New Research?

[cowman]

Did you read the article on New Research over in the News section? If you did are you a little concerned? I mean the people saying these things are not exactly wackos out to scare the world, or are they?
Who do you believe? The government? The CCA? These scientists?
Is the meat safe? Is the blood safe? How come the meat industry/government says here is the science but then turns around and does things that don't go a long with that science? A clear example would be the blood supply. Or killing offspring when they claim it can't be transmitted that way. Do you ever get the suspicion they really don't have a clue? And that this whole thing isn't about food safety at all, but about money?

[pandiana]

Not sure what article you are talking about?

[rsomer]

The link is http://www.agri-ville.com/cgi-bin/newsroom/view.cgi?articleID=2440

Dr. Laura Manuelidis, professor and head of neuropathology at Yale University in Connecticut is raising questions about CJD, nvCJD, the safety of the blood supply, Alzheimers. She does not make any comments about BSE, that is not where her research lies.

If you read these news reports carefully, typically the reporter will quote work done by people such Dr. Manuelidis who are working in one area and then throw in a comment from another scientist like Dr. Neil Cashman who is quoted as saying "It's extremely unlikely because we have seen no variant CJD here,"

By weaving the comments of two or more scientists and then alluding to the disaster in Britain which does not exist anywhere else in the world the reporter creates a fabric of mistruths and misperceptions about BSE when the people quoted were really talking about something else.

I would suggest reading instead an article from the CJD Voice, a CJD support group at http://members.aol.com/larmstr853/cjdvoice/facts.htm
These people are family members of CJD patients and tend to be more informed. I believe the information in this article to be factual. Some excerpts:

Some researchers believe an unusual "slow virus" or another organism causes CJD.

The agent that causes CJD has several characteristics that are unusual for known organisms such as viruses and bacteria. It is difficult to kill, it does not appear to contain any genetic information in the form of nucleic acids (DNA or RNA), and it usually has a long incubation period before symptoms appear.

Prion proteins occur in both a normal form, which is a harmless protein found in the body’s cells, and in an infectious form, which causes disease. The harmless and infectious forms of the prion protein have the same sequence of amino acids (the "building blocks" of proteins) but the infectious form of the protein takes a different folded shape than the normal protein.

About 5 to 10 percent of all CJD cases are inherited

And most importantly:
The appearance of the new variant of CJD (nv-CJD or v-CJD) in several younger than average people in Great Britain and France has led to concern that BSE may be transmitted to humans through consumption of contaminated beef. Although laboratory tests have shown a strong similarity between the prions causing BSE and v-CJD, there is no direct proof to support this theory.

[cowman]

rsomer: When you say that there is no "proof" that BSE causes nvCJD you might be very right or very wrong! It does not really matter as far as public perception is concerned? Right now the accepted "fact" for just about every consumer is it does?
If the public ever comes to believe that BSE is the cause of Alzheimers this industry is finished. And we don't know! I would certainly like to know and I assume so would you? Blindly accepting what any scientist says is not being responsible. A classic example was the blood supply in the eighties. Totally safe one day, then oops we made a mistake! But now its safe..oops we made another mistake! My oldest daughter had to have surgery in the late eighties. The doctor wanted us to sign a waiver in case they had to use blood. He assured us it was now totally safe! I refused saying if she needed blood I would provide it! We had quite a go around and we had to finally go through a bunch of garbage with Alberta health. In the end I won. Now she didn't need blood but what if she had? Right after that they found out the blood supply was still tainted. I could have believed the "experts" and risked her life? We all need to take responsibility for our lives and don't believe everything the "experts" tell us? And quite frankly what they are trying to tell us about these diseases just doesn't ring true!

[jensend]

there is so much uncertainty and disagreement among those who are supposed to know why don't we deal with the problem. if as much effort were put into testing as is being expended on avoiding the issue we could eliminate the problem from the food supply and learn a whole lot as we did it. our leaders(?) are running around denying when they could be doing something a whole lot more positive. bse is there. we don't know how much and we don't know enough about it. we should be finding it, removing the infection from the food supply and giving the consumer (and ourselves) good, safe nutrition.

[rsomer]

To be clear, I have no concept or understanding of what causes nvCJD. I just quoted a source that I believe to be more credible than the newspaper reporter. I see two causes of nvCJD being investigated by people like Dr. Laura Manuelidis and others. One possible cause is consuming the nervous tissue of cattle infected with the BSE folding prion, the other possible cause is a virus. The more credible cause is a virus as the prion has no DNA or RNA therefore no scientifically known method of infection. The reality is that if nvCJD is caused by a virus and only 1 in 4 million people get infected it is really not news worthy. Your chance is greater of dying from the flu. The media is clinging to the image of the Holstein cow falling on the slippery concrete as the cause of nvCJD because that has shock value.

[cowman]

Rsomer: I know you have explained to me that vCJD is not definitely linked to BSE. However the whole world has come to believe that it has...or I should say the general public. I believe the scientists and government in the UK have promoted this idea? So whether fact or fiction this is the reality of what we must deal with?
This is why it is imperative that we test all animals. Maybe it is a waste of time but it is what the consumer will percieve as safe food? Right now the consumer in North America is still buying, but that could change very rapidly if they lose confidence in the beef supply? And with piecemeal testing we can be assured more cattle will turn up with BSE. And yes we can count on the media to be sensational, because that is what sells.