[TAHC News] FYI: Info Regarding Disease Rumor in Texas

[bse-tester]

Porker, we are still trying to raise enough funds to proceed with the validation. The United States National Prion Surveillance Centre at Case Western University, in Cleveland, Ohio, has agreed to conduct our validations as soon as we come up with the necessary amount. It is going to take approximately 24 -36 months to fulfill the validation process and about 1 million dollars to conduct a simultaneous validation for BSE and CJD. We have already spent over 1.2 Million Pounds Sterling to get to the stage where we are ready now to validate.

In answer to some of the posts here concerning Alberta testing and Canadian testing protocols in general, it amazes me that some folks seem to think that testing only a few thousand animals out of a national herd numbering in the millions, is reason enough to consider the rest of the herd safe based only on the numbers - especially when we are still finding animals that are carrying BSE. The concern is simple - how many infected animals have walked onto the kill-floor without displaying any symptoms of BSE whatsoever??? More than one I would think based solely upon the numbers that do not get tested compared to the miserably low numbers - by comparison - that are tested. As for the comments posted by Tex:

"The United States is not Great Britain," said Dr. Stephen DeArmond, a University of California-San Francisco pathology professor. DeArmond pointed to the lack of evidence that so-far symptomless infections of the human variant of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, suspected in thousands of British residents are an issue in this country.

The Food and Drug Administration advisory committee agreed that donor restrictions are still warranted. But it stopped short of asking for additional safeguards in the U.S. to further prevent the risk of transmission of BSE through blood.

Getting the human form of BSE, variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, through tainted blood "is a reality. And we've got to treat it like that," said Steven Anderson, an FDA risk assessment expert.........

G. Michael Fitzpatrick, chief policy officer at America's Blood Centers, acknowledged worries about a potential second wave of BSE cases in England..........

Still, current safeguards appear to be working in the U.S., Fitzpatrick said. Already, the nation's major blood suppliers, ABC and the American Red Cross, estimate current deferrals block 400,000 previous blood donors.

Instead of additional donor restrictions, the FDA should consider an "exit strategy" that would set thresholds for ending the blood supply sapping measures, Fitzpatrick said.

The federal advisers soundly reject that notion, agreeing unanimously that the current donor deferral strategies are still warranted to reduce the risk in blood.

Still the advisory panel didn't decide to extend blood donor restrictions to other countries that recently discovered BSE in cattle. That includes Canada, Israel and Japan, which confirmed its 14th case of BSE on Oct. 14.

So, blood has already been identified as a transmission route and yet some folks in the higher chairs seem to think that all will be fine if blood is gathered from other source-countries. Is this the same group that was known to be harvesting blood from prison inmates??? Is this the same group that, like the British, formed advisory panels made up of self-interest groups like the British Milk Producer Association to set rules and regulations for the new BSE protocols?? THe manner in which BSE/CJD testing in North America is conducted is nothing less than a joke!! But unfortunately, the joke will be on us and as one noted British Politician stated publicly, "Let the next generation of political sharks worry about it!"

He said this knowing full well that by the time the next wave of CJD patients erupts into the British Medical system, it will be decades from now due to the long incubation period which may take many decades to arrive since the Brits ate all of those dear sweet-tasting little chunks of beef not that many years ago.

So, even on these boards, we see the posts made by those who think only of the dollars they would lose if 100% testing were to become the norm, forgetting completely how much they lost when BSE hit them smack between the eyes back in 2003. The only winners were the packers and hey, convince me that I am wrong on that one. As for the infectivity of humans who ate BSE infected meat in the UK - there are far more confirmed cases of vCJD than the public is aware of - MAFF scientists came out and stated in 2004 that approximately 4300 people in the UK would begin to show CJD/vCJD symptoms within the next 20 - 30 years.

Our urine test will confirm any human to be either carrying or free of PrPsc! That would allow many of those banned from donating blood the ability to do so once tested. But the goverment turned us down on that also. Go figure - and ask this question:

Why is the CFIA, the USDA and the National Blood Services of both the Canadian and US Governments afraid to test for prion disease. Is it because it is a "reportable disease" and one that they have openly stated is not a concern in the human population and to all intents and purposes, virtually non-existent in the animal population? Yet we are seeing more and more patients with Dementia, Alzheimer's, Parkinsons, CJD and other TSE related symptoms and we are still finding cattle with BSE. Truly amazing how governments, elected by the people, for the people, tend to forget the people!!

 

[Tex]

The Creekstone fiasco was the "nail on the coffin" for me when looking at hiding bse by the government. Bse tester, your experiences are another nail on that coffin.

It is truly amazing what moneyed interests do in our government and how there is never enough accountability for it.


Tex

 

[PORKER]

Our urine test will confirm any human to be either carrying or free of PrPsc! That would allow many of those banned from donating blood the ability to do so once tested. But the goverment turned us down on that also. Go figure - and ask this question:

Why is the CFIA, the USDA and the National Blood Services of both the Canadian and US Governments afraid to test for prion disease.

Personal assets to protect !!

Is it because it is a "reportable disease" and one that they have openly stated is not a concern in the human population and to all intents and purposes, virtually non-existent in the animal population?

CJD has been here , but the health industry just says its dementia.



Yet we are seeing more and more patients with Dementia, Alzheimer's, Parkinsons, CJD and other TSE related symptoms and we are still finding cattle with BSE. Truly amazing how governments, elected by the people, for the people, tend to forget the people!!


The ones elected just have a bigger stake and more to lose.

 

[bse-tester]

In the UK, the Government formed groups of people to look into the BSE crisis with a view toward making focused and specific plans to eleviate and eliminate or at the very least, prevent the spread of not only BSE, but the paranoia that had enveloped the entire country and especially the UK food industry, was only just beginning. The basic problem with the formation of those groups was that they were first of all, chaired by individuals who knew absolutely nothing about prion disease. Secondly, they were made up of people drawn from specific branchs of the British Food Industry Association like the British Beef & Cattle Producers, The British Milk Association, The British Pork Growers Association and so on and so on.

This created the groups to oversee the needs of who? Certainly not the general public at all but rather the interests of the very Associations that the people represented. So the British Public was told simply that this disease was nothing to worry about and that their government was "on top of it!" The British Government denied that contaminated meats ever entered the food chain - of course, later they were forced to acknowledge that it did indeed, not only in the UK but throughout their European markets also. The Government however, continued to state publicly that the risk for human development of any form of "Mad Cow" disease was next to impossible due to the so-called "Species Barrier."

The British Red Cross continued to collect blood from any and all who were willing to donate and the British producers of Milk, Pork and Beef continued to wave the banners provided by the so-called government advisory boards - who, unknown to the general public, were made up of the very same foxes who were looking after their own chicken coups.

The Chairs of these advisory panels were made up of members of the higher elite from the House of Lords or from well respect individuals from the Medical Field. In most instances, even those Medical Professionals, were not identified as being experts in prion disease or had only minor experience with it.

Here in North America we see the same things almost as if they are following the same guide book on how to do it and the smoke and mirrors being put forward are typical of what the British Government did to their general public.

The Canadian and the US Governments are both guilty of not taking the proper precautions to investigate BSE and the dangers surrounding it. They are both totally guilty of not providing enough information as to what BSE is capable of doing to those who come in contact with it. They are also guilty of not accepting the help from those people who have spent their lives in Prion Research to help put an end to it or at the very least, bring about a concrete effort ot prevent any further outbreaks.

I myself have first-hand experience with both the CFIA and the USDA wherein we offered both of them - ABSOLUTELY FREE OF CHARGE - complete and total access to our test protocol with absolutely NO RESTRICTIONS whatsoever as to how they would want to proceed with testing animals suspected of harboring BSE. The was done in 2003 at the beginning of the most tragic economic crisis that beef producers were about to be hit with.

Both agencies turned us down flat! They both stated that the problem was under control and that no outside help was required.
i personally told the USDA via telephone direct to Aimes, Iowa, that we would give them "ONE MILLION" tests with the appropriate antibodies in order for them to use in their fight against this disease. We made the same offer to the CFIA.

They both said "NO THANKS!"

Here is Alberta, I contacted the newly formed Prion Institute and made them the same sweetheart offer. I contacted their new Chairman before he had even arrived to take his post and provided him a hard copy of our protocol and explained that his mandate to find a way of fighting or developing a way to combat BSE and CJD was now in his hands. I never heard from him again! I then learned that the Provincial Government of Alberta had provided them another grant of 8 million Dollars to try to find a way of testing for BSE in cattle. I was almost in tears when I heard that one! I had personally handed that institue a copy of our testing protocol and yet it was being ignored. I had even provided them the letters from the United States National Prion Surveillance Center in Cleveland, acknowledging the validity of the protocol and that they had actually spent two years perfecting it for us.

It has been over three years now and they (Governments and Provincial Labs) are still blindly trying to find and develop a test.

It is also ironic that the American Red Cross has banned the collection of blood from 400,000 or so previous donors but still continue to collect blood from overseas from some of those countries where BSE has been found in cattle. Again, a simple urine test would provide clear and total proof of elgibility to donate.

Sometimes I wonder why I, like many others, even bother to try to help!

Since I have heard that some folks from the CFIA and the USDA do, on occassion, visit the Bull Session, I will offer ONE MILLION TESTS at no charge whatsoever to any bonafide facility or agency that is willing to provide a testing regime to ensure the safe introduction of beef into the human food chain!

All they have to do is work with the folks at the US Prion labs in Cleveland and we have liftoff. There ain't gonna be any sweeter deal than that folks!!