Todays Globe & Mail-Nikiforuk

[ValueChainFX]

Cowman, I guess you are right it's nice to see a new face. My question I guess comes back to the advice and where that comes from. I am still talking to the same bureaucrats that were there when Mr. Van was holding down the post and they are telling me the same things! Someone, sometime, somewhere is going to have to step outside the office and get on with getting on. We can only hope that Bob is the man. So we shall watch and see, but I don't think I will wait and will for sure not hold my breath! I support our government 100% but I also know my efforts show faster results even though we keep the communication lines open so government can jump on board and take the credit when the time is right for them.

[rsomer]

I believe the numbers are 8,000 in 2004 rising to possibly 30,000 five years from now, depending upon international standards.

[kato]

I think it's nice to watch the news, and hear an Ag Minister who actually seems to care!

It was that "abandoned" feeling we have lived with for the last few months that was really hard to take. When your own Agriculture minister abandons you, it sure does nothing for morale.

Whether he's successful or not, this Speller feller at least seems to be trying. That's a lot more than we can say for the last regime.

[cowman]

I guess the Yale and Pittsburgh studies are about the worst thing that could happen to the beef industry. Just wait until the Council of Canadians, Earth First, and PETA get hold of that info and get it out big time! In fact I wonder why this info hasn't been more publicised? If these are proven facts they I would assume everyone on the planet should be made aware of them?
Why hasn't every paper in North America been screaming out this research? Why haven't the talk show hosts taken it up? Maybe someone should give Rutherford a call??

[rsomer]

It is interesting what and how something gets quoted in newspapers like the Globe and Mail. Nikiforuk noted 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. Yet if we take the time to actually read Laura Manuelidis work we find that "The best-kept secret in this field is that (prions) in any form have never shown infectivity," said Laura Manuelidis, head of the neuropathology section at Yale University's surgery department in New Haven, Conn. Most researchers working in this field "know the data just aren't there" to support the hypothesis prions are the cause, Manuelidis told UPI. She has pointed out the lack of evidence supporting the role prions play in causing TSEs since the idea first was proposed in the 1980s. Also "The National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md., openly acknowledges prions have not been established fully as a cause of any disease." There is a lot of questionable reporting going on out there. Yes, Laura Manuelidis found TSE like prions in 13% of patients with Alzheimers, no she did not say it was because of BSE.

[boone]

rsomer: your right here I believe. When first reading the article (Yale) it seemed to say that as well.But on reconsidering the possible implications, it would be better if we removed all materials at risk and tested. Removing bi products from feed in 1997 brought us this far, it is now the price of admission to test each older animal. It reminds me a bit of Canada dragging it's feet on tainted blood in Red Cross days. Let's just get on with it. We were at least a year behind due to dithering.How many more people were put at risk needlessly?

[cowman]

rsomer: They haven't shown prions have caused any disease?? Then what in the hell is this whole mad cow thing all about?? Maybe it is just a figment of our imagination? And so is scrapie and CWD?
Can one believe anything that our scientists say?
And quite frankly if I die of whatever prion(if they exist) I don't care which one! If they can pass back and forth between species what do I care whether they call it BSE, scrapie,Cwd, CJD or nvCJD? And the scientists definitely say nvCJD is caused by the BSE prion don't they? Or have I been hearing it all wrong?