Interesting article

[cowman]

I reiterate: Japan has said very clearly that what it requires of us is to test every animal. We can continue this dog and pony show with the US or we can bite the bullet and get testing.
The US would have to follow us whether they liked it or not. And it would raise food safety all over the world.
Now we keep hearing that the incidence of BSE is a low risk thing. How do we know that if we don't test? Best guesstimate? Or pull a number out of a hat?
Once we begin to test everything we would require all beef,lamb, deer imports to be tested along with all products made from these animals. I guess that would be the end of the kangaroo meat from down under?

[rodb]

Morning cowman
I met a fellow in Scotland who farmed but wrote a weekly news column in a Scotish paper. When the UK health minister made the link between BSE and variant CJD he wrote an article in his column using his real name(he wrote under a psuedonym). He basically stated that they had to change the way they were doing things, not because it wasn't scientifically correct but because of consumer confidents. When asked why, he replied that he would rather lose half his herd now and get on with producing beef than not be able to sell any in a few years.

Maybe it is time to bite the bullet and test every animal. With the amount of testing going on, the price of the test should come down.

[cowman]

I've got to agree wholeheartedly with that Scottish farmer. Consider what might happen if we manage to sweep this all under the rug. When people start dropping like flies, then what?
The experts tell us this is a feed problem...maybe? They are sort of iffy about transference to offspring? Or about cross species transfer? Or sporatic manifestation of the disease?
I am starting to get a sense that the experts don't really have a clue! Bluster and pseudo-science just won't cut it with the consumer when we start getting a bunch of Mad Cow people!
We also need to consider that Americans and Canadians eat a lot more beef than Europeans. And that our packers are not exactly paragons of ethics or sanitation? Consider our two main packers? They would fit right in with the Sopranos?

[rodb]

Cowman
We can start testing but are we going to like what we find? In the old days we were quite happy with a test that detected parts per 1000. Now we can detect parts per trillion. Has it made us any safer or are we just starting to worry more and more about less and less. Until we get a definitive conclusion on how this disease is caused and spread, we could create a lot of fear and depression in the food industry over something that kills fewer people than mad bulls.

[cakadu]

From a consumer perspective, we have the right to be informed, the right to safety, the right to redress should something arise, the right to choose and the right to be heard. Along with those rights, comes the responsibility to seek out credible information and act with integrity in all dealings.

Now I agree with Rod on this one - we have to be willing to share the information and to do it in such a manner that does not create widespread panic or create a problem where there isn't on.

I heard an interesting statement the other day and that was "the best way to predict the future is to create it."

Maybe what we need to do is start testing and deal with the eventualities as they arise. After all, the alternative isn't so good either.

[cowman]

I am not in disagreement with either of you on the necessity of safe food and getting the message out. We also have to realize that the media will be right on this one looking for any little excuse to blow the whole thing up out of proportion! After all this sells papers!
Test everything and you kill the story. One thousand positive cows? Who cares then all went into the fire. A manditory universal test and this story is over.
Why is it that the Japanese can test 1.2 billion animals per year but we can't test ours? If it costs $40/animal it is cheap? Sure beats running them all in a pit and shooting them doesn't it? We aren't there yet but how about by next fall? How long can we continue to go without culling our herds?

[Bruce14]

"Why is it that the Japanese can test 1.2 billion animals per year but we can't test ours? If it costs $40/animal it is cheap?"

Cowman just curious as to what 1.2 BILLION animals you say the Japanese test?

That's a lot of animals and far more than just cattle ever could be.

[cowman]

Sorry should have been 1.2 Million.