BSE origins

[kpb]

It may be just me but I find the BSE story more confusing as time goes by. But the fundamental question that I have for everyone is the same one I had the first time we found BSE in our native herd. If we agree with our scientists, the prions infect cows because they have eaten supplement that was made with the protein from an infected cow killed before 1997.
Now if that is the case where did that infected cow that made the infected supplement come from? That's my question for everyone. I have never heard anyone ask any of our scientists this question and I suspect they've thought about it and don't really want to talk about it. But I think it's high time we got all our cards on the table here before we start getting accused of hiding things from the consumer. That would be devastating.
If the answer is that the cow that infected the feed supply came from overseas then there are a few more tough questions--was it the only cow? how much protein supplement can one infected cow make (I suspect a whole lot)-and, as grassfarmer has pointed out, it takes a very, very small amount of infected supplement supposedly to infect another animals. So one infected cow could, I think, infect a whole lot of other animals.
I'd like to see one of our fearless leaders address this head-on because I can see the number of potentially infected animals from one bad cow before 1997 expanding geometrically. And does it seem reasonable that just one BSE cow was imported from overseas prior to the importation ban?
Right now we need to insure that the consumer keeps his confidence in the safety of our product. To do that we need to be honest about everything to do with BSE in this country and everything to do with feeding practices. Then we need to present a comprehensive plan to restore confidence. Hiding things or not answering obvious questions will not do anymore.

kpb

[ALICIA]

I for one think that all the deer that was this waisting desease should be wapped out also, because know one knows for sure and how do we know that a cow didn't eat contaminated grass that one of these deer pissed on or even chudded on a bone from a deer that had died of this desease. Sience only knows so much and is guessing the rest.

[wmoebis]

I had a large amount of grain that was contaminated with deer urine and fecis. The deer herd was suspected of having CWD crop Insurance was very adiment that this grain didn't get fed to livestock of any sort. or even be used as seed as no one was sure if the prion couldn't grow through the next crop and they believe that CWD is passed on by other animals eating contaminated fecis etc. Has this been ruled out in BSE?

[wmoebis]

I think we will have to come to terms with the probablity that BSE is a fact of life, and likely the US has their share of cases as well. If the entire industry is serious about finding the cause, then the US has got to be as agressive as Canada is in testing. A program like the 4D program would likely result in very interesting findings in the US.

[blackjack]

emrald1...I agree...it was not till the government started to helping out with compensation that us ranchers phoned the vet...so unfortunately for us how many ranchers in the states our going to have their culls tested when the prices are where there at...

[whiteface]

I sure appreciate that info, wmoebis. I find that really interesting that there are some that caution against feeding grain or even growing it as a crop that has had any association with CWB. I personally think an experiment or two should be done with your grain or a similar "laboratory infected" batch of grain. I'm all for learning how this disease works and perhaps being the leading country in discovering source(s) of infection (cattle, sheep, deer and elk) and leading the world in testing, and marketing a safe product until we learn how it is formed and more on how it spreads.
Have a good day all, stay warm!

[grassfarmer]

kpb,

I would mention again the article by Dr Bob Church that appeared in Alberta Beef magazine last July/August (?). His opinion is clear - BSE probably has a natural cause along the lines of Purdeys theory. Once we had these initial cases it was probably spread through rendered remains of these animals. Only milk replacer can spread it and this happens in the first few hours of life. This is why the later attempts in the UK to prove the feed theory failed - they fed several hundred dairy cows "infected" pellets for years with no positive reactors.
Bob's pedigree in this field is good - he was one of a few world experts called on by the British government in 1985 when the first cases occurred. Their advice to the British government then was to cull all the current generations of pail-bunter calves to prevent the spread of the infective agent. The government unfortunately chose to listen to the English NFU (which is controlled by dairy producers not beef)and ignore the experts advice. The rest as they say is history. Britain performed the classic experiment - introducing the BSE infective agent into the feed supply ensuring many thousands of cases and then they withdrew the agent resulting in the declining cases they have now.

It's obvious that there must be a cause in nature because nobody was feeding the deer in Colorado in the 1970s when CWD started up - the feed theory guys that argue it is only spread through processed feed without explaining the original case are obviously out to lunch.
Ideas that deer or cattle may get a TSE by eating crap are I imagine exactly that... crap.

[Horse]

I thought BSE and CWD were simalar but not the same and not related?

[intr3est]

If we look at human examples, CJD and vCJD are different things. Listening to the scientists CJD's origin is unknown, but has been known for the last 50-60 years. vCJD has only come about in the last 15 years. So, my conclusion would be that scientists believe that it is spontaneous in humans, but the possiblity of it being spnotaneous in ruminants is unacceptable. My question would be why is it that CJD is more prevalent than vCJD. This distinction is not made evident in news media reports. Also there is the evidence that this is passed along within the cattle herd with milk rplacers, does it not make sense that it would be passed along with human breast milk and blood? All good questions, but the real question is, how do we as beef producers protect ourselves and the industry from critism and evaluation?