CNN: Cow in Alabama positive for Mad Cow

[WilliamPitt]

On TV right now, 3:16pm Monday.

[Lenore]

1. Move along folks, nothing to see here... /s (eom)

[Maru Kitteh]

91. Sec. of Ag Johanns will tell you that all right, he was a dairy farmer

And he's a bought and paid for TOOL of the awesomely powerful factory farming meat industry.

He used to be my lousy Governor but he's since moved up in the world where he can oversee the slow and silent poisoning of America with vCJD and it's new nifty variations.

http://www.mad-cow.org/~tom/Alzheimer_cjd.html

[Just Me]

2. ummmm,....

crap :scared:

[suffragette]

3. And it's a breaking news banner on MSNBC's website

which says more details to come

[Jacobin]

4. Hmm. I'll bet the Commodities markets are going bonkers

right now on beef prices.

[EFerrari]

7. Wow. I'm glad my dad doesn't trade grain any more.

This is bad news for so many people. :(

[proud2BlibKansan]

10. My bro in law is in that business

I'll bet he is freaking out right now.

[EFerrari]

18. Good luck to him. Darn, things are hard enough

for those folks already. :(

[proud2BlibKansan]

26. He told me not long ago that a mad cow scare

would devastate our local economy. He seemed genuinely concerned about the effects of just a scare, not to mention the real deal.

I just told my co-worker that most young people like her have no idea how dependant our economy here is on agribusiness. When I was young, they had stockyards downtown and you could smell them for miles. Now they are located closer to the cattle ranches in rural areas. Many of the young people her age, like my kids, have no idea that those cows keep this town in the black.

Without beef, KC could die.

[EFerrari]

29. I think few of us really are aware of what drives our local

economies. I have 8 or 10 half sibs out there. I think only one went into the business, and peripherally as a vet.

Let's hope this doesn't blow up. KC is a beautiful place.

[The Backlash Cometh]

115. Bush destroys another economy. IF we had jumped on

massive testing for mad cow disease four years ago, we'd be in a far more secure position today. The bad cows would have been weeded out, and the number of exposed consumers would have been drastically reduced.

No long term thinking, these foolish Republicans. If they only had a brain.

[Maru Kitteh]

94. If you eat cows it's bad news for you too.

If we're finding this many when we are BARELY doing any testing at all how many infected animals have already been slaughtered and made it into a taco near you?

Our good ol' gov. has had a strict policy of NOT TESTING the dead animals that make up your meat supply for some time and they've gone to great lengths to enforce this NO TESTING policy.

http://www.organicconsumers.org/madcow/blocks41604.cfm
http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/05/05/203848.php

[Viva_La_Revolution]

97. Eating cow tonight for dinner... nice juicy roast

this is not the first time they have tested positive. The first postive test was over 5 years ago in the US. They just didn't tell you about it. It's not widespread, and if you get your meat from a local grain-fed or grazed cow you'll be okay. That mass market grocery store stuff has a slightly higher chance of being infected.

then there's this...
"Muscle meat itself does not contain prions, but in processing of ground beef, sausage and other meat products, contamination of the product with nervous tissues containing the infective prion may occur."
http://mass.gov/dph/cdc/factsheets/madcow.htm

Roasts and steaks are fine, just avoid hamburger, etc.

[hatrack]

99. Or you could try buffalo!

Pretty damn good - lean but tender. Only one problem - it's bloody expensive. Not that many stores carry it (Whole Paycheck is a notable exception).

Sure is tasty, though!

[Viva_La_Revolution]

100. Buffalo and Venison and Pheasant!

Now you're making me cry... it's been years. :cry:

[Taverner]

117. You can get less expensive buffalo at Trader Joes

Good stuff too!

Also consider ostrich. Tastes like beef, squawks like a chicken...

[Maru Kitteh]

118. Juicy, nice word for blood products, where BSE can be found.

Fool yourself now but I hope you'll never be one of the little whining minions who says "I didn't know . . . Why didn't the government protect me?"

[proud2BlibKansan]

5. This morning ABC was doing the bird flu story

I don't know whether to trust these networks or not. How sad.

Thanks for the heads up.

[cry baby]

6. Is there anything that hasn't gone to shit in the last 5 years?

JEEZ!!!

[proud2BlibKansan]

9. Halliburton's bank account

[cry baby]

11. good point nt

[Pacifist Patriot]

53. Good one!

[stop the bleeding]

8. I'm a vegetarian

thanks Will

[Dhalgren]

12. Me too...now...

[Brazenly Liberal]

35. Me, too.

15 years. I don't even remember what the stuff tastes like.

[theHandpuppet]

13. Veggie burgers, folks

Cook 'em with some sauteed onions and mushrooms, a touch of garlic and some worchestire sauce and you've got a great burger. Beef is one meat I don't miss.

[Trajan]

16. We had a delicious Roast Beef last night ....

But I love veggie burgers s too ....

Now MORE vegetable alternatives will be on the menu in my home ... We already eat lots, but its time to bump up the volume even further ....

THAT is what we need here: a forum where good vegetarian recipes might be shared ....

[stop the bleeding]

there is one on DU here you go...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=231

[Deja Q]

111. Don't people have to donate in order to access the custom groups?

[EFerrari]

23. That's a good idea. Or, a forum for eating restriction in general.

Hubby can't do sugar and I'm always looking for sugarless alternatives.

[Pacifist Patriot]

56. I highly recommend "Vegetarian Meat and Potatoes" for a cookbook.

[Beaverhausen]

68. and here is a link to the Veggie Recipe Thread

lots of great recipes there!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=231x497

[LeftyMom]

84. There is one.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=231

There are a ton of recipes at http://vegweb.com/ too.

[stop the bleeding]

17. pigs and chickens are not much better when look at the whole process

from grain to chicken/pig to your table is not a safe process at all, you should get out of meat all together unless it is something like wild deer or something - anything fed with grain that humans have touch/manufactured is a bad deal for sure. It is just a matter of time before more people realize this.

[Nothing Without Hope]

36. Wild deer are not safe either - they have their own prion disease

and there was a recent report - sorry, don't have a link handy - that the infectious agent can be found in MUSCLE.

[stop the bleeding]

57. damnnn!!!! you learn something new everyday !!! thanks NWH

prion disease in deer????, I thought it was more common in processed animals and grain. Damnnn since I have been a vegetarian for 5 years now and I have thought about the deer thing, but no more not ever.

Thanks again

You rock!

[Nothing Without Hope]

92. It's called chronic wasting disease. I think there isn't PROOF that

it can infect humans, but even the USDA has counseled caution. Perhaps by this time someone has proof - I'm out of date on this. I know there were clusters of a few odd cases in humans in hunting areas of some of the western states, but that's as far as I know the story.

For me, I would not want to eat meat from deer or elk. I am eating less and less meat anyway as I have gained skill and recipes and equipment (pressure cooker really helps), and what I still eat is mostly fish and "organic" chicken. But if I just HAD to have a big steak, I'd go to a store I trusted and get one that came from a place like New Zealand.

The chances of infection from US beef are small, but they are not zero. We really don't know WHAT they are, because the Bush Administration has done all it can to suppress any real information.

[kestrel91316]

103. Google "Chronic Wasting Disease" - it's in deer and elk.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

98. goats and sheep have had their own disease for 400 years...

terra terra! better avoid those too.

[kestrel91316]

105. Scrapie is the prion disease in sheep. I think the US is scrapie-free.

[theHandpuppet]

58. You're right, of course

But then you assume I eat other meats, don't you. I started with eliminating beef but am working my way towards (hopefully) eliminating all meat from my diet -- and that includes wild game.

[stop the bleeding]

70. that is what I did as well, first it was beef then 3 months later I quit

bacon(very hard) then 3-4 months later I quit chicken. Good luck with the new lifestyle your body will thank you.

[theHandpuppet]

76. I gave up beef first because eating it always upset my stomach

I always found meat hard to digest, but particularly beef. The more I cut meat out of my diet, the better I feel. There are plenty of alternatives. Wish me luck! (Giving up pork/ham is the hardest, and I admit I feel terribly guilty about eating it.)

[proud2BlibKansan]

20. About once a month I really crave a steak

Other than that, I can live without beef.

[RaleighNCDUer]

28. That's fine.

Jusat keep away from the pre-ground hamburger.

If you want hamburger, get a cheap roast and grind your own. It's the ground beef that has the offal mixed in, the stuff that mad cow infects. Steak and roast cuts are safe, even if the critter was sick. (As I understand it).

[EFerrari]

30. I used to make my niece crack up by barbequing my veggie burger.

Because you can't. It breaks up and falls into the coals. She used to get a kick out of me pretending to be surprised every time it happened.

[Catherine Vincent]

39. You're such a stinker!

:hi:

[EFerrari]

72. She laughed!

Blame her. :)

[proud2BlibKansan]

31. Really? That is great.

I can definitely live the rest of my life without eating another hamburger.

[ms liberty]

64. That's what I've heard, too...

Is there a DU'er out there who knows this to be a fact? My understanding is avoid the ground beef, any cuts near the outer edge of the animal, where it may have come in contact with any bacteria. Isn't this a nerve-based disease? I know it involves the spinal column of the cow somehow. I would imagine avoiding any organs would be wise, too - not a problem for me, but may be for anyone who likes beef liver.

I've been worried about this for quite a while; every time I eat beef I think about it, a "is this a good idea?" kind of thought. Then I feel like a paranoid hysteric. Then I eat chicken and worry about the hormones in it. And feel like a paranoid hysteric again. Rinse and repeat as needed.

As I write this I can look out my window at a pasture where there are Black Angus grazing, I'm in NC also (North of Statesville and Hickory). I don't object to eating meat (in moderation, like anything else); what I do object to is the way it has been industrialized and corporatized. What we are doing is insane, completely insane. And totally unsustainable in the long term.

We all know what is going into these animals, especially those of us who live around those industries. I've got chicken houses down the road; it is not natural to take a chicken from hatchling to slaughter in 6 weeks. Making cows eat their own is not natural. Pumping our animals full of hormones isn 't natural.

Wonder what this is going to do to our ag here in NC...won't be good, probably.

[kestrel91316]

107. Remember, though, there is nerve tissue throughout the muscles............

nerves carry instructions from the brain to the muscles! So muscle meat cannot, by its very nature, be guaranteed to be free of prions in an affected animal.

So says kestrel, DU's own (cat) vet.

[TX-RAT]

74. Never have liked hamburger.

But i can sure do some damage to a New York Strip.

[Taverner]

82. Of course there is the theory that the prions

Can make it to the steak meat if the butchers use the same equipment to cut the steaks as they do to grind the beef...or if it even came in contact.

I hope to god that theory is untrue tho...

[LeftyMom]

86. It takes a prolonged temperature of 700 degrees and a lye bath to kill

prions on surgical instruments. I assume the same would be true of instruments used in butchery (assuming they were designed in such a way that they could be cleaned sufficiently well at all.)

Additionally, other animals infected with prion diseases have prions in their skeletal muscle tissue, so a bit unlikely steak is significantly safer than hamburger, except in that it comes from a single animal rather than the many animals whose tissues can be found in a single hamburger. There is some speculation that prions occur in the mammary secretions as well, as this occurs in sheep infected with scrapie (a similar prion disease.) Unfortunately nobody really knows for sure, since the industry and government seem to think that fervently wishing the problem will go un-noticed as a result of inadequate screening is a reasonable response to BSE.

[kestrel91316]

109. 700 degrees and a lye bath???? I got news. NOBODY is subjecting

any nice top-quality German surgical instruments of MINE to that sort of nonsense.

Good thing the kitties don't get prion disease but VERY VERY VERY rarely.

[LeftyMom]

114. My understanding is that it's routine with brain surgery implements that

are re-used. Just something I read though, I am not a doctor, nor do I play one on DU.

Here are some articles about the problem:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/29/AR2005122901536.html

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/09/13/1094927513899.html

[kestrel91316]

108. There's THAT little issue, too (legitimate, IMHO).

[kestrel91316]

106. Pre-ground beef is SOOOO bad for SOOOO many reasons.

BSE is only one of them. STEC (the bad E coli) and salmonella and shigella and others come to mind............

[Taverner]

116. You can get STEC in vegetables, even soy

Trust me, nothings safe.

Beef eaters should instead get their beef from a reputable source (Harris Ranch for example)

[kestrel91316]

119. I myself don't PURCHASE ground beef. I buy round steak or chuck

roast and grind it fresh myself. I have a small meat grinder that must be 60 years old, works fine. Nice and clean, and I know the meat ONLY came from one animal, and was prepared as cleanly as possible.

I've never forgotten the lessons learned in my first microbiology lab session, where we cultured hamburger from the store and it grew a luxurious culture of E coli (the ordinary kind, this was way before STEC came about), indicating substantial fecal contamination. Ick.

[Pacifist Patriot]

55. MorningStar Griller Prime are the best!

I like to top them with hummus and roasted red pepper. Or guacamole and a slice of tomato. Or herbed cheese and carmelized onions. Or...

Okay, I'm hungry now.

I agree. I don't miss beef in the slightest. The MorningStar Crumblers work great in chili, spaghetti, soups, shepherd's pie, etc.

[jackster]

14. it was only a matter of time anyway....

given the bang up job this administration does with protecting us!

[this_side_up]

15. I read article last week about a Northern CA company

who developed a test to use on fish at
the processing plant to check for the mercury
level in each fish.

Huh? They have their test and are allowed to use
it but the beef company that wanted to test ALL
of their beef was not permitted to do so by this
frigging government?

We've not eaten beef for 9 months now.

Never again.

[mr_hat]

19. Admission to the University of Alabama not affected, however.

[Burried News]

85. Good one :)

[renate]

21. here's an MSNBC link

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11809760/

[dogday]

22. Does this not seem convenient considering

Russ Feingold is about to introduce a bill to censure the Prez and we are getting mad cow (oh my) disease in Alabama.....

[myrna minx]

25. I am so grateful to be a vegetarian.

:scared:

[vanboggie]

81. Exactly what I was thinking

I seem to have developed an immunity to scare stories, especially when distraction is convenient (which is most of the time these days).

[Dogmudgeon]

24. It's Vegetarian Gloat Day!

Of course, you can get the infection through plant material, too, but it's the thought that counts.

--p!

[Brazenly Liberal]

46. Not unless you eat the dirt the plants grew in.

The prions can remain viable in the soil for quite some time. There's no known case of a human being infected by eating dirt, but it's at least theoretically possible.

Yale did a study some years ago. The only way to definitively diagnose Alzheimers is at autopsy. So they autopsied a bunch of people who had supposedly died of Alzheimers. Turned out 14% of them actually died of CJD (human Mad Cow). The incubation period can be a decade or more in humans. And supposed Alzheimers cases have increased exponentially in the past couple of decades. The worst of this story is yet to be told.

I've been vegetarian for 15 years. I always thought I might gloat when Mad Cow was found in the US, but when it happened, I found I was mostly worried for my friends who eat meat and for people who make a living in the cattle industry. Sure, I'd like to see them all go veg and make a living another way, but not because their lives were ruined first.

[Pacifist Patriot]

48. Another vegetarian who is NOT gloating.

:thumbsup:

[Dogmudgeon]

101. Prion disease isn't animal-specific

That includes “Mad Cow” and CJD.

These diseases have such long latencies that in cases where there is no known source of infection -- which is most of them -- no one can be sure where the prion came from. There have also been too few people with definitive CJD diagnoses for anyone to be able to do a proper study of vegetarianism and the disease.

I’ve heard about that Alzheimer/CJD study, but I’ve never seen an actual citation. If you have a link, please post it. On the other hand, I’m not demanding a Citation Showdown. I’d simply like to know where it comes from and see the study myself. If Alzheimer really is a variant of CJD, then our civilization is in big trouble. The argument against it, though, is that Alzheimer’s Disease generally doesn’t show up until after 40, making its latency unusually long, OR pointing to some defense that youngsters have that oldsters lack.

I used to work in the neuro lab of a big university hospital. I’ve tested a couple of patients with CJD. It’s a terrible way to die (as if there are any “good” ways to die). In retrospect, I was the one doing the testing because I lacked the paranoia that the physicians and the more-experienced techs had. And this was in the 1980s, a few years before Mad Cow Disease was widely publicized, or even well-known to be a variant of Creutzfeld-Jacob Disease. We turned one of the isolation rooms into a sterile theater, and everything was disposed of, packaged, labeled as a high-risk biohazard, and then personally escorted to the incinerator by a HazMat team who followed it every inch of the way.

Way too many vegetarians do, indeed, gloat; every time Mad Cow is mentioned in the news, there are five or ten of these threads here, and dozens of “thank-Goddess-I’m-Vedge” posts. A few of them have actually posted that Mad Cow was a kind of cosmic punishment for eating meat, similar to the Fundies who gloat over AIDS. They remind me of the “My computer is a Mac/Linux -- I can’t get a virus!” threads, only with far higher stakes. They get together to reassure themselves that they can’t get the disease, but they are wrong. Given its incidence and latency, the numerical odds for each group are just about the same. (And, in case you’re wondering, I actually do have a Linux installation, and I run a virus checker.)

Such is my “argument” with respect to vegetarianism. It’s not that I oppose it, I simply caution people that many of the “reasons” to be vegetarian are misleading. (Ethical vegetarianism is naturally excluded because it’s not based on health considerations.) The care of the biosphere can’t be broken down into styles of eating; there are enormous problems with agriculture that rival those of animal husbandry; health problems exist with plant food as well as animal food; and most of all, the issue of pollution cuts across the kingdoms. And the use of animal products as fertilizer is universal. We don’t test “downer” cattle before turning them into fertilizer, or food for other animals. If a cow has BSE, those prions will be part of the soil amendment to be taken up by the crops.

All these deficiencies and dangerous practices should be national scandals, but just yesterday, a law was passed by Congress relaxing agricultural inspection. No one is completely safe; maybe not even adequately safe. Prion disease is still very rare, but if we deal with it the same way we deal with other problems, from newly-emerging influenzae to the profligate use of petroleum fuel, we will find out what a prion epidemic is like sooner than we’d want to.

This is an issue where Vegetarians and “meat eaters” can, and must, unite. For Mad Cow disease/BSE/CJD, the biological risk is universal. A vegetarian diet won’t even improve your chances to any significant degree. And the only effective “cure” will be political. Health must become a mandatory part of our politics, or disease will become an inevitable part of our lives.

--p!

[Brazenly Liberal]

110. I'm not going to get into a long debate about vegetarianism.

I don't mean to be rude or anything, but I spend a great deal of time researching and writing about vegetarianism and come here to explore other interests. :-)

I'll just say that much of the information you have is mistaken and recommend you research it further.

Two books that cover the subject very well are:

The China Study by Dr. T. Colin Campbell, which documents the results of one of the longest and largest studies of diet and health;

and The Food Revolution by John Robbins, which documents in great detail the facts of the effects of food production on the environment.

I do have some links for you. As you'll see, my memory failed me and the percentage of Alzheimer's patients who actually had CJD was 13%, not the 14% I mentioned. But with approximately 2 million Americans currently diagnosed with Alzheimer's, that's a pretty significant number of potential CJD cases:

Link to the study
http://info.med.yale.edu/neurosci/faculty/manuelidis.html (written by the person who conducted the study)

Other articles referencing it.
http://archives.seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/texis.cgi/web/vortex/display?slug=brains15m&date=20040315
http://www.jsonline.com/news/state/oct02/90724.asp
http://www.fraserinstitute.ca/canstats/readdetail.asp?id=617
http://www.consumersunion.org/food/harvardcpi301.htm
http://www.populist.com/04.2.greger.html
http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0108-07.htm
http://www.kansas.net/~cbaslock/cjd1.html
http://www.purefood.org/Meat/utahcjd.cfm
http://www.rense.com/general50/cow.htm
http://www.organicconsumers.com/madcow/sweeping42302.cfm

related article re: woman who was diagnosed with Alzheimers and actually had CJD
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg16922840.300.html

[Brazenly Liberal]

113. Sorry, that one link to the study may not be right

It was conducted in 1989, before this kind of thing was routinely put online. I'm not sure the specific study I linked to is the one I cited. It's by the same person, but I don't have time right now to read it. Sorry about that! It's a busy morning for me.

[TahitiNut]

27. Didn't Roy Moore and Jeff Sessions make it obvious?

What's news about this? :evilgrin:

[warrens]

32. Elderly cow

Born before the feed ban. But they have no idea where it came from. It had only been in Alabama for a year and it was 10 years old. One thing is for sure, we can kiss the Japan and Korea markets goodbye for now.

And for all you veggie types, the worst outbreak of E. coli in years came from a. strawberries and b. bean sprouts. Mad cow is really only a threat if you eat the brains, tongue, or spinal column (well, intestines and some other parts too). Still, this is an example of how the Bushies let special interests decide what is and what isn't good science. We shut down Canada and Japan, among others, when they had a case; then we act shocked when they turn the tables on us.

[WilliamPitt]

34. "only a threat if you eat the brains, tongue, or spinal column"

...or if matter from these components gets mixed up with the beef in the processing.

It happens.

Read "Fast Food Nation."

[warrens]

47. Not to start a highly technical debate...

But yeah, sausage and precooked meatloaf and particularly those frozen beef patties with gravy things are not your best bet. But there have been only 160 cases of the human form found in 20 years of looking, and 150 were in Britain, particularly the midlands and the north, where eating brains n eggs used to be a normal breakfast.

BSE is at most a minimal risk; listeria, E. coli and particularly the lovely drug-resistant salmonella are highly lethal and kill thousands in the U.S. every year. It's easy to demonize beef; the real dangers are things we eat raw or, like cold cuts, cooked but chilled and not reheated.

[Brazenly Liberal]

69. Sorry, but that's not true. It's been found in muscle tissue, too.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5052823/

Since cows are affected the same way sheep are in every other way, it would be unlikely this one way would be the exception.

The problem is we don't test for it. Our government, such as it is, can make sweeping statements about not finding Mad Cow here or there in this country, or in this or that part of the animal. But it's all a big game of ostrich. You don't find what you don't look for. Other countries test up to 100% of the cattle for Mad Cow, and we test some small fraction of one per cent. Instead of testing, the boneheaded plan being put forth by the USDA is for every farm animal to be registered. Cows, pigs, chickens, the lot. And the owner would be required to fill out all sorts of forms every time a farm animal is born, dies, or is transferred to another owner. And they propose this with a straight face.

Any 12 year old can see the red tape boondoggle that's going to come of that.

A lot of responsible cattle growers would like to test their herds. But they're not allowed to. Instead, they will have to go through the time and expense of this stupid stupid stupid registration system.

[RaleighNCDUer]

75. I've never understood how they could be "not allowed" to test.

It's their cattle. I should think they could do anything they want with them, as long as it doesn't adversely affect the the final product. And testing would have the exact opposite effect, of improving the final product.

I just don't get it.

[Brazenly Liberal]

79. I know the Cattlmen's association lobbied against it.

and that is one powerful lobby there. I can only assume they figured people would think testing meant there was reason to worry. From the USDA's point of view, they don't want some huge problem with the food supply to show up on their watch and leave it for the next administration.

As much as I love Bill Clinton and think his presidency was the best of my lifetime, they did no better with this issue. The only way in which they are marginally less to blame on it is there hadn't been any actual cases here then.

It's a very complex issue. You take some guy whose family has been cattlemen for 4 or 5 generations. It's all he knows. And he has a huge investment in it and usually a huge bank note to pay. In a crappy economy like this one, what's he to do?

[bobbieinok]

33. HOW LONG did fed govt BAN testing for Mad Cow after

suspect cow was found in the west a few years ago?????

[Nothing Without Hope]

41. I think they STILL ban testing. They KNOW there are infected cows out

there and they have done everything they could to keep them secret. Testing would reveal infected cows, and they well know it.

The slaughterhouses don't follow the mandated rules to prevent infection of the meat anyway. This is well documented. And the BUsh Administration just smiles and turns the other way. They are in the pocket of Big Beef all the way.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

37. Mad cow alert won't harm beef sales: USDA's Johanns

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The potential discovery of a third U.S. case of mad cow disease should not hurt beef trade, Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns said on Monday, even as South Korea said it would block sales if it's confirmed.

"I do not think it will have a negative impact on trade with other countries," Johanns told reporters during a visit to Poland.

Final results were expected later this week from two definitive tests for the brain-destroying disease. The U.S. Agriculture Department announced the tests on Saturday, after a brain sample from a suspect animal yielded an "inconclusive" result in a less-accurate, rapid screening test.

Johanns maintained that U.S. beef is safe and importers should not be concerned.

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=domesticNews&storyID=2006-03-13T191026Z_01_N13272505_RTRUKOC_0_US-MADCOW-USA.xml&archived=False


OK, everybody clear on this now? All is fine, there is no danger of disease in the US beef supply. A few rotten cows in the barrel is all. :crazy:

Now get out there and BUY BEEF!

BTW, you can have my share, that stuff will kill ya.

[warrens]

40. Whistling past the graveyard

Korea is going to shut down, we fucked up and sent beef with bones to both Japan and now Hong Kong, and Japan is just looking for excuses to drag its feet more. Delusional.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

65. Japan has their out

When they confirmed it in the Texas cow I didn't expect them to buy our beef again. This is the final straw for them and they won't be the only ones.

[katinmn]

96. Japan has refused US beef because they found some infected with mad cow!

I would say exports are or will be dropping dramatically.

Minnesota exported many head of cattle to Japan in the 80s and 90s (pre mad cow) so they have their own herds now. I think Kobe beef (the gourmet beef that is being re-exported back to the US and served at the finer restaurants) is from Minnesota and other state's ancestral cows.
:)

[Lone_Star_Dem]

102. I didn't know that about the Kobe beef

I did know that they have had cases of BSE in their own herds in Japan and that they are MUCH better at keeping track of their cattle from birth to slaughter house. This is the best way to keep BSE from spreading.

Considering the fact that they were (are?) only testing the downers (cows to sick to stand at the slaughter house) for BSE in the US, I can't say I blame them for not wanting our beef. x(

[katinmn]

104. I cannot believe how cavalier they are with this health threat

And why isn't the industry demanding better inspections? The government listens to industry, not citizens. This could put them all out of business if there are a couple confirmed cases.

It's very painful and there is no cure.

[AndyA]

38. I'm not really sure how, but I'm going to blame this on Bush

Somehow, someway, he's responsible for this, directly or indirectly. :)

[Pacifist Patriot]

52. Was he ever bitten by a cow?

I'm wondering if somehow he passed it into the bovine population. I've already decided he's mad.

[JitterbugPerfume]

42. I have had my last bite of beef

I have been eating more and more MorningStar and Boca products over the last few months, and it is time to make the switch over complete.

[Pacifist Patriot]

49. Call me crazy, but I've been eating MorningStar for years...

and I preferred the taste and texture to meat immediately. I'm disappointed that I cannot find Boca brats anymore. They were much better than the Italian sausages.

[SmokingJacket]

63. Are they really good?

I quit eating beef out of mad cow paranoia years ago -- but one of my sons loves burgers, and I never had the heart to tell him he couldn't eat them just because he had the bad luck to be stuck with a paranoiac mother.

Now that it turns out I was right, I feel terrible. Do you think a picky kid would like Boca Burgers?

[Pacifist Patriot]

71. *shrug* It's worth a try.

There are several different companies on the market and they all have a few different flavors. Can't hurt to experiment and see if there is something in particular he likes. I prefer MorningStar and GardenBurger to Boca. I prefer the MorningStar Griller Prime to their Black Bean Burger.

[ornotna]

77. Sure, why not

My four kids eat Boca burgers no problem. We've been eating them for several years now.

[spanone]

43. I can only assume that the Ag. Dept. is run as well as FEMA.

:sarcasm

[MissB]

44. I stopped eating beef three and a half years ago.

I think if they actually looked for mad cow in US cows, they'd find it all over the place.

[Pacifist Patriot]

51. March 2001 for me.

I'm now 5 years mammal and poultry free. I do still eat fish and shellfish on occasion but haven't missed beef and other meats in the slightest. Fortunately we now have oodles of vegetarian cookbooks chock full of amazingly awesome recipes.

[Brazenly Liberal]

60. vegetarian since1991; vegan since 1995

And the food is fantastic!

When we were eating the SAD, we'd have the same six or eight meals over and over again. When we went veg, we started trying new things and now eat a greater variety than we ever dreamed of before.

I never learned to like tofu, though the spousal unit likes it. I tried Tofurkey and thought I was gonna gag.

For kick-ass veg recipes, try Lorna Sass. Her dishes are so good, my meat eating rellies have asked for the recipes after they eat them here.

[Pacifist Patriot]

62. I agree. Our diet got so much more interesting, varied and delicious...

since I went vegetarian. My husband still eats meat on occasion (not at home) but is a gourmet cook and has cheerfully risen to the challenge.

[stop the bleeding]

61. me too - March 2001 - 5 years only eat some fish and

shellfish, after going green I met the love of my life in the fall of that year and she has been a vegetarian for something like 12 or 13 years now.

Odd that we both stopped at the same time

[Horse with no Name]

45. And if they routinely tested downed cows that are slaughtered

The cutters and canners, they would find many more cases of such.

[Whoa_Nelly]

50. Ummm. Will? Why are you watching CNN? (website and/or TV)

Am surprised since you've berated DU'ers so many times for getting their news/perspectives from media sources such as CNN.

...just askin' :popcorn:

[WilliamPitt]

59. I was flipping past it

and saw the report as it popped.

I swear.

[Whoa_Nelly]

66. Yeah, yeah...

:rofl:

[egadsbrain]

54. What's ending up in pet food?

I stopped feeding my cats beef and all by-products. At least they have shorter life spans to be exposed. Next bird flu is going to turn the poultry market upside down and the dead feral cat that will inevitably be found will have thousands of people dumping their cats in shelters and on the street.

[atommom]

67. Between this and all of the rumblings about bird flu,

there may be some bad things happening to the beef and poultry markets...

[Thirtieschild]

73. Thi is why we eat only grass-fed beef

We buy half a cow every year or so, one that has spent its life eating grass, and never touch hamburger away from home. The steaks abd roasts are tough, but marinating takes care of that. Our British son-in-law is basically vegetarian, won't eat beef at all, and only occasionally free-range chicken. I'm moving closer and closer to joining vegetarians, partly for ethical reasons, and partly for health.

[NoodleyAppendage]

78. So! That explains Jeff Sessions!!

I was wondering what could have contributed to his rampant stupidity...now we know.

J

[Javaman]

80. Stop looking at the shiny new object and stay on target with Censure!

Funny how this is paraded out during Feingolds speech.

mad cow is bad shit but you know what? just don't eat beef. There, you are saved, now pay attention to what is going on in congress. Impeach the fucker* and stop giving eye service to this slight of hand news stories.

Oy vey people. We are our own worst enemy.

[WilliamPitt]

83. Methinks Javaman

...should switch to decaf.

[katinmn]

87. Don't they send beef overseas to be tested?

That is my understanding. "We" lack the technology. Bad for business.

I wonder how many of us have eaten of a mad cow. Yes, very bad for the beef business!

[bamademo]

88. That sure was a good Filet I had Saturday Night

Dang! :-( And I hardly ever eat beef.

[mzmolly]

89. Eat organic beef folks.

ORGANIC grass fed is best.

[LeftyMom]

90. That won't protect you

There's no way you can know if the dead cow on your plate comes from an infected mother, or if it was mislabeled. It's a verifiable fact that a great deal of the premium-priced "wild-caught" salmon in markets is actually more dangerous and much less expensive farmed salmon. It's not unlikely that the same is true of cow flesh, but there's no way to test for this that I know of.

Even if the dead cow on your plate came from a healthy mother and was fed organic grain or grass fed, it can still be contaminated in processing.

If you want to be as safe as you can be from BSE, don't eat mammals or fowl (there's evidence that chicken fed beef byproducts- one of the less nasty things fed to chickens, by the way- can spread the disease as well.)

[mzmolly]

95. Well I don't like seafood and it contains mercury.

I guess I'll have to stick to non GMO organic legumes? ;)

I was a vegitarian for a few years, but I went back to meat after having my child so as not to confuse. I have mixed feelings about eating meat, but I did get sick as hell of beans.

[davekriss]

93. I wouldn't want to be a pig right now...

...I mean, with all the fear of chickens infected with bird flu and mad cows, what meat is left to eat? (Oink :wow: !)

[DanCa]

112. Mad cow, bird flu, mercury in fish, pesticide in vegetables....

When will it stop?

[leesa]

120. Booga. Booga. Don't look at that censure vote ..or the civil war in Iraq

Oh! No! BIRD FLU!!!

What shit. Americans must be the biggest cowards on earth for this crap to keep working.

[Texacrat]

121. If I were a cow in Alabama, I would have to be fucking mad

n/t