US officials accused of covering up human deaths from BSE

[Teabeard]

http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/US_offi...and_discouraging_testing_of_suspected_animals

Dr. Lester Friedlander, a former United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) vet, had been blowing the whistle on the USDA beef inspection practices before the latest case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) was confirmed. Dr. Friedlander said that inspectors are allowed only 15 seconds of inspection and that unhygienic practices are common in the meat industry; practices such as cow carcasses with abscesses being hosed off, wrapped up and shipped to the consumer.

Friedlander also claims that some supervisors were more concerned about falsifying inspection documents than protecting consumers and that on June 9, 2005, a cow in Texas with BSE symptoms was sent straight to the rendering plant without testing.

There have also been allegations of a "don't ask,don't tell" approach being applied by US health officials when confronted with human deaths which may be caused by eating BSE contaminated meat. The Organic Consumers Association reported last year that hundreds of people are dying in the US each year from vCJD (the human counterpart of BSE) and the deaths are being written off as "unexplainable". The disease causes holes in the brains of the victims.

A New Jersey lawyer, Janet Skarbek is being called "the next Erin Brockovich " for her research into the "Cherry Hill cluster" of 12 deaths she said were caused by people eating BSE infected meat;"I'm up to 12 confirmed cases of CJD (Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease), where it says CJD on their death certificates and where they all ate at the same racetrack.” Skarbek said.

 

[Taliesin]

The Organic Consumers Association reported last year that hundreds of people are dying in the US each year from vCJD (the human counterpart of BSE) and the deaths are being written off as "unexplainable".

And there's the convenient out for those who wish to ignore the issue.

 

[ummmm........]

Meh. I don't eat red meat anyway . . .

 

[Sparta]

Has anyone proved causality between BSE and vCJD?

 

[SeleucusNicator]

Has anyone proved causality between BSE and vCJD?

Either there's causality or there's the mother of all coincidences.

 

[h4ppy]

That Cherry Hill thing sounds scary but anything with organic in the name gets an autorolleyes from me.

 

[stormbind]

As a child, I made the decision not to eat anything fed on bone meal which is where I believe the disease enters our food chain. Beef shows symptoms easier because the animal lives longer and is relatively robust & intelligent (compared to fish or chickens).

My own relatives say they have witnessed the British government cover up deaths from CJD. Vets have claimed the Dutch government covers up cases of BSE. It would not surprise me to hear that the US government behaves the same way.

A huge proportion of our economies are linked to agriculture.

 

[Doc Tsiolkovski]

Has anyone proved causality between BSE and vCJD?

Not directly. Transferring CNS material from a BSE case to brains of other species can cause the very same symptoms. There are some tricky parts in this transfer, since some animals don't seem to be infectious for others - but in general, the infectious nature is out of question.
However, if those prions are definitely the cause or some new sort of 'microvirus' is not completely proven (but EXTREMELY likely).

vCJD is mostly defined as an unusual form of CJD; especially characterized by early onset.

The remaining question is:
Can humans aquire "HSE" by eating contaminated animal parts?

This isn't proven yet; so it's up to you if you believe it.
You should, however, consider that cats, elks, minks and dozens of species in zoos aquired xSE by the very same food as cows....

Still, there are substantial anatomic and physiologic differences between primates and other mamals.

 

[Winner]

Not directly. Transferring CNS material from a BSE case to brains of other species can cause the very same symptoms. There are some tricky parts in this transfer, since some animals don't seem to be infectious for others - but in general, the infectious nature is out of question.
However, if those prions are definitely the cause or some new sort of 'microvirus' is not completely proven (but EXTREMELY likely).

vCJD is mostly defined as an unusual form of CJD; especially characterized by early onset.

The remaining question is:
Can humans aquire "HSE" by eating contaminated animal parts?

This isn't proven yet; so it's up to you if you believe it.
You should, however, consider that cats, elks, minks and dozens of species in zoos aquired xSE by the very same food as cows....

Still, there are substantial anatomic and physiologic differences between primates and other mamals.

Personaly I hate the hysteria in Europe about BSE. Thousands of cows were killed in Czech republic alone because of some irrational fear.

 

[A'AbarachAmadan]

I eat cow. If I die, well, life sucks.

 

[Doc Tsiolkovski]

I fully agree, Winner. But the problem is not the hysteria itself, but the ways the agrobusiness deals with it. Much like with the chicken plague (is that the international term?). It's simply cheaper to kill thousands and thousands of animals than to treat them/qurantine them for some time/ test them/ feed them correctly. Disgusting.

 

[Winner]

I fully agree, Winner. But the problem is not the hysteria itself, but the ways the agrobusiness deals with it. Much like with the chicken plague (is that the international term?). It's simply cheaper to kill thousands and thousands of animals than to treat them/qurantine them for some time/ test them/ feed them correctly. Disgusting.

You are right, probably.

Sadly, in CZ also the small farmers are forced to kill half of their livestock just because one cow was infected. This can lead to their bankrupcy. In fact, they've sent a letter to European Commission and asked them for an exemption, but they've rebuffed them.

 

[RedWolf]

I eat cow. If I die, well, life sucks.

Exactly - NOT eating cow sucks more.

 

[CurtSibling]

I eat cow. If I die, well, life sucks.

Let's see you say that when you have the disease...

 

[amadeus]

Sounds like a bunch of neo-luddites and organic farmers trying to scare people into buying their food.

 

[BasketCase]

Either there's causality or there's the mother of all coincidences.

The perfect bridge hand is all 13 cards of the same suit. The odds that you will be dealt this hand in an actual game are astronomically low. Around 150 BILLION to one.

It happens regularly in the United States, six or seven times a year.