mad cow disease

[princess]

taken from cnn

Mad Cow Disease Found in Wash. State
By Randy Fabi and Richard Cowan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - At least one confirmed case of the deadly mad cow disease was found in an animal in Washington state, a U.S. Agriculture Department official said on Tuesday.

Mad cow disease, also known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), had previously not been found in the United States, but it devastated the European cattle industry in the 1990s. Scientists believe humans can be infected with the brain-wasting disease by eating diseased meat.

A USDA spokeswoman said one case was being investigated, but declined further comment. A spokesman for the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which regulates futures trading, said the agency was told that the USDA had detected mad cow disease in Washington state.

One industry source, who declined to be identified, said a "downer" animal -- one that is too sick to walk -- was diagnosed with mad cow disease in Washington state.

The U.S. cattle industry has long feared an outbreak of mad cow disease, which could result in billions of dollars of losses.

On May 20, Canada confirmed that one Alberta cow, which was slaughtered in January, had mad cow disease. The disease has been widespread in Europe and has been linked to about 130 human deaths, mostly in Britain.

The discovery of the sick Canadian cow triggered an immediate halt of Canadian meat exports by most countries as a precaution.

Because of concerns over mad cow disease, the European Union in 1994 banned the use of mammalian meat and bone meal in cattle feed, but it has allowed the products to be used in feed for other animals like chickens, pigs and fish.

[hooligan]

it's a good time to be vegetarian. ah jeez, hopefully this is going to force people to stop eating fast food.

[DragonKnight]

Arr, friggin cows off of I-5 are gonna scare me now.

[Kuchana]

it's a good time to be vegetarian. ah jeez, hopefully this is going to force people to stop eating fast food.

Goshdangit. And I just recently started eating burgers, too. Just great.
Ah well, back to fish and pasta for me:)

[Chester]

For fuck's sake, the price of beef was already abnormally high...enough so that some people have been advising folks to stock up...as if a hurricane were on its way and a rack of beef ribs were the equivalent of a jug of distilled water.

Well, that's what I was thinking, but...now I wish I had a bunch of rib-eyes sitting in the freezer...

[moJo]

Arr, friggin cows off of I-5 are gonna scare me now.
didn't they already scare you before (the I-5 cows, i mean)? or at least disturb you? that always makes me swear off beef...for a few minutes, anyway. :tongue:

[DragonKnight]

didn't they already scare you before (the I-5 cows, i mean)? or at least disturb you? that always makes me swear off beef...for a few minutes, anyway. :tongue:
Lol, I hold my breath and speed just a wee bit faster through that particular area. Granted I'm eating less beef than I usually do ever since I moved to LA and started driving I-5 more often. :tongue:

[ism]

Goshdangit. And I just recently started eating burgers, too. Just great.
Ah well, back to fish and pasta for me:)

lolz, the FDA advised pregnant women and women of childbearing age to avoid mercury-laden fish last week. no food is safe!

[Faithless]

Where did I hear that they haven't been able to identify where the cow originated. Should that be a concern?

Boy, Japan and others sure bailed-out quickly on this import from US.

[princess]

Where did I hear that they haven't been able to identify where the cow originated. Should that be a concern?

Boy, Japan and others sure bailed-out quickly on this import from US.

i think when all the hype started up, the sources got mixed up...but its washington.

[d-boy]

what a great opportunity to introduce boshintang to the U.S....

[hooligan]

lolz, the FDA advised pregnant women and women of childbearing age to avoid mercury-laden fish last week. no food is safe!
i guess i'm going to go back to what i did in elementary school, eating paste!

[teaz0r]

when it was going on in england.
they still sold beef. i ate steak
all the time.

[mr. x]

im sick of hearing these stories about mad cow, but i spose its only fair that asian stereotype American meat since a lot of Americans stereotyped asians (sars anyone)?

yeah im kidding, anyway im not gonna change my eating habits, no more or less beef than usual

[Faithless]

i think when all the hype started up, the sources got mixed up...but its washington.

OK. But there was this old story of mad cow in Washington, originating from Canada.

http://washingtontimes.com/business/20030520-102304-9756r.htm

[Faithless]

This article from 2001 suggests that mad cow has been a potential problem for a while --

http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2001-01-22-madcow.htm

considering the types of dietary supplements they give cows.
The FDA committee heard from Scott Norton, a physician in the Washington area, who showed the committee a dietary supplement called "Male Power," which, according to the label, contained deer antler, "orchic," which Norton said is taken from testes, along with extracts from thymus, adrenal, lymph, prostate, spleen and pituitary glands

[Sledge]

I set my bullshit detector pretty high when I read the news, but I'm definitely listening to the alerts on Mad Cow Disease - CJK is a pretty scary fucking disease, and prions are scary little fucking germs that you do NOT want crawling around inside your head.

You can't kill them by freezing.
You can't kill them with heat.
You can't kill them with pressure.
They're the Freddy Krueger of germy crawly things.

[hooligan]

I set my bullshit detector pretty high when I read the news, but I'm definitely listening to the alerts on Mad Cow Disease - CJK is a pretty scary fucking disease, and prions are scary little fucking germs that you do NOT want crawling around inside your head.

You can't kill them by freezing.
You can't kill them with heat.
You can't kill them with pressure.
They're the Freddy Krueger of germy crawly things.
actually the thing responsible for mad cow disease is a protein (they call them prions). the protein's the weirdest shit ever. it like replicates, it corrupts other protein, and does shit to your head. all the while, they're not alive.

[Sledge]

So they're undead, too. We're fucked.

[hooligan]

So they're undead, too. We're fucked.
the dominion of man is over :(

[Tao]

wow...so you can't kill it by just cooking it really well? i mean doesn't the protien denature?

[hooligan]

wow...so you can't kill it by just cooking it really well? i mean doesn't the protien denature? apparently extreme heat can denature them, but they're highly resilient and can survive normal cooking temperatures. the thing is that if you miss even one you'll have a chance to develop symptoms because the protein messes with normal body proteins and corrupts them.

::goes to look for a link::

edit: linkage --> http://www-micro.msb.le.ac.uk/3035/prions.html

sorry, i can't find evidence to heat resistance. i guess i'll dig around later.

[Faithless]

The cow may have originated in Washington, but they don't know which "birth herd" --
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=4042789
The Food and Drug Administration believes the Holstein cow in Washington state contracted mad cow disease after eating infected animal feed in its birth herd, an agency official told Reuters on Wednesday.
"That is our current thinking," said Stephen Sundlof, director of FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine, when asked if the four-year-old cow was infected while in its birth herd.

The USDA is still trying to determine the farm where the infected animal was born. The cow was purchased by a large dairy operation in October 2001.

[Tao]

awww man...you mean after all this talk, you still don't want to eat this?:

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid95/pa01128ffd47f81cf023b70a66e25f8d3/fa2f57bf.jpg

*though it tasted good....man, even this photo gives me the heeby geebies :eek:
that's too bloody for me to eat....shit man that's pretty rare, i need mine at least medium

[Tao]

yeah---my whole family likes it bloody----yum, yum, yummy!!!

and I even eat raw meat sometimes (cut steak). I think it tastes good---sort of like how raw fish tastes good compared to cooked.
are you serious? damn that's some crazy shit. don't you get food poisoning from eating raw beef?

[hooligan]

naw dude---all of the bacteria (and ecoli) is on the outside of the meat---generally only if there was a spill at the factory. that's why hamburger meat needs to be cooked all the way--cause everything is ground up. just wash/cut off the outside, and you're set. Cause if raw beef by itself was bad, then they wouldn't sell steak tartar anywhere (they have it at our restaurant sometimes).
yeup, e. coli can't burrow into the meat, you're safe :)

[Kuchana]

lolz, the FDA advised pregnant women and women of childbearing age to avoid mercury-laden fish last week. no food is safe!

yeah you're telling me :frown: what has the world come to???

by the way, i love *sarcasm* how the officials are insisting that beef is still safe to eat yet they retract it by admitting they don't know for sure. give me a break!

[Kuchana]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/washpost/20031227/ts_washpost/a33163_2003dec26&e=2


"As Probe of Infected Cow Spreads, So Does Worry "

Taken from Yahoo. By Shankar Vedantam and Blaine Harden,

"Cattle in other states may have eaten the same contaminated feed that infected a Washington state Holstein with mad cow disease, but investigators who want to track the infection to its source are being confounded by the lack of an organized system that would lead them to the herd where the cow was born, officials said yesterday.

The lack of a reliable tracking system, and a complex trail of clues, rumors and false leads, mean it could be days or months -- or never -- before all the links are fully explored, officials said. For a nation already jittery about the Holstein, the expanding investigation could spread worry.


"The epidemiological investigation becomes a tangled web of different possibilities," said W. Ron DeHaven, deputy administrator and chief veterinary officer at the Agriculture Department. "Some of those do lead back to Canada. Some take us into the state of Washington and other states, as well."


Already, consumers who ate meat that might have come from the sick Holstein are concerned. Grocery stores were shipped ground beef and beef patties from meat that included the infected cow 11 days before a test for mad cow disease came back positive and the meat was recalled -- it is not yet known how much of the meat was pulled off grocery shelves or has been consumed.


Five major grocery chains in Oregon and Washington have pulled ground beef from their shelves. In Oregon, some of the recalled meat has been accounted for at the wholesale level.


"But some has been distributed at the retail level, at which point it was sold," said Dalton Hobbs, a spokesman for the Oregon Department of Agriculture.


The developments came on a day when President Bush (news - web sites) sought to reassure citizens that the food supply is safe; his spokesman said the president "continued to eat beef." Exports of U.S. beef are on hold to nearly two dozen nations, and a U.S. trade team was dispatched to Japan, which has banned U.S. beef imports. The officials expect to arrive in Tokyo by Monday to try to recover the Japanese market, which is worth $1.03 billion to the U.S. beef industry.


Two facilities in Washington state are now under investigation as transient stops for the Holstein between its birth herd and a Mabton farm, which sent it to the slaughterhouse on Dec. 9, DeHaven said.


The birth herd is where the Holstein was probably infected -- and from which infectious links could radiate in multiple directions. Investigators want to track down who supplied the birth herd with infected feed four or five years ago to deduce whether contaminated feed was also sent to other farms. There are gargantuan challenges in figuring out which other animals ate such infected feed, where they may be now -- and whether they might already be in the domestic and international food supply.


"It could be difficult to find out where the feed might have originated," said Stephen Sundlof of the Food and Drug Administration (news - web sites)'s Center for Veterinary Medicine. "Try to imagine what you ate four to five years ago. It's not something people keep very good records on."


For the first time since the mad cow case came to light on Tuesday, DeHaven and other regulators said they are considering strengthening the nation's testing system for mad cow disease, and installing an electronic tracking system that would follow animals from birth to death. They also plan to revisit a controversial USDA policy that allows non-ambulatory animals into the nation's food supply -- the infected Holstein was a "downer" cow -- many food safety advocates and legislative initiatives have unsuccessfully tried to eliminate these animals as a food source.


Officials insist that the nation's food supply is safe and that mad cow disease is unlikely to spread because of FDA regulations put in place in 1997 that are supposed to keep cattle from getting infected feed. Compliance with the ban has grown from about 75 percent in 1997 to more than 99 percent today, Sundlof said.


Still, the Washington state Holstein was probably infected after the ban was in place -- between the time it was born, about 1999, and the time it was acquired by Sunny Dene Ranch in Mabton in October 2001.


Mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, is associated with a fatal brain-wasting disorder in humans called variant Creutzfeld-Jakob disease. The disease has caused 154 deaths, mostly in Britain. It is believed to have spread because farmers fed ground-up brain and spinal tissue from infected cows to healthy cattle, and the feed carried deadly prions, misshapen proteins that cause the disease. There is no cure for mad cow disease or its human variant -- and infected people do not show symptoms for several years.


Experts say that even if large numbers of animals ate infected feed, only a minority would be likely to get sick, but it is difficult to quantify the precise risk for an individual animal.


DeHaven said there is also a very small chance that prions can be transmitted from a cow to its calves. Officials revealed yesterday that the infected Holstein had three calves. One died shortly after birth around October 2001, which was when the Sunny Dene Ranch acquired the cow from either a dairy facility or a livestock market, both of which are under investigation. A second calf, now a yearling heifer, is still at Sunny Dene Ranch, along with 4,000 other animals under quarantine.


A bull calf born recently -- the birth caused injuries that made the Holstein unprofitable to the farm, prompting it to be shipped to the slaughterhouse on Dec. 9 -- was sent to a bull calf feeding operation in Sunnyside, Wash.


Investigators say this calf is one of 400 ranging in age from seven to 30 days. The calf has not yet been identified. The Sunnyside facility has also been put under quarantine -- DeHaven said regulators had not yet decided whether the animals would be killed, or what kind of compensation would be paid to farmers if such a step were to become necessary. Millions of cattle were destroyed in Europe to control mad cow disease, and DeHaven said farmers have been compensated in the past.

DeHaven said that investigators were tracing the Holstein's antecedents through a dairy farm near Mabton and a livestock market by using information from the index farm, dealer records, and documents from state and federal offices.

"My hope is we will be able to identify that location within a matter of days," DeHaven said. He cited the experience of Canadian investigators, who unsuccessfully tried to identify the birth herd of a cow found infected with mad cow disease in May, adding that "it could also be a matter of weeks or months. It's also possible that we may not be able to determine it at all."

A recall of more than 10,000 pounds of meat was begun at 1:30 a.m. on Christmas Eve. The recall, which officials said was being ordered out of an abundance of caution, involved 20 carcasses, including that of the infected Holstein, that moved through a Moses Lake, Wash., slaughterhouse on Dec 9. The carcasses were shipped to a deboning facility called Midway Meats in Centralia, Wash., on Dec. 11, said Kenneth Petersen, an official at the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service.

Midway Meats deboned the carcasses and shipped the meat to two processors, Interstate Meat Distributors in Clackamas, Ore., and Willamette Valley Meat in Portland, Ore., Petersen said.

Mark A. Klein, the owner and president of Willamette, said that the company has tracked and identified all of the recalled meat. Most of it, he said, is still in the lockers at his company. The rest might be in coolers in retail shops in the Portland area, or it may have been sold to consumers this week.

Interstate ground the meat into ground beef or beef patties on Dec. 12 and began shipping products to stores on Dec. 13.

After the recall was announced, stores started removing meat from their shelves. Albertsons, the nation's second-largest grocery company, pulled some ground beef from 140 of its stores in Oregon, Washington and northern Idaho.

The supermarket chain WinCo Foods, which has 18 stores in Oregon and six in Washington, asked customers who purchased one kind of lean ground beef between Dec. 15 and Dec. 23 to return it, according to Mike Read, a spokesman. Some customers brought meat back to stores for a refund. Others wanted something far more difficult to obtain: reassurance.

Read said the store has fielded worried phone calls: "Customers have called in and said, 'I purchased it, and I have already eaten it and what should I do?' "

[pfc beansprout]

heh...u see now, they are tryin to "blame canada" for the problem...dunno if i buy that...like south park, "Blame canada!"

[Faithless]

heh...u see now, they are tryin to "blame canada" for the problem...dunno if i buy that...like south park, "Blame canada!"

What can you say when the latest reports say that the "birth herd" was from the Canads?

[Kuchana]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3797510/

U.S. traces diseased cow to Canada
Animal appears to have entered U.S. through Idaho in Aug. 2001


The Associated Press
Updated: 10:57 p.m. ET Dec. 27, 2003WASHINGTON - The Holstein infected with mad cow disease in Washington state was imported into the United States from Canada about two years ago, federal investigators tentatively concluded Saturday.

Dr. Ron DeHaven, chief veterinarian for the Agriculture Department, said Canadian officials have provided records that indicate the animal was one of a herd of 74 cattle shipped from Alberta, Canada, into this country in August 2001 at Eastport, Idaho.


“These animals were all dairy cattle and entered the U.S. only about two or two-and-a-half years ago, so most of them are still likely alive,” DeHaven said.

DeHaven emphasized that the sick cow’s presence in that herd does not mean all 74 animals are infected. Investigators are tracking down where the other 73 animals are.

“We feel confident that we are going to be able to determine the whereabouts of most, if not all, of these animals within several days,” DeHaven said.

Key for U.S. export market
Confirming that the sick cow came from Canada will be crucial for the United States to continue exporting beef because it could retain its disease-free status. The country has lost 90 percent of its exports because of the case, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association estimates, because more than two dozen foreign nations have banned the import of U.S. beef despite claims by U.S. officials that the meat is safe.

Canada found a case of mad cow disease in Alberta in May. The discovery decimated the country’s beef industry as its importers cut off trade.


Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy, or mad cow disease, belongs to a family of diseases called Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies or TSE’s.
Encephalopathies are diseases of the brain. Spongiform comes from the fact that the brain takes on the structure of a sponge and transmissible means the disease can be spread.


TSEs are diseases of the central nervous system and slowly cause its failure. All have long incubation periods lasting from months to years. There is no cure and they are always fatal.


TSEs occur somewhat randomly, and the cause is unidentified.
TSEs are familial or inherited, which means they are passed on genetically from parents to offspring.

The source of TSEs are from outside the animal.

Dr. Brian Evans, chief veterinary officer of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, said it’s premature to draw any conclusions about the cow’s origins because Canadian and U.S. records that ostensibly refer to the same cow don’t agree on key details.

Canadian papers show the cow had two calves before it was shipped to the United States, which wasn't documented by U.S. officials.


Also, Canadian papers say the diseased cow was 6 1/2-years-old -- older than U.S. officials had thought. U.S. records say the cow was 4 or 4 1/2-years-old.

The age is significant because the animal may have been born before the United States and Canada in 1997 banned certain feed, which is considered the most likely source of infection.

Farmers used to feed their animals meal containing tissue from other cattle and livestock to fatten them. Countries have banned such feed because infected tissue — such as the brain and spinal cord — could be in the meal.

"Whatever the outcome (of the investigation) ... we will work closely with U.S. and international colleagues to deal with what is clearly a North American and global issue."


A major human health concern
Mad cow disease, formally known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy, is a public health concern because it is related to a human disease, variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob. In Britain, 143 people died of the human illness after an outbreak of mad cow in the 1980s. People can get it if they eat meat containing tissue from the brain and spine of an infected cow.


The Agriculture Department insists the meat supply is safe because parts that carry the disease — the brain, spinal cord, and lower part of the intestine — were removed before the meat was processed. But as a precaution, the government has recalled an estimated 10,000 pounds of meat cut from the infected cow and from 19 other cows all slaughtered Dec. 9 at Vern’s Moses Lake Meat Co., in Moses Lake, Wash.

Ken Petersen, of the department’s Food Safety and Inspection Service, “it’s too early to know how much of the product has been brought back, though we know that some of the product is beginning to be at least held at the retail facilities.”

Officials say the slaughtered cow was deboned at Midway Meats in Centralia, Wash., and the meat was sent to two other plants in the region, identified as Willamette and Interstate Meat, both near Portland, Ore.

The animal most likely became sick from eating contaminated feed, so the Food and Drug Administration is tracking down what it ate. That’s a difficult task because the cow may have contracted the disease years ago, long before it showed signs that it was sick. The disease has an incubation period of four or five years.

Dr. Stephen Sundlof, head of the FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine, said the agency also is trying to account for all of the products made from the cow. This includes items like soap and soil.

U.S. could lose $6 billion a year
Gregg Doud, an economist for the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, said Friday that the United States stands to lose at least $6 billion a year in exports and falling domestic prices.
Egypt and Kuwait are among two dozen buyers blocking American beef.


"Animal appears to have entered U.S. through Idaho in Aug. 2001"

What the heck???! :mad: 2 yrs ago???? Think how many people could be infected already :eek:

Farmers used to feed their animals meal containing tissue from other cattle and livestock to fatten them. Countries have banned such feed because infected tissue — such as the brain and spinal cord — could be in the meal.

Ewww....ok man...I'm definitely going to stop eating beef now. That's disgusting :frown:

Dr. Stephen Sundlof, head of the FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine, said the agency also is trying to account for all of the products made from the cow. This includes items like soap and soil.

HUH???? Soap is made of cow???? Since when??? :eek:

[ChairmanMah]

they shouldn't blame canada when the cow already crossed customs at the border. They should be pre-screened.

this blame could have been a result of u.s. protectionists that planted the canadian cow tag after the discovery.

[BigLew]

ah jeez, hopefully this is going to force people to stop eating fast food.Yeah, about as much as AIDS kept people from screwin'.

[shy]

What can you say when the latest reports say that the "birth herd" was from the Canads?

well... from what i understand, these cows were several years old. which means that it dates back to a time where mad cow wasn't exactly that well known and before all the banning happened.

regardless of when the cow was shipped over, the US owners of the cows were also responsible in making sure they tested for the age of the cow.

but to look at the whole picture...

this is once again, US media bumping things up bigger then what it really is. the desease can only be spread through eating the brain and spinal cord of the cow. therefore, only meats that have come in contact w/ these two areas (like ground beef) might have to be recalled. the other areas are much safer.

what i do not like about this media is that the US will bump it up and put blame to other countries, making other countries suffer. they did the same with SARS and tried to lay blame on the huge black out.

for SARS, the number of possible sars cases appeared much higher only because canada reported numbers of all POSSIBLE cases and not just proven cases. where as the states only reported the proven cases but did not report to the public those cases that had not been confirmed either/or.

i had cousins from the states who were terrified in coming to our wedding because they saw on the news people wearing masks everywhere in toronto. well... being from toronto, i can highly assure you that the only people who wore masked for the 2/3 older, paranoid people... and most of those who work in the health profession environment (hospitals, medical offices, etc.) the US media did a beautiful job in filming only those environments.

regarding the blackout... well, after much blaming on canada, they found it that the malfunction/error originated somewhere in or around cleaveland.

two months ago, there was a spread from a state's stock of green onions which cause an epidemic of hepititus A. i doubt you will find too much of a decrease of sales of green onion long term (or bad enough to cause truly bad business) as most canadians didn't even hear about it. i only heard about it recently when one restaurent explained they were not using green onions on their nachos for the time being due to a health and safety concern. however, they did not indulge us as to what that health and safety concern was... i had to do my own research on the net to find out.

finally, more people in this world die of somminella poisoning (sp?) then mad cow desease.

[>:^|]

I think I have mad cow disease
I'm insane and I'm starting to seize
I'd rather have salmonella
From the genus patella
Or maybe I'd rather have fleas.

[Napoleon Chynamite]

this is once again, US media bumping things up bigger then what it really is. the desease can only be spread through eating the brain and spinal cord of the cow. therefore, only meats that have come in contact w/ these two areas (like ground beef) might have to be recalled. the other areas are much safer.

According to rules, regulations, and law, brain, spinal cord, and other parts containing nervous tissue of cows are not even allowed in the human food supply. However, due to noncompliances and loopholes, the risk of eating American beef cannot be placed at zero. Steaks and whole cuts present less risk than ground beef, but that is hardly comforting considering not only the fatality and incurability of the disease plus the fact that ground beef is practically a staple for many Americans, included in the form of meat wraps (e.g. many types of mexican food), pasta-related dishes (e.g. spaghetti), and of course pastimes such as burgers, meat loaf, and stews/soups. Furthermore I also suspect that many Chinese restaurants (not sure about other types of Asian cuisine) are guilty of noncompliance in that they do not throw or discard many parts of the cow away and everything is used for the sake of efficiency to make tripe, sauce, minced beef, etc.

The risk overall should still be very low, but once again I agree with Kuchana earlier, who objected to how the government is assuring everyone that the beef supply is safe, all while admitting that they are not sure of the bottom line and are still investigating regarding the seriousness and extent of the problem.

[hooligan]

According to rules, regulations, and law, brain, spinal cord, and other parts containing nervous tissue of cows are not even allowed in the human food supply. However, due to noncompliances and loopholes, the risk of eating American beef cannot be placed at zero. Steaks and whole cuts present less risk than ground beef, but that is hardly comforting considering not only the fatality and incurability of the disease plus the fact that ground beef is practically a staple for many Americans, included in the form of meat wraps (e.g. many types of mexican food), pasta-related dishes (e.g. spaghetti), and of course pastimes such as burgers, meat loaf, and stews/soups.
still not eating meet hube? :biggrin:

[Napoleon Chynamite]

still not eating meet hube? :biggrin:

punkass

*whimpers and cowers in corner, clutching sacred bag of Oreos*

[Napoleon Chynamite]

"Animal appears to have entered U.S. through Idaho in Aug. 2001"

What the heck???! :mad: 2 yrs ago???? Think how many people could be infected already :eek:

The only saving grace/chance we got however is that supposedly the animal entered the US in a herd of 74 dairy cows, which means that most of them are likely to be still alive (i.e. not slaughtered for consumption or hopefully other purposes).

[Faithless]

According to rules, regulations, and law, brain, spinal cord, and other parts containing nervous tissue of cows are not even allowed in the human food supply.

Wonder if monkey brain is subject to that.