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Title: Mad Cow Disease (It's herrreeeeee....) Post by: ConfusedUs on 2003-12-24, 18:43 The first confirmed case of Mad Cow Disease has been found at a Washington farm.
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/3795664/ (http://msnbc.msn.com/id/3795664/) http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/12/24/mad.cow/index.html (http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/12/24/mad.cow/index.html) Scary. =( Title: Re: Mad Cow Disease Post by: dna on 2003-12-24, 18:54 Yes, now we will have to burn all our cows and see everyone bar their borders to US meat.
Title: Re: Mad Cow Disease Post by: Demonwench on 2003-12-24, 20:22 No need to panic yet. Just wait until they check up on the history of the cow. It's a noncommmunicable disease. Besides, Holstein is a dairy cow. We don't normally eat dairy cows. No worries.
Title: Re: Mad Cow Disease Post by: Lilazzkicker on 2003-12-25, 00:56 Yeah DW, also, we rarely eat the parts that are known for being an infectious part.
Title: Re: Mad Cow Disease Post by: Kain-Xavier on 2003-12-25, 09:04 To quote a comedian whose name eludes me at the moment, "Who @#$@ed up the meat?!?!" I'm sure it'll pass and no serious harm will be done.
Title: Re: Mad Cow Disease Post by: dna on 2003-12-25, 16:42 Japan, Mexico, and others have already put a temporary ban on our beef.
Title: Re: Mad Cow Disease Post by: Phoenix on 2003-12-26, 07:18 I'm sure the beef won't be in any real danger from an isolated incident like this. The problem is that if it were to spread the US has a deer population that is far too dense, and it can spread from cow to deer and to cow again. This is why anti-hunting == bad. too many prey animals encourages the spread of disease. Oh well, not transmittable to birds so it's no feathers off my tail. I do feel bad for the animals though.
Title: Re: Mad Cow Disease Post by: dna on 2003-12-26, 14:56 Quote from: Phoenix <font color=#FFFF00>I'm sure the beef won't be in any real danger from an isolated incident like this. Well, the question is how isolated is it? How did this cow contract the disease in the first place? Wqas it thru animal feed? That's the real danger. If anything, this should be a shot in the arm for organic beef.Upside for consumers is that beef should be getting pretty cheap here as all the exports dry up. Title: Re: Mad Cow Disease Post by: Demonwench on 2003-12-26, 18:18 LOL! I was actually thinking the price of beef should fall soon. I'm glad for that, I love beef but it was faaaaaaaar to expensive, thanks to Atkins. And a ban because of one cow? Those people are being way too paranoid. We don't eat the nervous tissue, which is where the most infectious portions are. AND...in the entire history of Bovine Spongioform Encephalopathy there has only been roughly 60 cases of humans getting it. Think, millions of cows...60 people. The chances of anyone coming down with this over here from ONE bloody HOLSTEIN is practically nil.
Title: Re: Mad Cow Disease Post by: Arno on 2003-12-26, 20:12 Uhm... DW... I think you're forgetting one tiny detail. You're right, the disease is hardly dangerous for humans. But it's lethal for cows. Farmers don't want a lethal disease descimating their cattle. That's why they have to rigidly quarantaine this case, before it becomes uncontrolable.
Title: Re: Mad Cow Disease Post by: Demonwench on 2003-12-26, 23:08 *Rolls eyes* Trust me...I know more about BSE than you'd want to know. We've studied it quite thoroughly. Aye, it is deadly to cows. But the route of infection is not common. It is not a communicable disease. Just housing normal cows and BSE infected cows together isn't going to cause the spread of it. I think it's just a "new disease" scare. ONE cow...don't worry about it. Worry more about West Nile. That's something worth worrying about. And it's still not that bad.
Title: Re: Mad Cow Disease Post by: dna on 2003-12-26, 23:24 Ah it's still the vector you worry about
Anyway, it's not the disease itself you worry about but the puiblic conception. Title: Re: Mad Cow Disease Post by: Demonwench on 2003-12-27, 19:08 Well on that we can agree. The human populace is going to ape over Mad Cows now and get all freaked out over it. Fall, beef prices, fall! Mwahahahaha.
Title: Re: Mad Cow Disease Post by: Phoenix on 2003-12-28, 01:10 To add to the frenzy, I heard just today in a news report that the cow was actually imported from Canada TO the US a few years ago. They're running tests on calves in both countries that are supposedly from this cow. I suppose the US will start banning imported beef now too? I have a novel idea, why doesn't everyone just GROW THEIR OWN FOOD?!? Maybe then imported illnesses will be a non-issue? Oh wait, I forgot, that's so 19th century. Corporate greed and consumerism doesn't allow for that. Begging your pardon then. :rolleyes:
Title: Re: Mad Cow Disease Post by: Woodsman on 2003-12-28, 04:29 /me eats a burger without pissing himself with fear
Title: Re: Mad Cow Disease Post by: Demonwench on 2003-12-28, 06:34 Good show, Woods. And I'm not surprised the cow came from Canada. Canada has had a few cases of BSE...which, surprisingly enough, can be traced back to the UK. All the cases of BSE from around the world either come from cows imported from the UK or by the meat and bone meal before the ban.
No need to panic, folks. If the cow's only been in the country for a few years...means the cow can only have had 2 or 3 calves. Transmission between dam and offspring is not very well documented at all. But...if you really want to assume the calves are indeed infected, it won't be hard to get them and destroy them. Only the 2 and 3 year old calves would be old enough now for breeding, so you are looking at maybe 2 other calves. Making a total of 6 cows to destroy. Big whoop. Title: Re: Mad Cow Disease Post by: Phoenix on 2003-12-28, 10:33 "Destroy"... makes them sound too much like a "thing". How about we call it what it is: killing.
Title: Re: Mad Cow Disease Post by: Woodsman on 2003-12-28, 15:45 i guess pho hooked up with the P.E.T.A crowd
Title: Re: Mad Cow Disease Post by: Demonwench on 2003-12-28, 18:09 Not just kill, Pho. You'd still have the carcass. Destroy not only means killing the cows, but completely getting rid of their bodies so that chance of other cows getting into them is nil.
Title: Re: Mad Cow Disease Post by: l4mby on 2003-12-28, 18:28 http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor...n_re_us/mad_cow (http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=519&e=1&u=/ap/20031228/ap_on_re_us/mad_cow)
Just thought I'd bring this to the board. *shrug* Regardless, I'm still going to eat beef. wewt fer steak ! MMMMMM ! =P Honestly, I'm not all that worried about it. When it starts hitting here in Nebraska, then it _might_ make me look twice just for the sheer amount of cows we've got here, but I'll still go home and eat my hamburgers. Hehe. I love how they write this article. It almost has panic written all over it, but at the same time, it doesn't. Ok, just ignore me, I'm not feeling too well. Hehe. =P GAME ON ! Title: Re: Mad Cow Disease Post by: Demonwench on 2003-12-28, 19:10 *Rolls eyes* I'm going to stop harping on this. Y'all know what I think. *Offers a big plate of medium rare prime rib to l4mby*
Title: Re: Mad Cow Disease Post by: l4mby on 2003-12-28, 19:14 mmmm ... PRIME RIB ! *takes it and offers half to DW* Hehehe.
I'm pretty much on the same lines as DW, so I don't really have much to say. *shrug* Title: Re: Mad Cow Disease Post by: Dicion on 2003-12-28, 19:50 yeha, if you actually read up on BSE and (v)CJD..
It's only communicable from NEURAL TISSUE.. so unless you're eating an infected cow's brain.. you're probably okay. i was reading up on vCJD, the version of the disease gotten from eating mad cow stuff, and it has an incubation period of up to 40 years, but seems like quite a bad way to go... Quote The initial stage of the disease can be subtle with ambiguous symptoms of insomnia, depression, confusion, personality and behavioral changes, strange physical sensations, and problems with memory, coordination and sight. As the disease advances, the patient experiences a rapidly, progressive dementia and in most cases, involuntary and irregular jerking movements known as myoclonus. Problems with language, sight, muscular weakness, and coordination worsen. The patient may appear startled and become rigid. In the final stage of the disease, the patient loses all mental and physical functions. The patient may lapse into a coma and usually dies from an infection like pneumonia precipitated by the bedridden, unconscious state. Title: Re: Mad Cow Disease Post by: Demonwench on 2003-12-28, 21:57 Woot! *Applauds Dicion* Finally, someone who actually takes the time to look this stuff up!
Title: Re: Mad Cow Disease Post by: games keeper on 2003-12-28, 21:59 bah , as long as it doesnt happen the way it happens in belgium its no problem .
Title: Re: Mad Cow Disease Post by: dna on 2003-12-30, 21:22 Quote from: Dicion It's only communicable from NEURAL TISSUE.. so unless you're eating an infected cow's brain.. you're probably okay. There's that little machine in the processing (excuse me, killing) plants called the stripper that goes along and strips all the meat that humans are unable to cut away with their knives. So? So they feed the spine in there as well. I don't think they aim for the spinal cord, but you know... If you knick a little here and knick a little there, no big deal ;) But there's you're cause for mad cow disease in humans. As I understand it, cooking doesn't stop this (but I'm not for certain). Of course that's easy to avoid by getting your meat locally from the corner butcher shop who doesn't employ such butchering (killing) methods as that Anyway, I'm not too worried about it either, but I just wanted to throw that in to stir the pot a little :P I have no idea what GK was trying to say. |