US 'Atypical' Mad Cow Threat Was Predicted
By John Stauber
Center for Media and Democracy, June 14, 2006
http://www.prwatch.org/node/4883
The small scientific world of prion researchers -- the scientists who investigate "transmissible spongiform encephalopathies" (TSE) such as mad cow disease in cattle and Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD) in humans -- is abuzz. That's because the two confirmed cases of US mad cow disease in Texas and Alabama are an "atypical" strain different from the British strain. This really should not be surprising. Sheldon Rampton and I reported in 1997 that very strong evidence of an "atypical" TSE disease in US cattle goes back to the 1985 work of Dr. Richard Marsh, the researcher to whom we dedicated our book Mad Cow USA. Even before Britain confirmed its first case of mad cow, Marsh was investigating a similar disease he traced to Wisconsin dairy cattle, confirming suspicions among US scientists since the 1960s that a deadly TSE disease in mink -- transmissible mink encephalopathy or TME -- resulted from their eating dairy cattle.Today the ability to test for mad cow disease strains has greatly advanced, and so-called rapid tests are used on all cattle before they are allowed into the human food chain in Japan, for instance. In the United States I continue to describe the situation here as a cover-up of the extent of infection with mad cow disease because the US needs to test millions of cattle a year, and in a transparent and verifiable way, and it is not. In addition, despite the false PR assurances from government and the livestock industry, there is no "firewall feed ban" in the United States to completely stop the spread of mad cow disease.
Today it is legal and widespread to feed US cattle on cattle fat contaminated with cattle protein, on cattle blood, and on poultry **** and litter contaminated with cattle protein. In addition, slaughterhouse waste from cattle is fed to pigs, and in turn the slaughterhouse waste from pigs is fed back to cattle.
We now know we have "atypical" mad cow disease in the US and even the USDA admits that it has probably been spreading for at least a decade through feeding cattle to cattle. Yet, the cannibal feeding practices continue and the US's mad cow testng program is a farce.
Dick Marsh died in 1997 before our book Mad Cow USA was published. He was a careful scientist who undersood the precautionary principle and who worked tirelessly and was terribly and personally attacked for his prescient warnings that a unique strain of mad cow disease already existed in the US, and that unless the dangerous feeding practices of cow cannibalism were stopped, it would spread through cattle and threaten human health. Perhaps if cancer had not silenced Dick Marsh a decade ago, his strong voice would have helped change the current dangerous policies of the United States Department of Agriculture and Food and Drug Administration that are threatening animal and human safety to preserve the livestock industry's practice of animal cannibalism, turning slaughterhouse waste into cheap feed.
By John Stauber
Center for Media and Democracy, June 14, 2006
http://www.prwatch.org/node/4883
The small scientific world of prion researchers -- the scientists who investigate "transmissible spongiform encephalopathies" (TSE) such as mad cow disease in cattle and Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD) in humans -- is abuzz. That's because the two confirmed cases of US mad cow disease in Texas and Alabama are an "atypical" strain different from the British strain. This really should not be surprising. Sheldon Rampton and I reported in 1997 that very strong evidence of an "atypical" TSE disease in US cattle goes back to the 1985 work of Dr. Richard Marsh, the researcher to whom we dedicated our book Mad Cow USA. Even before Britain confirmed its first case of mad cow, Marsh was investigating a similar disease he traced to Wisconsin dairy cattle, confirming suspicions among US scientists since the 1960s that a deadly TSE disease in mink -- transmissible mink encephalopathy or TME -- resulted from their eating dairy cattle.Today the ability to test for mad cow disease strains has greatly advanced, and so-called rapid tests are used on all cattle before they are allowed into the human food chain in Japan, for instance. In the United States I continue to describe the situation here as a cover-up of the extent of infection with mad cow disease because the US needs to test millions of cattle a year, and in a transparent and verifiable way, and it is not. In addition, despite the false PR assurances from government and the livestock industry, there is no "firewall feed ban" in the United States to completely stop the spread of mad cow disease.
Today it is legal and widespread to feed US cattle on cattle fat contaminated with cattle protein, on cattle blood, and on poultry **** and litter contaminated with cattle protein. In addition, slaughterhouse waste from cattle is fed to pigs, and in turn the slaughterhouse waste from pigs is fed back to cattle.
We now know we have "atypical" mad cow disease in the US and even the USDA admits that it has probably been spreading for at least a decade through feeding cattle to cattle. Yet, the cannibal feeding practices continue and the US's mad cow testng program is a farce.
Dick Marsh died in 1997 before our book Mad Cow USA was published. He was a careful scientist who undersood the precautionary principle and who worked tirelessly and was terribly and personally attacked for his prescient warnings that a unique strain of mad cow disease already existed in the US, and that unless the dangerous feeding practices of cow cannibalism were stopped, it would spread through cattle and threaten human health. Perhaps if cancer had not silenced Dick Marsh a decade ago, his strong voice would have helped change the current dangerous policies of the United States Department of Agriculture and Food and Drug Administration that are threatening animal and human safety to preserve the livestock industry's practice of animal cannibalism, turning slaughterhouse waste into cheap feed.