Todays Globe & Mail-Nikiforuk

[boone]

There was a very disturbing story in todays Globe- use CJD in the search box and click on Andrew Nikiforuks editorial. Second thought pour a stiff drink first.

[cakadu]

An issue comes to a head
January 8, 2004
Globe and Mail
Page A21
Andrew Nikiforuk, a Calgary journalist who has been writing about the beef industry for a decade, writes in this story that one mad cow is messy; two are messier. And in the next few months, if and when North American regulators actually begin to gather some real science by testing thousands of cows, the picture will likely get even dirtier.
Nikiforuk says that many experts on bovine spongiform encephalopathy now suspect that BSE/mad cow has been in North America for at least a decade, that the beef industry and regulators have fought proper regulation from day one, that the current surveillance system is a don't-look-don't-find model and that the public-health risk from contaminated meat could be greater than most are prepared to admit.
Nikiforuk goes on to say that the first North American case of mad cow probably appeared in 1985, on a Wisconsin mink farm. That's when Richard Marsh, a veterinary pathologist at the University of Wisconsin, discovered that mink fed "downer cattle" (technically any cow that has difficulty walking) from local dairy farms, went crazy and died. Prof. Marsh took samples of these mink brains and inoculated and fed them to bull calves. Each bull developed holes in the brain. He then fed infected cattle-bits back to mink, which developed more spongy brains.
This peculiar strain of BSE didn't have the same clinical symptoms of classic British BSE. Instead of acting aggressively, these infected cows behaved sleepily, like downer cattle. Inspectors looking for drooling or rabid cows as a sign of mad-cow infection would miss this disease.
Even the brain pathologies were different. Canada's two detected cases of mad cow last year showed no symptoms of madness at all.
Before Prof. Marsh died in 1997, he pressed for a ban on feeding cattle-bits to cattle, and he warned that waiting for the first case of mad cow was like closing the barn door after the proverbial horse had run off. "
Prof. Marsh was vilified and denigrated by the U.S. cattle industry for his work. His grant proposals to test more cattle were routinely turned down by government. When a consumer's group sued the U.S. government last year for not banning downer cows from the food chain, the U.S. government, like the industry, retorted: "BSE has never been found in the country's livestock," and said that the threat was "not real or immediate
Nikiforuk also notes that in 1989, Laura Manuelidis and colleagues at Yale University performed autopsies on the brains of Alzheimer's patients and found that 13 per cent of the patients actually suffered from Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease -- the human form of mad cow.
A University of Pittsburg study made similar findings. Until then, most scientists assumed that CJD only occurred in one in a million people. What the results could well mean is that "at least some people diagnosed with Alzheimer's have CJD," says Ms. Manuelidis. Instead of the official caseload of approximately 30 CJD cases a year, Canada, which has 364,000 cases of Alzheimer's and related dementias, just might already have much higher numbers of CJD.
So things are about to get messy. That is not to say that a higher incidence of CJD is necessarily connected to BSE; there could be more sporadic CJD than previously thought, or an infectious prion could be responsible. What we do know is that we have mad cows; we have enigmatic brain-wasting diseases in people; and we don't have much science in between.

[cowman]

Pretty scary stuff! I wonder how many people read this article and are swearing off beef right now?
I can totally understand when this author says the government policy is "don't look- don't find". Consider the Canadian and US policy of now not letting any downer cows into the food chain. What does this mean? Simply don't bother bringing in any downers because you won't get anything for them.
Or in reality...Shoot, shovel, shutup!
The Leduc dairy farmer laid it out very well yesterday in his inerview...Either test every animal or there won't be a viable beef business in Canada. 8000 animals out of 20 million just isn't going to cut it!
I see Australia tested about 400 head/year on average! No wonder they are BSE free! So much for their superior system of food safety?
Our politicians are way behind on this one. I suspect they are going to be dragged up to snuff real quick when articles like this one start to be widely read?

[pandiana]

I have a great deal of respect for Andrew Nikiforuk but I think he has fallen into the trap of over simplifying this situation which tends to suggest a coverup or conspiracy.

There is a lot of scientific information out there that describes the many variant forms of a group of maladies collectively called TSE or tranferable spongifrom encephalopathys. This refers to the fact that they are believed to occur through an infections process, like kuru, from ingestion of contaminants.

The spontaneous occuring CJD occurs mostly in older patients at a rate of 1 x Million. The BSE associated variant occurs in younger patients. I understand that all TSE's tend to have a rapid progression, with most patients not living more than a year.

This is very different than Alzheimers where the course of the disease may play out over decades.

The TSE that occurred in Italy and in the younger animals in Japan are apparently a slightly different variant than that found in the UK.

They had a neurologist interviewed that addressed some of these points. He also stressed that the science of BSE and all TSE's was still very muddy.

[cowman]

I would agree that the science is very, very muddy! How do you explain away 13% of Alzheimers is actually CJD? Does that alarm you? I wonder how much of Parkinsons is CJD?
Are we being told the whole story? I don't know but I do begin to wonder when they do irrational things like kill 450 calves for absolutely no sane reason, based on the science? Does this sort of thing make you wonder what is going on? Do you begin to suspect that the"experts" don't have a clue? Or if they do they sure aren't sharing?
I just came back from lunch with a business friend. He odered chicken because he said he wasn't eating anymore beef until they convinced him it was safe! And this from a tough old oilfield boy!!!

[boone]

Cowman: You should mention to that tough old oilfield boy, that the stuff these cows have been licking up around the sloppy oil lease would probably do him more harm.

[ValueChainFX]

France does testing on every animal over two years old, they found over 100 BSE cases last year! Yet I understand the sales are strong and the consumer believes the tests are working and the food supply is safe! Go figure what testing may do!

It is embarrassing to listen to some of our leaders say we are going to test 8000 head a year up from 5000 head! What is the industry cost per day gone?

[cowman]

Well I think now Bob Speller has snuck it up to 30,000 head? Tommorrow who knows what the number will be? I do believe the public is way ahead of the government on this one and we're heading toward universal testing. When the polls start to roll in the government will in all likelyhood go with the flow?

[ValueChainFX]

Cowman, I do believe the way "Bob" said it was that it will be 8000 this year and within the next five years up to 30000! Makes me a little sad if Bob is going to do us any good as our new ag guy I believe he should look at reality. It sounds like he is listening to the same advice from the same bureaucrats as "Mr. Van"!

[cowman]

Hey valuechain, Rome wasn't built in a day! From 8000 to 30,000 in one day is pretty good? Give the boy a break, he's new at the job!
I'd love to be a fly on the wall when he meets with those Japanese and Koreans? Or when the polls start to roll in on how Canadians feel about the whole thing? I assume you caught the news last night about how France is managing BSE? Well so did a lot of other Canadians!
Bob Speller is walking a tightrope right now! And he's doing pretty well so far, I believe?