Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy

“That vegetarian thing is looking better all the time.”

“Tilt... just step away from the computer. STEP AWAY FROM THE COMPUTER! GO TO BED!!! lol”

“When it is spelled out like that, it does not seem possible that that is Mad Cow disease. Glad I don't eat red meat but a few times a year. Supposedly, they have no clue as to how much you have to consume before your brain gets zoinked.”

“USDA refused to release mad cow records

WASHINGTON, Dec. 23 (UPI) -- Although the United States Department of Agriculture insisted the U.S. beef supply is safe Tuesday after announcing the first documented case of mad cow disease in the United States, the agency for six months repeatedly refused to release its tests for mad cow to United Press International.

The USDA claims to have tested approximately 20,000 cows for the disease in 2002 and 2003, but has been unable to provide any documentation in support of this to UPI, which first requested the information in July.

In addition, former USDA veterinarians tell UPI they have long suspected the disease was in U.S herds and there are probably additional infected animals.

<snip>

The Washington cow was tested because it was a so-called downer cow -- a cow unable to stand on its own -- which is a sign of mad cow disease. However, the United States sees approximately 200,000 of these per year or about 10 times as many animals are tested for the disease.

USDA officials told UPI as recently as Dec. 17 the agency still is searching for documentation of its mad cow testing results from 2002 and 2003.

UPI initially requested the documents on July 10, and the agency sent a response letter dated July 24, saying it had launched a search for any documents pertaining to mad cow tests from 2002 and 2003.

"If any documents exist, they will be forwarded," USDA official Michael Marquis wrote in the letter.

Despite this and a 30-day limit under the Freedom of Information Act on responding to such a request, the USDA never sent any corresponding documents. The agency's FOI office also did not return several calls from UPI placed over a series of months.

Finally, UPI threatened legal action in early December if the agency did not respond.

In a Dec. 17 letter to UPI from USDA Freedom of Information Act Office Andrea E. Fowler, the agency wrote: "Your request has been forwarded to the (Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service) for processing and to search for the record responsive to your earlier request."

To date, the USDA has not said if any records exist or if they will be sent to UPI.

"It's always concerned me that they haven't used the same rapid testing technique that's used in Europe," where mad cow has been detected in several additional countries outside of the United Kingdom, Michael Schwochert, a retired USDA veterinarian in Ft. Morgan, Colo., told UPI.

"It was almost like they didn't want to find mad cow disease," Schwochert said.

He noted he had been informed that approximately six months ago a cow displaying symptoms suggestive of mad cow disease showed up at the X-cel slaughtering plant in Ft. Morgan.

Once cows are unloaded off the truck they are required to be inspected by USDA veterinarians. However, the cow was spotted by plant employees before USDA officials saw it and "it went back out on a special truck and they called the guys in the office and said don't say anything about this," Schwochert said.

Veneman said the Washington case "does not pose any kind of significant risk to the human food chain."

Friedlander called that assessment, aptly enough, "B.S." Referring to the USDA's failure to provide their testing documentation to UPI, he said, "The government doesn't have records to substantiate their testing so how do they know whether this is an isolated case." The agency also cannot provide any assurance that this animal did not get processed for human consumption, he said.

Schwochert agreed with that, saying the USDA's sparse testing means they cannot say with any confidence whether there are additional cases or not.”

“Personally not overconcerned though.”

“US Cattlemen: "Oh, this is an isolated case- not to worry, keep eating."

US Cattlemen when 1 Mad Cow found in Canada last summer: "Close the borders! Ban Canadian beef! Buy American!"”

“Editorial from last summer during the Mad Cow outbreak in Canada:

Buy Canadian beef.

That's the message across Canada, especially in Alberta, where the cattle industry is being devastated by the finding of one apparently isolated case of mad cow disease.

Sell U.S. beef.

That's the message from USDA and U.S. cattle producers who are benefiting from their Canadian competitors' misfortune. The U.S. is Canada's biggest beef export market. With no Canadian cattle coming south, U.S. product will fill the orders. Japan and about 30 other countries have closed their borders to Canadian cattle, too. Japan is an important, and suddenly larger, market for U.S. beef.


Fast-forward to today:
Japan, Russia and Korea, among others are banning US beef. Thank God we now have Country Of Origin Labeling (COOL) legislation rammed through by the US cattle industry so we can avoid US beef now.”

“Eat more People.”

“MMMMM, Soylent Green...”

“pervert!!!”

“My uneducated guess is that the majority of TrailYackers suffer from some form of encephalopathy.

The rest of us are truly, 100% brain-dead!”

“The propaganda from the cattleman's assoc. has started!”

“The US cattlemen were merciless last summer against the Canadian beef producers when they found one case of Mad Cow and drove their industry into the ground with US bans. Now that the shoe is on the other ...hoof...it's just a "minor case"- nothing to worry about.”

“nothing to see here,people. move along.”

“Just one more reason to eat more venison.”

“When you break down the words, it's really not all that scary:

Bovine = cow
Spongiform = sponge like
Encephalopathy = head disease

I've been suffering with the human counterpart for years, it's relatively painless.”

“you have Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease biz?”

“See all this problem started from feeding cows animal products. Now tell me if I'm wrong - but in nature you don't see many bovine carnivores do you?
You feed a cow animals - it gets sick - people get sick.”

“You are eating cannibal cows.Try sow boy.”

“Gimme some-o-dat Soy, Roy.”