Canada and The Mad Cow

[3Vandoo]

nope

we'll export it

[BABY ARNOLD]

Originally posted by 3Vandoo
ok no one likes my theory

i agree with your theory

[Polynomstapler]

The whole syndrome is quite fascinating to me..

I had the chance to look at a real brain of one who died from vCJD. Some sort of scary...

[Got Gear?]

Does anyone know if Canada has been declared "Mad Cow Free" again yet?

Something crazy like 7000 cattle killed and tested, still only this 1 case..

[Polynomstapler]

@Got Gear

Nope. And certainly won't be too soon.

@all

Interesting enough most of you are badly informed. Just some remarks from me:

1. Neither the US nor Canada is BSE-free or has ever been. The industry (which has quite a lobby in Washington) is simply pretending a false safety to the consumers by not testing enough animals. They just test as many that it's still heigly improbable that a cow is tested positive.

2. >They said it's only ever been diagnosed in Sheep, cows, and humans.

That's not true. A lot of zoo-animals, cats, dogs and deer (!) (> Chronic Wasting Disease in Canada and the US) hasdeveloped the disease so far. The only limitation seems to be the age as the disease takes a lot of time to develope. The prion protein is common in all mammals so probably all of them can get the disease.

3. >It's quite common in sheep and no threat to humans at this point

Some experts think that that's not true as i.e. the CJD-rate among sheppards is much higher.

4. >The problem with testing for it is that there's no non-destructive test

There are two tests in developement. One works with an analyse of the heart-beat and seems to work very good as the brain tissue which regulates the heart beat seems to be attacked first. The other one basicly consists of a western blot of lymphatic tissue.

5. >IE) The 1 in 8million chance of catching the disease from infected beef.

I am really astonished that you're able to make such a good guess as i.e. the projections for the number of victimes in GB widely range from a few hunderts to half a million. However I must admit that the newest projections are rather low.

6. The way of infection is poorly understood.

7. The disease may spread among humans as well i.e. through blood donations. Scientists were able to show that sheep can be infected through blood donations. By the way about 10 percent of the victimes in the UK have been blood doners....

8. Prion diseases in humans:
GSS (Sträussler-Scheinker syndrome), FFI (Fatale Familary Insomnia) (hereditary diseases)
Kuru (>laughing death in New Guinea, through eating your ancestors' brains)
(classic) CJD (Creutzfeld-Jakobs Disease) sporadic (most common), iatrogenic (through operations, transplantations or human growth hormone application) and hereditary form. (about 1 case per million and year worldwide)
vCJD (new variant CJD). Probably caused by the consumation of infectious bovine products.

9. Interesting enough the number of incidents of classic CJD per year rose sharply in the last 3 years in Switzerland. We used to have about 10 cases a year, but we had nearly 30 per year in the last 3 years. Some experts think that is explainable with better surveillance. Others fear that this rise is due to the BSE epidemic.