Post by TRIPWIRE on Mar 22, 2004 23:13:48 GMT -5
January 1, 2004
Mad Cows
Written by David M. Hickerson.
Originally posted at tripwire.hickersonfamily.net/2004_0101.html
This Mad Cow Disease (formally known as Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy-BSE) thing is really irking me over the past week and a half... I haven't even been able to bring myself to buy a flippin' Wendy's Classic Double since. Why? Am I afraid of getting the disease? Not really, at least now that I've read a bit more about the whole situation. What really drives me up the wall is much more simple than one man's personal fears.
Why the heck do we buy cows from other countries? Do we not have enough of our own cows? There is no freakin' reason to buy a cow from Canada when we have buttloads of them all over our own country! And with a disease like that roaming about, why the hell isn't it simply illegal in the first place?
I've probably got an extremist view on the subject, but I think that each of the cows from the shipment from Canada should be given back or incinerated. Then, unless it can be proven beyond all doubt that the infection didn't start in our own country, all of the cattle in the herds that these "import" cows were in should be incinerated as well. We should do no importing of any cattle or cattle products from other countries -- yeah, right, like Canadian beef tastes better?
Ya know, even tho they say that the milk is safe, I think all of the milk that can be tracked back even partially to these cows should be destroyed... and then, I seriously believe that someone needs to spend some serious dough and find a way to test these beasts (and ourselves) for the agent that causes the sickness. I would really think that this would have some importance to researchers simply because of the potential loss of human life that could be involved. I think every-damned-thing should be done (up to and including ban on selling of beef for up to a decade if needed) to prevent the loss of life that could be caused by this ridiculous disease.
I guess what frustrates me even further is the fact that this disease was caused by our idiocy. When you start feeding cows to cows, that is not a good situation. Not only were we turning the animals --who are VEGETARIAN by nature-- into cannibals, we were feeding them parts of the brain and nervous system (which contained the disease). We thought we were so flippin' smart... "Yeah man, let's save some money and grind up all these cow parts into something that they can eat so we can make them fatter so we can make more money selling them."
Also, just an FYI... We've all been taught that cooking the meat to a certain temperature is sufficient to kill off diseases in our food... This is NOT true in the case of this particular illness. BSE is not caused by a biological agent like E. Coli or other diseases. Infectious particles called prions transmit this disease by causing protiens to fold differently than they would otherwise. These particles are resistant to heat and other procedures that destroy biological agents.
Any feedback on this subject? Godbless!
Reference:
www.midwestfarmers.coop/files/feed/Mad%2520Cow%2520Disease%2520FAQ.pdf
www.foodstudents.com/english/database/index.php4?category_id=3
128.32.250.15:8080/prionboy/prions
science.howstuffworks.com/mad-cow-disease.htm
Mad Cows
Written by David M. Hickerson.
Originally posted at tripwire.hickersonfamily.net/2004_0101.html
This Mad Cow Disease (formally known as Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy-BSE) thing is really irking me over the past week and a half... I haven't even been able to bring myself to buy a flippin' Wendy's Classic Double since. Why? Am I afraid of getting the disease? Not really, at least now that I've read a bit more about the whole situation. What really drives me up the wall is much more simple than one man's personal fears.
Why the heck do we buy cows from other countries? Do we not have enough of our own cows? There is no freakin' reason to buy a cow from Canada when we have buttloads of them all over our own country! And with a disease like that roaming about, why the hell isn't it simply illegal in the first place?
I've probably got an extremist view on the subject, but I think that each of the cows from the shipment from Canada should be given back or incinerated. Then, unless it can be proven beyond all doubt that the infection didn't start in our own country, all of the cattle in the herds that these "import" cows were in should be incinerated as well. We should do no importing of any cattle or cattle products from other countries -- yeah, right, like Canadian beef tastes better?
Ya know, even tho they say that the milk is safe, I think all of the milk that can be tracked back even partially to these cows should be destroyed... and then, I seriously believe that someone needs to spend some serious dough and find a way to test these beasts (and ourselves) for the agent that causes the sickness. I would really think that this would have some importance to researchers simply because of the potential loss of human life that could be involved. I think every-damned-thing should be done (up to and including ban on selling of beef for up to a decade if needed) to prevent the loss of life that could be caused by this ridiculous disease.
I guess what frustrates me even further is the fact that this disease was caused by our idiocy. When you start feeding cows to cows, that is not a good situation. Not only were we turning the animals --who are VEGETARIAN by nature-- into cannibals, we were feeding them parts of the brain and nervous system (which contained the disease). We thought we were so flippin' smart... "Yeah man, let's save some money and grind up all these cow parts into something that they can eat so we can make them fatter so we can make more money selling them."
Also, just an FYI... We've all been taught that cooking the meat to a certain temperature is sufficient to kill off diseases in our food... This is NOT true in the case of this particular illness. BSE is not caused by a biological agent like E. Coli or other diseases. Infectious particles called prions transmit this disease by causing protiens to fold differently than they would otherwise. These particles are resistant to heat and other procedures that destroy biological agents.
Any feedback on this subject? Godbless!
Reference:
www.midwestfarmers.coop/files/feed/Mad%2520Cow%2520Disease%2520FAQ.pdf
www.foodstudents.com/english/database/index.php4?category_id=3
128.32.250.15:8080/prionboy/prions
science.howstuffworks.com/mad-cow-disease.htm