packing plants are beef producers. SO Canada born and raised a dairy cow, sent her to the US, and it was the US slaughter industry that produced the actual unsafe beef that your consumers ate.
The science says that if the SRM's are removed even the meat from an infected cow is safe to eat. So who really produced the unsafe beef here. And this is the same system that will be produceing BEEF from the millions of other imported cattle and the millions of U.S. cattle that could have eaten Comtaminated feed from your less restrictive non complying feed system.
TWO SINCE JANUARY one story you hear from R-CALF is that Canada has found cases for the last two years then again in January, two in 2003 one in 2004 and one in 2005 now their story is we have had "two since January". Is this meant to confuse the consumer to how many we really have had. We have had Two announce in 2003 and two more that were announced in January 2005 So that would mean we had non in 2004. And they forgot to mention that one of the 2003 cows was in the US food chain as that wouldn't look good for the US firewalls that were suppose to be in place to protect the US consumers from her getting in. How would that look to the High health and safety standards.
This is the biggest joke I have ever read.
Your high health and safety standards have been called into question every step of the way. and most of the time it has been R-CALF themselves. Canada has proven feed ban compliance the U.S. hasn't and R-CALF knows that. Canada has tested the 4D catagory of cattle the U.S. hasn't, Canada's firewalls worked to keep our BSE cattle out of the food chain the U.S.'s didn't. You yourself said until the holes in the US system are closed you should not be importing live cattle.
As far as the JOBS according to the Western Producer it was estimated, by Ted Schroeder a Kansas State University Ag. economist, that packing plants that had traditionally bought Canadian cattle had lost close to $1.7 billion in sales and the economic spinoff from the reduced shifts and the closure of some plants has cost the industry 5000 jobs worth about $282 million a year. I heard yesterday that a Plant in the U.S. the employees voted their Union out as the union wanted to force the plant on issues that would have closed the plant altogether and the employees wanted to keep at least what they had. So just what jobs was R-CALF supposedly protecting.
The rest of the world sees the US as the same risk of BSE as Canada and isn't it true that the U.S. Senate that said No to the USDA plan for Canada is the same Senate that is threatening Japan with Trade sanction if they don't lift the ban on U.S. beef. Does the U.S. Senate believe that there was not millions of cattle and millions of tons of feed traded between our two countries That trade and the fact the Washington cow proved that BSE is within the US borders caused you to lose your export markets. The US hasn't and can't prove to the World or your consumers that were targeted by this ad that you don't have BSE floating around in your herd. So by telling the US consumer that we are a risk to their health shouldn't they also believe that U.S. beef produced in the plants that procuded the unsafe beef from the Washington cow is also a risk?
Sandhusker said:
Since you don't know all of these things Sandhusker maybe you better tell the US consumers until we know more you better just stop eating beef altogether and that may just take another twenty years. What will that do to your beef industry.
Sandhusker
Well-known member
Tam said:
Do you think it enhances consumer confidence when we lower our standards simply because our largest supplier discovered BSE?
Do you think it enhances consumer confidence to tell your consumers that the science that Canada and the rest of the world used to protect their industries from BSE didn't work. You use the same science.
Do you think it enhances consumer confience to tell your consumer that the beef they have been eating is unsafe and presents a genuine risk of death to them. Your consumer can't tell what is Canadian beef and what is US beef, it's not labeled. Even if "M"COOL was in place, as it is written, the US consumer would only know where the stuff in the grocery stores comes from as the bill excluded food service food. Even if we never sent another pound of beef to the US your consumer wouldn't know if they are eating Canadian beef or not as you can't find the millions of cattle already imported or the millions of US cattle that ate feed from Canada or feed coming from one of your non complying feed mills that may have had one of the ellusive Canadian cows go through it.
What part of protecting consumer confidence by useing the best known science that has been working in other countries to protect their consumers don't you understand?
Canada has strong consumer confience because we don't have a beef group telling our consumers that we don't know enough about the science and therefore you shouldn't be eating beef.
We are telling them that this is science that the rest of the world believes is working for them and we are ahead of some as we have had some foresight to protect you where others haven't.
We admit we have BSE in our herd because the testing we have been doing for more than a decade as a surveillence tool found it.
We now know that BSE was already in the feed system by the time we implemented the 1997 feed bans. But in other countries where they implemented feed bans much later than we did, they have seen great decreases of the prevalance of BSE. So we feel that the small amount that could have entered the system via a UK imported cow is what is showing up now.Back in 1993 we disposed of all the cattle that were imported from the UK so the amount that would have come from that source was limited.
By removing the SRM's, again as the science the counties that have been dealing with this longer believe, takes any risk to Human health out of the equation.
We have increased the testing as we were told to by the OIE. This is not because of a food safety issue the SRM removal was done as a food safety issue, the testing is to see just how big a problem we have. And to see if our feed bans and safeguards did work as well as we had hoped. As you can see we have found 4 cases in two years so the problem looks as if it was contained and not widespread.
But in the light of our new situation in Canada we are working on issues that will protect the beef indusrty and our consumers even further. These issues are our stronger feed bans, our slaughtering process and our tracking ability of our herd so if we have other cases we can find the birth herd so we can see if there is a problem with other cattle from the same herd which to date we haven't. And we can now age verify so we know that the cattle are under thirty months or not by birth date.
We are doing these things because the Canadian beef industry cares about our consumers health as with out their confidence the industry that we love will not survive.
We also tell them that the actual risk of contracting BSE is very very small and that in all the world there has been around 150 cases. And most of them were in the UK where their were thousands of infected cattle and where some were probably contracted before we ever knew what BSE was. but now that we do know what it is and what part of the animal carries the prions we don't allow those parts into any human food.
We don't go around telling our consumers that
"The USDA doesn't care about food safety"
"our packing industry is only in it for the money and they don't care"
"Another counties beef is tainted and unsafe even though they have higher standards than ours".
Don't eat their imported beef but you have nothing to fear from the cattle we have imported already, that we can't find.
you can trust our beef even though we as grass root producers won't turn over the catagory of cattle to the USDA for testing that the OIE recommended as we may just find we do have BSE and then we will have to live with the lies we have been saying about the Safety of Canadian beef. Does that about cover your way of enhanceing consumer confideance Sandhusker?
Briand
New member
Excellent post Tam. Good reading.
cowsense
Well-known member
Sandhusker: some thoughts on your post. The obvious and easiest answer is follow the SCIENCE.... the science as developed, researched and updated by working panels of the world's foremost veterinary experts and ratified by by 167 member countries of the OIE! These recomendations form the basis for proper food safety and commerce.
Quite simply they divide beef into UTM & OTM classes with the protocols for removing and destroying SRM's defining food safety. Surveillance or testing is only a method of determining the level of BSE in a countries livestock herd and CANNOT be properly used for food safety claims! The ruminant feed ban in Europe has started to show positive results with newly diagnosed cases rapidly diminishing, reinforcing the validity of the feed bans as a preventive measure!
Canada (and the US) have both been listed as minimal risk countries by the Harvard Risk Analyses under the terms the OIE recommends setting the basis for the respective trade terms set by CFIA and USDA/APHIS .
Completely banning trade is a Knee-jerk reaction and can have extremely harsh repercussions if a domestic case is found. The OIE expects it's members to live up to the agreements and treat other countries as they expect to be treated themselves!
As to your first point about prions being found in muscle tissue ( & blood as others like to point out) I heard an interesting interview on talk radio with a neurologist/ researcher. She pointed out that the only time this has been documented is in research mice that have been deliberately brain injected with concentrated doses of infected prions. These animals received a far higher dose than they ever could have received by ingesting infected materiel! She further stated that prions are absent from blood and that so called blood diagnostic tests are invalid. Enough for now :!:
Quite simply they divide beef into UTM & OTM classes with the protocols for removing and destroying SRM's defining food safety. Surveillance or testing is only a method of determining the level of BSE in a countries livestock herd and CANNOT be properly used for food safety claims! The ruminant feed ban in Europe has started to show positive results with newly diagnosed cases rapidly diminishing, reinforcing the validity of the feed bans as a preventive measure!
Canada (and the US) have both been listed as minimal risk countries by the Harvard Risk Analyses under the terms the OIE recommends setting the basis for the respective trade terms set by CFIA and USDA/APHIS .
Completely banning trade is a Knee-jerk reaction and can have extremely harsh repercussions if a domestic case is found. The OIE expects it's members to live up to the agreements and treat other countries as they expect to be treated themselves!
As to your first point about prions being found in muscle tissue ( & blood as others like to point out) I heard an interesting interview on talk radio with a neurologist/ researcher. She pointed out that the only time this has been documented is in research mice that have been deliberately brain injected with concentrated doses of infected prions. These animals received a far higher dose than they ever could have received by ingesting infected materiel! She further stated that prions are absent from blood and that so called blood diagnostic tests are invalid. Enough for now :!:
A
Anonymous
Guest
Sandblaster: "How about research that suggests prions are in tissues other than SRMs?"
Bring the research!
R-CULT is sinking their teeth into any BSE fear mongering hope they can find to keep the border closed.
BRING THE RESEARCH!
Sandblaster: "How about the fact that we don't know for certain how BSE is transmitted?"
We know and the research accepted by the OIE has not been disproven.
Sandblaster: "How about the fact that we don't know for certain how BSE orginated?"
I don't know whether that is true or not!
How about we keep fear mongering so we can keep the Canadian border closed to live cattle huh?
Sandblaster: "How about the fact the USDA said the risk was "low", but couldn't define what "low" is?"
"LOW" risk is a CYA term as compared to "NO" risk.
Where is your research to the contrary?
IT DOESN'T EXIST!!!!
As always, you call into question what you cannot refute and bring nothing to the table to support your position.
GOOOOOOOOOOO R-CULT!
Sandblaster: "How about the fact that the USDA went from zero tolerance for all the world (health) to making concessions just for Canada (money)?"
How about the fact that BSE policies and guidelines need to account for the BSE precautionary measures that have been taken. OUR EXPORTS WOULD DEPEND ON THAT AS WELL.
Sandblaster: "GAWWWL DANG! THAT SHORE DO PUT A DIFFERNT SPIN ON IT"
Not for me.
I fully expect you R-CULT hypocrites to stand with your anti beef cohorts and ask USDA these same questions in the event that BSE is discovered in a domestic animal.
BUT YOU WON'T!!!!!
You'll go to afghanastan and hide out in a cave while USDA and NCBA do your damage control for you. Hypocrite!
~SH~
Bring the research!
R-CULT is sinking their teeth into any BSE fear mongering hope they can find to keep the border closed.
BRING THE RESEARCH!
Sandblaster: "How about the fact that we don't know for certain how BSE is transmitted?"
We know and the research accepted by the OIE has not been disproven.
Sandblaster: "How about the fact that we don't know for certain how BSE orginated?"
I don't know whether that is true or not!
How about we keep fear mongering so we can keep the Canadian border closed to live cattle huh?
Sandblaster: "How about the fact the USDA said the risk was "low", but couldn't define what "low" is?"
"LOW" risk is a CYA term as compared to "NO" risk.
Where is your research to the contrary?
IT DOESN'T EXIST!!!!
As always, you call into question what you cannot refute and bring nothing to the table to support your position.
GOOOOOOOOOOO R-CULT!
Sandblaster: "How about the fact that the USDA went from zero tolerance for all the world (health) to making concessions just for Canada (money)?"
How about the fact that BSE policies and guidelines need to account for the BSE precautionary measures that have been taken. OUR EXPORTS WOULD DEPEND ON THAT AS WELL.
Sandblaster: "GAWWWL DANG! THAT SHORE DO PUT A DIFFERNT SPIN ON IT"
Not for me.
I fully expect you R-CULT hypocrites to stand with your anti beef cohorts and ask USDA these same questions in the event that BSE is discovered in a domestic animal.
BUT YOU WON'T!!!!!
You'll go to afghanastan and hide out in a cave while USDA and NCBA do your damage control for you. Hypocrite!
~SH~
Big Muddy rancher
Well-known member
Tam, Cowsense, SH you guys nailed them. Keep their feet to the fire. Sandhusker won't be back for months if he wants to bring on the research to try to dispute you. Give em HELL!
:cowboy:
:cowboy:
Mike
Well-known member
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - The abnormal proteins linked to "mad cow" disease and other brain-wasting illnesses can form in muscle much more easily than previously thought, new research suggests.
The accumulation of these proteins, known as prions, has been thought to be concentrated mainly in the central nervous system and lymphatic tissues, but California researchers have demonstrated that high levels of prions can form in muscles throughout the body.
Mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), is one of several fatal brain-wasting diseases thought to be caused by the build-up of prions in the brain. In 1996, a new form of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), a human brain-wasting disease, was reported in young adults in the UK. There is strong evidence that this new type of CJD arose when people ate meat from cows infected with BSE.
Since the discovery of the apparent link between mad cow and the new type of CJD, there has been a push to exclude meat from prion-infected animals from the food supply. Besides slaughtering herds of infected cattle, this strategy has included banning brains, spinal cord and certain other tissues from meat products.
Now, Dr. Stanley B. Prusiner and colleagues from the University of California at San Francisco report that, in mice at least, high levels of prions can accumulate in muscles, too.
The accumulation of these proteins, known as prions, has been thought to be concentrated mainly in the central nervous system and lymphatic tissues, but California researchers have demonstrated that high levels of prions can form in muscles throughout the body.
Mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), is one of several fatal brain-wasting diseases thought to be caused by the build-up of prions in the brain. In 1996, a new form of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), a human brain-wasting disease, was reported in young adults in the UK. There is strong evidence that this new type of CJD arose when people ate meat from cows infected with BSE.
Since the discovery of the apparent link between mad cow and the new type of CJD, there has been a push to exclude meat from prion-infected animals from the food supply. Besides slaughtering herds of infected cattle, this strategy has included banning brains, spinal cord and certain other tissues from meat products.
Now, Dr. Stanley B. Prusiner and colleagues from the University of California at San Francisco report that, in mice at least, high levels of prions can accumulate in muscles, too.
Mike
Well-known member
eIt is not surprising that the U.S. has mad cow disease given our flaunting of World Health Organization recommendations. What is surprising, however, is that we actually found a case given the inadequacy of our surveillance program, a level of testing that Nobel laureate Stanley Prusiner, probably the world's leading expert on these diseases, calls simply "appalling."
....... Europe and Japan follow World Health Organization guidelines and test every downer cow for mad cow disease; the U.S. has tested less than 2% of downers over the last decade. Most of the U.S. downer cows, too sick or injured to even walk, end up on our dinner plates. In Canada, authorities were able to reassure the public that at least the downer cow they discovered infected with BSE--Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy, or mad cow disease--was excluded from the human food chain and only rendered into animal feed. U.S. officials don't seem to be able to offer the same reassurance, as the mad cow we discovered may very well have been ground into hamburger.
.......How, then, can the USDA and the beef industry insist that the American beef supply is still safe? They argue that the infectious prions that cause the disease are only found in the brain and nervous tissue, not the muscles, not the meat. For example, on NBC's Today, USDA Secretary Veneman insisted "the fact of the matter is that all scientific evidence would show, based upon what we know about this disease, that muscle cuts -- that is, the meat of the animal itself -- should not cause any risk to human health. " The National Cattlemen's Beef Association echoed "Consumers should continue to eat beef with confidence. All scientific studies show that the BSE infectious agent has never been found in beef muscle meat or milk and U.S. beef remains safe to eat. "
....... This can be viewed as misleading and irresponsible on two counts. First, American do eat bovine central nervous system tissue. The United States General Accounting Office (GAO) is the investigative watchdog arm of Congress. In 2002, the GAO released their report on the weaknesses present in the U.S. defense against mad cow disease. Quoting from thatcongressional report, "In terms of the public health risk, consumers do not always know when foods and other products they use may contain central nervous system tissue... Many edible products, such as beef stock, beef extract, and beef flavoring, are frequently made by boiling the skeletal remains (including the vertebral column) of the carcass..."
....... According to the consumer advocacy organization Center for Science in the Public Interest, spinal cord contamination may also be found in U.S. hot dogs, hamburgers, pizza toppings, and taco fillings In fact, a 2002 USDA survey showed that approximately 35 percent of high risk meat products tested positive for central nervous system tissues.
.......The GAO report continues: "In light of the experiences in Japan and other countries that were thought to be BSE free, we believe that it would be prudent for USDA to consider taking some action to inform consumers when products may contain central nervous system or other tissue that could pose a risk if taken from a BSE-infected animal. This effort would allow American consumers to make more informed choices about the products they consume." The USDA, however, did not follow those recommendations, deciding such foods need not be labeled. Even if Americans just stick to steak, they may not be shielded from risk. The "T" in a T-bone steak is a vertebra from the animal's spinal column, and as such may contain a section of the actual spinal cord.
....... Other potentially contaminated cuts include porterhouse, standing rib roast, prime rib with bone, bone-in rib steak, and (if they contain bone) chuck blade roast and loin. These cuts may include spinal cord tissue and/or so-called dorsal root ganglia, swellings of nerve roots coming into the meat from the spinal cord which have been proven to be infectious as well. This concern has led the FDA to consider banning the incorporation of "plate waste" from restaurants into cattle feed. The American Feed Industry Association defends the current exemption of plate scrapings from the 1997 feed regulations: "How can you tell the consumer, 'Hey, you've just eaten a T-bone steak and it's fine for you, but you can't feed it to animals'? "
.......Even boneless cuts may not be risk-free, though. In the slaughterhouse, the bovine carcass is typically split in half down the middle with a band saw, sawing right through the spinal column. This has been shown to aerosolize the spinal cord and contaminate the surrounding meat. A study in Europe found contamination with spinal cord material on 100% of the split carcasses examined. Similar contamination of meat derived from cattle cheeks can occur from brain tissue, if the cheek meat is not removed before the skull is fragmented or split.
....... The World Health Organization has pointed out that American beef can be contaminated with brain and spinal cord tissue in another way as well. Except for Islamic halal and Jewish kosher slaughter (which involve slitting the cow's throat while the animal is still conscious), cattle slaughtered in the United States are first stunned unconscious with an impact to the head before being bled to death. Medical science has known for over 60 years that people suffering head trauma can end up with bits of brain embolized into their bloodstream; so Texas A&M researchers wondered if fragments of brain could be found within the bodies of cattle stunned for slaughter. They checked and reportedly exclaimed, "Oh, boy did we find it." They even found a 14 cm piece of brain in one cow's lung. They concluded, "It is likely that prion proteins are found throughout the bodies of animals stunned for slaughter." There are different types of stunning devices, however, which likely have different levels of risk associated with them.
.......The Texas A&M study was published in 1996 using the prevailing method at the time, pneumatic-powered air injection stunning. The device is placed in the middle of the animal's forehead and fired, shooting a 4 inch bolt through the skull and injecting compressed air into the cranial vault which scrambles the brain tissue. The high pressure air not only "produces a smearing of the head of the animal with liquefied brain," but has been shown over and over to blow brain back into the circulatory system, scattering whole plugs of brain into a number of organ, and smaller brain bits likely into the muscle meat as well Although this method of stunning has been used in the United States for over 20 years, the meat industry, to their credit, has been phasing out these particularly risky air injection-type stunners. The Deputy Director of Public Citizen argues that this industry initiative should be given the force of federal regulation and banned, as they have been throughout Europe.
.......The stunning devices that remain in widespread use drive similar bolts through the skull of the animal, but without air injection. Operators then may or may not pith the animals by sticking a rod into the stun hole to further agitate the deeper brain structures to reduce or eliminate reflex kicking during shackling of the hind limbs. Even without pithing, which has been shown to be risky, these stunners currently in use in the U.S. today may still force brain into the bloodstream of some of these animals.
.......In one experiment, for example, researchers applied a marker onto the stunner bolt. The marker was later detected within the muscle meat of the stunned animal. They conclude: "This study demonstrates that material present in... the CNS of cattle during commercial captive bolt stunning may become widely dispersed across the many animate and inanimate elements of the slaughter-dressing environment and within derived carcasses including meat entering the human food chain." Even non-penetrative "mushroom-headed" stunners which just rely on concussive force to the skull to render the animal unconscious may not be risk free. People in automobile accidents with non-invasive head trauma can still end up with brain embolization, and these bolts move at over 200 miles per hour. The researchers at Texas A&M conclude, "Reason dictates that any method of stunning to the head will result in the likelihood of brain emboli in the lungs or, indeed, other parts of the body." And, finally, even if consumers of American beef just stick to boneless cuts from ritually slaughtered animals who just happen to have had their spinal columns safely removed, the muscle meat itself may be infected with prions. It is unconscionable that the USDA and the beef industry continue to insist that the deadly prions aren't found in muscle meat. In 2002,Stanley Prusiner, the scientist who won the Nobel Prize in Medicine for his discovery of prions, proved in mice, at least, that muscle cells themselves were capable of forming prions. He describes the levels of prions in muscle as "quite high," and describes the studies relied upon by the Cattlemen's Association as "extraordinarily inadequate." Follow-up studies in Germany published May, 2003 confirm Prusiner's findings, showing that an animal who is orally infected may indeed end up with prions contaminating muscles throughout their body. And just last month, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, Swiss scientists found prions in the muscles of human CJD victims on autopsy. Eight out of the 32 muscle samples turned up positive for the deadly prions.
.......The discovery of a case of mad cow disease in the U.S. highlights how ineffective current safeguards are in North America. The explosive spread of mad cow disease in Europe has been blamed on the cannibalistic practice of feeding slaughterhouse waste to livestock. Both Canada and the United States banned the feeding of the muscles and bones of most animals to cows and sheep back in 1997, but unlike Europe left gaping loopholes in the law. For example, blood is currently exempted from the Canadian and the U.S. feed bans. You can still feed calves cow's blood collected at the slaughterhouse. In modern factory farming practice calves may be removed from their mothers immediately after birth, so the calves are fed milk replacer, which is often supplemented with protein rich cow serum. Weaned calves and young pigs also may have cattle blood sprayed directly on their feed to save money on feed costs.
.......
....... Europe and Japan follow World Health Organization guidelines and test every downer cow for mad cow disease; the U.S. has tested less than 2% of downers over the last decade. Most of the U.S. downer cows, too sick or injured to even walk, end up on our dinner plates. In Canada, authorities were able to reassure the public that at least the downer cow they discovered infected with BSE--Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy, or mad cow disease--was excluded from the human food chain and only rendered into animal feed. U.S. officials don't seem to be able to offer the same reassurance, as the mad cow we discovered may very well have been ground into hamburger.
.......How, then, can the USDA and the beef industry insist that the American beef supply is still safe? They argue that the infectious prions that cause the disease are only found in the brain and nervous tissue, not the muscles, not the meat. For example, on NBC's Today, USDA Secretary Veneman insisted "the fact of the matter is that all scientific evidence would show, based upon what we know about this disease, that muscle cuts -- that is, the meat of the animal itself -- should not cause any risk to human health. " The National Cattlemen's Beef Association echoed "Consumers should continue to eat beef with confidence. All scientific studies show that the BSE infectious agent has never been found in beef muscle meat or milk and U.S. beef remains safe to eat. "
....... This can be viewed as misleading and irresponsible on two counts. First, American do eat bovine central nervous system tissue. The United States General Accounting Office (GAO) is the investigative watchdog arm of Congress. In 2002, the GAO released their report on the weaknesses present in the U.S. defense against mad cow disease. Quoting from thatcongressional report, "In terms of the public health risk, consumers do not always know when foods and other products they use may contain central nervous system tissue... Many edible products, such as beef stock, beef extract, and beef flavoring, are frequently made by boiling the skeletal remains (including the vertebral column) of the carcass..."
....... According to the consumer advocacy organization Center for Science in the Public Interest, spinal cord contamination may also be found in U.S. hot dogs, hamburgers, pizza toppings, and taco fillings In fact, a 2002 USDA survey showed that approximately 35 percent of high risk meat products tested positive for central nervous system tissues.
.......The GAO report continues: "In light of the experiences in Japan and other countries that were thought to be BSE free, we believe that it would be prudent for USDA to consider taking some action to inform consumers when products may contain central nervous system or other tissue that could pose a risk if taken from a BSE-infected animal. This effort would allow American consumers to make more informed choices about the products they consume." The USDA, however, did not follow those recommendations, deciding such foods need not be labeled. Even if Americans just stick to steak, they may not be shielded from risk. The "T" in a T-bone steak is a vertebra from the animal's spinal column, and as such may contain a section of the actual spinal cord.
....... Other potentially contaminated cuts include porterhouse, standing rib roast, prime rib with bone, bone-in rib steak, and (if they contain bone) chuck blade roast and loin. These cuts may include spinal cord tissue and/or so-called dorsal root ganglia, swellings of nerve roots coming into the meat from the spinal cord which have been proven to be infectious as well. This concern has led the FDA to consider banning the incorporation of "plate waste" from restaurants into cattle feed. The American Feed Industry Association defends the current exemption of plate scrapings from the 1997 feed regulations: "How can you tell the consumer, 'Hey, you've just eaten a T-bone steak and it's fine for you, but you can't feed it to animals'? "
.......Even boneless cuts may not be risk-free, though. In the slaughterhouse, the bovine carcass is typically split in half down the middle with a band saw, sawing right through the spinal column. This has been shown to aerosolize the spinal cord and contaminate the surrounding meat. A study in Europe found contamination with spinal cord material on 100% of the split carcasses examined. Similar contamination of meat derived from cattle cheeks can occur from brain tissue, if the cheek meat is not removed before the skull is fragmented or split.
....... The World Health Organization has pointed out that American beef can be contaminated with brain and spinal cord tissue in another way as well. Except for Islamic halal and Jewish kosher slaughter (which involve slitting the cow's throat while the animal is still conscious), cattle slaughtered in the United States are first stunned unconscious with an impact to the head before being bled to death. Medical science has known for over 60 years that people suffering head trauma can end up with bits of brain embolized into their bloodstream; so Texas A&M researchers wondered if fragments of brain could be found within the bodies of cattle stunned for slaughter. They checked and reportedly exclaimed, "Oh, boy did we find it." They even found a 14 cm piece of brain in one cow's lung. They concluded, "It is likely that prion proteins are found throughout the bodies of animals stunned for slaughter." There are different types of stunning devices, however, which likely have different levels of risk associated with them.
.......The Texas A&M study was published in 1996 using the prevailing method at the time, pneumatic-powered air injection stunning. The device is placed in the middle of the animal's forehead and fired, shooting a 4 inch bolt through the skull and injecting compressed air into the cranial vault which scrambles the brain tissue. The high pressure air not only "produces a smearing of the head of the animal with liquefied brain," but has been shown over and over to blow brain back into the circulatory system, scattering whole plugs of brain into a number of organ, and smaller brain bits likely into the muscle meat as well Although this method of stunning has been used in the United States for over 20 years, the meat industry, to their credit, has been phasing out these particularly risky air injection-type stunners. The Deputy Director of Public Citizen argues that this industry initiative should be given the force of federal regulation and banned, as they have been throughout Europe.
.......The stunning devices that remain in widespread use drive similar bolts through the skull of the animal, but without air injection. Operators then may or may not pith the animals by sticking a rod into the stun hole to further agitate the deeper brain structures to reduce or eliminate reflex kicking during shackling of the hind limbs. Even without pithing, which has been shown to be risky, these stunners currently in use in the U.S. today may still force brain into the bloodstream of some of these animals.
.......In one experiment, for example, researchers applied a marker onto the stunner bolt. The marker was later detected within the muscle meat of the stunned animal. They conclude: "This study demonstrates that material present in... the CNS of cattle during commercial captive bolt stunning may become widely dispersed across the many animate and inanimate elements of the slaughter-dressing environment and within derived carcasses including meat entering the human food chain." Even non-penetrative "mushroom-headed" stunners which just rely on concussive force to the skull to render the animal unconscious may not be risk free. People in automobile accidents with non-invasive head trauma can still end up with brain embolization, and these bolts move at over 200 miles per hour. The researchers at Texas A&M conclude, "Reason dictates that any method of stunning to the head will result in the likelihood of brain emboli in the lungs or, indeed, other parts of the body." And, finally, even if consumers of American beef just stick to boneless cuts from ritually slaughtered animals who just happen to have had their spinal columns safely removed, the muscle meat itself may be infected with prions. It is unconscionable that the USDA and the beef industry continue to insist that the deadly prions aren't found in muscle meat. In 2002,Stanley Prusiner, the scientist who won the Nobel Prize in Medicine for his discovery of prions, proved in mice, at least, that muscle cells themselves were capable of forming prions. He describes the levels of prions in muscle as "quite high," and describes the studies relied upon by the Cattlemen's Association as "extraordinarily inadequate." Follow-up studies in Germany published May, 2003 confirm Prusiner's findings, showing that an animal who is orally infected may indeed end up with prions contaminating muscles throughout their body. And just last month, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, Swiss scientists found prions in the muscles of human CJD victims on autopsy. Eight out of the 32 muscle samples turned up positive for the deadly prions.
.......The discovery of a case of mad cow disease in the U.S. highlights how ineffective current safeguards are in North America. The explosive spread of mad cow disease in Europe has been blamed on the cannibalistic practice of feeding slaughterhouse waste to livestock. Both Canada and the United States banned the feeding of the muscles and bones of most animals to cows and sheep back in 1997, but unlike Europe left gaping loopholes in the law. For example, blood is currently exempted from the Canadian and the U.S. feed bans. You can still feed calves cow's blood collected at the slaughterhouse. In modern factory farming practice calves may be removed from their mothers immediately after birth, so the calves are fed milk replacer, which is often supplemented with protein rich cow serum. Weaned calves and young pigs also may have cattle blood sprayed directly on their feed to save money on feed costs.
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TimH
Well-known member
Quote from the article above- "Now, Dr. Stanley B. Prusiner and colleagues from the University of California at San Francisco report that, in mice at least, high levels of prions can accumulate in muscles, too."
If I ever get a craving to eat some RODENT meat, I will be sure it didn't come from an animal that has had BSE INJECTED DIRECTLY INTO IT'S BRAIN and I will demand that it has been tested using a test that Dr. Prusiner's company sells!!!!! :roll:
If there is any research that has EVER found BSE prions in the muscle tissue of BOVINES I would certainly like to see it.
And furthermore,as far as I know, researchers have NEVER managed to infect a bovine with BSE by FEEDING it to them.NEVER!!! They have only ever managed to infect them,in the lab, by INJECTING BSE SERUM DIRECTLY INTO THE BRAIN.
Once again, if their is research to the contrary, I would like to see it!!
If I ever get a craving to eat some RODENT meat, I will be sure it didn't come from an animal that has had BSE INJECTED DIRECTLY INTO IT'S BRAIN and I will demand that it has been tested using a test that Dr. Prusiner's company sells!!!!! :roll:
If there is any research that has EVER found BSE prions in the muscle tissue of BOVINES I would certainly like to see it.
And furthermore,as far as I know, researchers have NEVER managed to infect a bovine with BSE by FEEDING it to them.NEVER!!! They have only ever managed to infect them,in the lab, by INJECTING BSE SERUM DIRECTLY INTO THE BRAIN.
Once again, if their is research to the contrary, I would like to see it!!
