Scientific studies have confirmed that around 10% of american
altzheimer's patients actually have prion disease, which is far
higher than the "natural background" level, confirmation that there
is indeed a prion transmission mechanism active in the USA. Meanwhile
the few regulations concerning forced bovine cannibalism are hardly
enforced, and of course the FDA will not willingly publicize the
evidence for widepread prion disease in US cattle, or the possibility
that pigs and chickens may also be getting infected.

Corruption at the FDA is going to start killing americans wholesale
in a few years.

----

Mad cows and englishmen

by Gabe Kirchheimer ) - February 25, 2001

This updated version of an article by Gabe Kirchheimer originally
appeared in the July 2000 issue of High Times magazine, the second
in a series on Mad Cow disease in the USA. His first article on the
topic, the first to be published in a large national magazine,
appeared in the January 1998 High Times. Many of the allegations
contained in these articles have recently been confirmed by the FDA
and other agencies, and reported by the New York Times, CNN and
other national media.

Does Mad Cow disease represent a worldwide pestilence affecting
many species of animals and millions of people? Is CJD the world's
most dangerous disease? Is unsafe animal feed creating the most
devastating epidemic since AIDS?

'Are you familiar with CJD? Welcome to a living hell. Take a brief
walk with me while I tell you of the most horrifying disease known
to mankind.' ~ ~ Dolly Campbell, whose husband died of Creutzfeldt-Jakob
disease.

Mad Cows In The USA

Mad Cow disease has turned Britain on its head. Even as the number
of infected cattle in the United Kingdom has been reduced-over
180,000 cases have been confirmed, nearly four million cows have
been destroyed-the likelihood of widespread human infection has
increased. The disease, bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in
cows and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) in humans, literally
destroys the brain, filling its tissue with spongy holes. The growing
number of British victims of "new variant" CJD, mostly young people
in their prime who contracted the brain sickness from tainted meat,
is a grim precursor to an uncertain future. Consumption of British
beef has plummeted; financial losses have been catastrophic. An
exhaustive report, released by the official UK BSE Inquiry last
summer, traced the history of the continuing epidemic and confirmed
the negligence of the authorities.

Mad Cows have now been found in France, Italy, Belgium, Switzerland,
Ireland, Spain, Holland, Portugal, Denmark, Luxembourg, Brazil and
Canada. The US Department of Agriculture maintains that no Mad Cows
exist here, and has tested nearly 12,000 bovine brains in the last
decade-of 1.25 billion cattle raised in that period-and found not
a single case of the British variant of Mad Cow disease. It is
primarily this data upon which the agency bases their denials.

But what strains of the disease is the USDA looking for? Would the
USDA actually alert the world if they found BSE in their laboratory,
therefore precipitating the kind of panic seen in the UK and Europe?

The stakes are extremely high. One infected animal, whose remains
are "rendered," powdered and mixed into feed, can infect thousands
of other animals, and the thousands of people who eat them.

Leading food-safety advocates question the agency's small test
sample, methodology and motives. They point out that USDA scientists
are not likely to find the British variant of Mad Cow because, in
fact, US cattle are likely infected with an entirely different
strain-or strains-of BSE. Similar Transmissible Spongiform
Encephalopathies (TSEs), or "prion diseases," such as scrapie (with
20 strains, and found in 45 US states) and Chronic Wasting Disease
(CWD), have been found in populations of American sheep, goats,
deer, elk, mink, and squirrels. The deadly infection is acquired
through contaminated feed and maternal transmission, and probably
from contaminated areas and through close proximity of animals to
one another.

Mad People

Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, the human TSE, is still considered so
rare-the medical literature states only one in a million cases of
"classic" CJD occurs in humans-that few doctors and neurologists
even recognize the symptoms, which are frequently misdiagnosed as
Alzheimer's disease. CJD robs victims of lucidity, control and life
over a period ranging from six months to three years from the onset
of symptoms, which can take from 10 to 40 years to manifest.

Like all TSEs, CJD is 100% fatal. There is no treatment or cure.

As no blood test for the living is available, CJD has been definitively
diagnosed only through brain biopsy. The US Centers for Disease
Control has repeatedly refused to mandate CJD-unlike HIV and many
other diseases-as reportable. With stories of CJD cases increasing,
support groups have sprung up around the country and on the Web to
demand action.

The US Department of Agriculture sees no reason to advise the public
at this time that eating US beef or pork constitutes a significant
risk of infection with CJD, acquired from animals with TSEs. Neither
does the USDA warn against other risks such as blood meal or
horticultural bone meal [see sidebar below], which can be easily
inhaled or enter the body through the eyes, a direct route to the
brain. The FDA has only recently communicated that numerous drugs
and dietary supplements containing bovine ingredients, perhaps even
gelatin capsules themselves, and cosmetics which include collagen
and tallow are at uncertain risk of carrying the infectious agent-a
nearly indestructible mutant protein known as a "prion"-which
apparently causes CJD and other TSEs.

Neither have US doctors, surgeons and dentists been notified that
surgical instruments are at highest risk of transmitting the
infection, as standard autoclave sterilization does not neutralize
infectious prions. Blood, blood products, bovine extracts and
transplant organs are not screened for CJD in the US, although
around the world infected organ recipients, who developed symptoms
sometimes decades after treatment, have been traced to infected
donors.

See No Evil, Here No Evil

Lack of government action is based on the assumption-or deception-that
the United States is completely free of Mad Cow disease, other
domesticated animals are equally unaffected, and that only the very
rare "classic" strain of CJD, which primarily affects the elderly,
and not British nvCJD or another strain, exists here. In actuality,
a careful reading of the evidence indicates Mad Cows-as well as Mad
sheep, deer and elk-roam the land, and the incidence of human CJD
is exponentially higher than the Centers for Disease Control has
made clear. Several key studies show it is likely that tens or even
hundreds of thousands of people are dying right now of undiagnosed
or misdiagnosed CJD.

In the wake of many CJD-contaminated blood recalls, on April 17,
2000 the US Food and Drug Administration and American Red Cross
quietly instituted a "precautionary" ban on blood donations from
individuals who have spent a total of six months or more in Britain
between Jan. 1, 1980, and Dec. 31, 1996, although this is expected
to reduce the shortage-plagued US blood supply by 2.2%. Disingenuous
doublespeak on the Red Cross donor Q&A is not reassuring: "Q. Why
are these people deferred from donating now, if they weren't in the
past? A. Deferral criteria do not apply to donors until the criteria
is implemented...." A Red Cross press release statement that "There
is no evidence that nvCJD is transmissible through blood or other
means" is simply not supported by current research.

"Top regulatory agencies in two nations don't make a decision of
this magnitude on the basis of the meager information that has been
publicly disclosed," says Dr. Tom Pringle, a molecular biologist
and the energetic administrator of the encyclopedic Official Mad
Cow Disease Home Page, a project of the Sperling Biomedical Foundation.
Pringle believes that such steps are "too little, too late. With
this many millions of Americans and Canadians exposed and possibly
incubating disease for fifteen years already, it is only a matter
of time before nvCJD manifests itself in North America in a person
who has already given blood. And a lot of people there for under
six months will continue to donate." Pringle has been quoted in
recent articles in the New York Times, although his printed comments
have been considerably toned down, to his chagrin.

Considering that the British Mad Cow crisis destroyed the UK beef
market, precipitated a worldwide ban on British imports, exposed
an official cover-up, and continues to induce severe public anxiety
(even suicide among the "worried well"), many critics doubt the US
government is offering complete and accurate information concerning
grave problems affecting the large and powerful domestic meat,
rendering, bone, gelatin, blood and medical industries.

However, if one puts together all the pieces of the puzzle, gaping
regulatory loopholes and evidence of widespread infection become
apparent. In truth, America has probably been harboring many TSEs
for decades. CJD's tremendous scientific complexity, long incubation
period and symptomatic similarity to Alzheimer's has likely veiled
the leading edge of a deadly epidemic in the United States.

How Now, Mad Cow

Mad Cow disease first gained the world's attention in March 1996,
when officials of the World Health Organization and British authorities
were forced to admit that 10 deaths from CJD were directly related
to eating tainted beef. After widespread infection of British cattle
was revealed, millions of cows were burned in high-security
incinerators and the residue treated as biohazard waste. To date,
nearly 100 people in Britain have been diagnosed with nvCJD, although
the total number of cases will certainly run much higher.

How much higher is a matter of debate. Dr. Richard Lacey, a leading
microbiologist whose early warnings were ignored by the British
government, cautions that BSE "is much more serious than AIDS." On
Dec. 17, 1999 Lord Phillips, the BSE Inquiry chairman, stated that
the known cases of nvCJD may turn out to be just the "tip of the
iceberg." On Jan. 7, 2000 the European Union's Scientific Steering
Committee warned that millions of European consumers were at risk
of developing CJD. And in July, 1999 neurogeneticist John Collinge,
a member of the British government's Spongiform Encephalopathy
Advisory Committee who has warned of "a disaster of Biblical
proportions," stated in The Lancet, "Studies... suggest that the
early variant CJD cases may have been exposed during the preclinical
phase of the BSE epidemic. It must therefore be considered that
many cases may follow from later exposure in an epidemic that would
be expected to evolve over decades."

On Feb, 28, 2000 The Sunday Times of London carried a long-dreaded
report, filed by Science Editor Jonathan Leake: "Doctors are
investigating Britain's first suspected CJD baby... born to a woman
who has since been found to have new variant CJD... The case has
also endangered medical staff attending the baby's birth because
the mother's placenta contains high levels of prions... The revelation
coincides with a decision by the Department of Health to make formal
preparations for a likely surge in CJD cases... It will mean that
any woman incubating nvCJD who becomes pregnant could unknowingly
transmit it to her children. Since almost everyone in Britain has
been exposed to contaminated beef products and the disease is thought
to take many years to develop, it could mean that any epidemic would
last for generations." The mother has since died; the official
diagnosis of the baby's condition is inconclusive.

All the known nvCJD victims express a genetic trait shared by 38%
of the human population and all bovines. (No test for this gene
variant is available; the second and third variants for prion protein
at Codon 129 on Chromosome 20 might simply effect longer incubation
periods in the rest of the population.) Deployment of a simple CJD
blood test, for TSE infection or simply genetic susceptibility, in
the UK and elsewhere has been delayed, deferring possible discovery
of widespread human infection. In Britain, speculates Pringle, "The
top level of government itself does not know-nor want to know-the
scope of the epidemic. This is to establish 'plausible deniability.'"

A Clever Pathogen

The practice of feeding domestic animals "rendered" protein
supplements-the boiled-down, powdered remains of slaughterhouse
waste-spread BSE in the UK. Surviving temperatures of up to 600 C
(in an experiment carried out by the US National Institutes of
Heath), mutant prions from each BSE-infected cow infected thousands
of other bovines, as huge batches of feed were mixed and fed back
to cattle.

Feeding mammalian protein to ruminants was banned in the UK in 1989.
In August 1997 the US FDA finally issued weak regulations addressing
this common practice. Dr. Michael Hanson, chief scientist of Consumers
Union (publisher of Consumer Reports) describes the rules: "All
they said is that you've got to label it 'Do not feed to cattle and
other ruminants.' Farmers can walk in a feed store and still buy
it. Nobody asks 'Are you feeding it to cattle or pigs?' They have
to keep records of where the material came from for one year, for
a disease with an average incubation period of five years. It's a
joke. The way the rule is written, you can take scrapie-infested
sheep, CWD-infested deer and BSE-infested animals and legally put
that in animal feed and give it to pigs, chickens-anything but
ruminants, as long as it's labeled. That's outrageous." Compliance
is voluntary and virtually impossible to monitor or enforce.
Incredibly, Hanson notes, "The new thing is to feed calves spray-dried
bovine plasma. It's hardly processed, so you're not knocking down
the infectivity-and you can put it right in the feed."

Additionally, according to Hanson, the USDA has "functionally ignored
the potential TSE in pigs." Their very short factory-farm life span
of six to eight months necessarily hides any symptoms of TSE
infection. Pigs and chickens are still routinely fed rendered
protein, which often includes the remains of "downer" cows-animals
too sick to stand-which are most suspected of harboring BSE. After
inedible pig parts are rendered, they are often fed back to pigs,
cows and chickens. Fermented chicken manure is routinely fed to
millions of cows and pigs, in a perverse loop of inexpensive husbandry
and forced cannibalism.

"Their first impulse would be to suppress it," Hanson says of the
government's TSE detection program. "Their strategy might be, act
like you're looking, but really do a don't look, don't find."
However, as Pringle points out, "Absence of evidence is not evidence
of absence."

A new Swiss test which detects TSEs in live animals has drastically
increased estimates of infected cows in Europe, as many asymptomatic
cattle with subclinical BSE have been discovered. BSE's incubation
period is from three to 10 years, and cattle are usually slaughtered
before symptoms might manifest. Humans consuming subclinical animals
are still at tremendous risk of contracting CJD. John Collinge has
told the official BSE Inquiry that some cows may be carrying a
dangerous silent infection: "It may be that there is rather more
infectivity in muscle or other tissues in those animals and that
is why they do not have a brain disease." Last year, Dr. Mary Jo
Schmerr, chief scientist for prion diseases at the US National
Animal Disease Center in Ames, Iowa, devised a different TSE test,
and the UK CJD Surveillance Unit in Edinburgh, Scotland has been
working with her on a new blood test for humans.

Considering the worldwide urgency of the problem, the unavailability
of a simple CJD blood test would seem to indicate a problem of
public policy and politics, rather than one of scientific obstacles.

An Indestructible Pathogen

Not a virus, not a bacterium, the abnormal version of a protein
known as a "prion" represents a biological threat never before seen
on Earth. Able to withstand conditions which kill any known pathogen,
mutant prions easily jump the species barrier, fatally infecting
populations of humans or animals with TSEs.

The 1997 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to San
Francisco scientist Stanley Prusiner for his discovery of "Prions-a
new biological principle of infection," even as others expressed
incredulity at an infectious agent containing no genetic material
whatsoever. Thought to replicate in the manner of crystals, abnormal
prions malform neighboring prions on contact, causing them to "fold"
improperly and mutate their neighbors in a domino pyramid of
devastation, until the host develops spongy holes in the brain,
loses nervous system function and dies. Unlike normal prions, mutants
do not break down when meat is ingested. The immune system does not
attack the invader, because rogue and normal prions are chemically
identical.

The brain and spinal cord are the primary-but not only-reservoirs
of infectious material in humans and animals. Current USDA and FDA
regulations are designed to prevent this material from ending up
on the American dinner plate, but according to Michael Hanson, the
automatic meat-recovery (AMR) systems in wide use at modern
slaughterhouses, which mechanically strip the spine of flesh,
routinely include banned material in the meat. Even the federal
Food Safety and Inspection Service has found spinal-cord fragments
and nervous-system tissue in AMR meat samples. It has also been
shown that, upon impact on the skull, pneumatic slaughterhouse stun
guns can force bovine brain matter into the bloodstream and other,
edible tissues.

The Evidence

The scientific evidence for numerous undiscovered cases of CJD in
the US lies largely upon two university studies. In written comments
to a Harvard/ USDA BSE risk-analysis project on Sept. 28, 1998,
Hanson summarized, "A study at the University of Pittsburgh, in
which autopsies were done on 54 demented patients diagnosed as
having probable or possible Alzheimer's or some other dementia (but
not CJD), found three cases (or 5.5%) of CJD among the 54 studied
(Boller et al., 1989). A Yale study found that of 46 patients
diagnosed with Alzheimer's, six (or 13%) were CJD at autopsy
(Manuelidis and Manuelidis, 1989). Since there are over two million
cases of Alzheimer's disease currently in the United States, if
even a small percentage of them turned out to be CJD, there could
be a hidden CJD epidemic." These studies indicate an exponential
increase over the expected incidence of "sporadic" CJD, providing
preliminary yet persuasive evidence of an unrecognized outbreak of
CJD in the USA.

Another pivotal study was undertaken in 1991 by Dr. Richard Marsh,
a TSE researcher at the University of Wisconsin. Marsh showed that
US cows inoculated with tissues obtained from TSE-infected mink-whose
diet consisted of 95% offal from downer cows-developed BSE.

The BSE strain was different from that seen in Europe, and proved
that other strains might indeed exist in America.

(Significantly, rather than exhibiting classic "Mad Cow" symptoms,
the animals simply collapsed, qualifying for the all-inclusive
"Downer Cow Syndrome" which affects 100,000 of 100 million US bovines
annually.) When the brains of the infected cattle were fed back to
mink, they duly developed transmissible mink encephalopathy,
suggesting "the presence of a previously unrecognized scrapie-like
infection in cattle in the United States."

On Feb. 1, 2000 US Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman declared
a scrapie "emergency that threatens the sheep and goat industry of
this country," effectively admitting that the disease, with 20 known
strains, is out of control. "The sheep thing in the US is demonstrably
worse," says Pringle. "They know they've got scrapie in thirty-nine
states, that there are a lot of really infected flocks, and they
know those flocks are being eaten by people, and there's no effort
to keep scrapie out of the human food chain. They've gotten away
with murder."

Bad Blood

Firm experimental evidence that blood can contain infectious prions
was produced last November. In the absence of strict government
regulations, some medical organizations have voluntarily recalled
large lots of fractionated blood products containing donations from
people later found to have CJD, usually after some have reached
recipients. Over the past 10 years, at least $100 million worth of
plasma products have reportedly been destroyed.

Surgical transmission of CJD is a very real problem. In Britain,
it is now even illegal to reuse contact lenses for fear of spreading
CJD contamination through the eyes. Many cases of transmission
through transplants of corneas, brain-matter grafts and other organs
have been documented. It is inevitable that worldwide sterilization
procedures will undergo drastic modification in the face of the
prion.

Many drugs are derived from cattle, including growth hormones from
pituitary glands; adrenaline products; cortisone; insulin for
diabetics; and medications for the treatment of stomach ulcers.
Thromboplastin, a common blood coagulant used in surgery, is derived
from bovine brains. Pituitary extracts from Mad Cows (as well as
human donors with CJD) have been traced as the cause of CJD infection
in recipients.

"The thing that worries me is the immunization of the children,"
says Pringle. "Every kid in the United States can't go to school
without their shots... They're growing vaccines out of fetal-calf
serum. Then you're injecting four-year-old children-which is much
worse than eating, 100,000 times more effective... Every schoolchild
in the UK has already been immunized with vaccine made from serum
from infected bovines."

On Feb. 8, the New York Times ran a groundbreaking article, headlined
"5 Drug Makers Use Material With Possible Mad Cow Link," confirming
allegations made by critics that many vaccines were likely produced
using contaminated bovine serum, including "some regularly given
to millions of American children, including common vaccines to
prevent polio, diptheria and tetanus."

Mad Deer, Sad People

In the Southwest US, an outbreak of Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD),
a TSE affecting deer and elk, is now raging, with 5-15% of wild elk
in areas of Colorado and Wyoming reportedly infected. The case of
Doug McEwen, 30, a hunter who died of CJD in Utah on March 28, 1999,
starkly illustrates the tragedy surrounding the illness. McEwen,
who regularly ate deer meat, was diagnosed with classic CJD although,
like many of the British victims, his youth might seem to indicate
another, more virulent strain, as only 1% of classic CJD patients
develop symptoms at his age. Inexplicably, blood plasma donated by
McEwen was cleared by the authorities and distributed during and
after his death. McEwen's situation was graphically reported by
Mark Kennedy in the Ottawa Citizen the day before he died:

"Tracie McEwen reaches over to the dying man... As he moans softly,
she strokes his arm and kisses his forehead. 'It's OK. Doug, it's
OK.'

"Tracie married Doug exactly four years ago. She marked their
anniversary by pouring sparkling cider into cups, making a toast,
and lovingly dropping some into Doug's mouth....p"It started slowly.
First, there was the memory loss and the inability to do simple
math, then the light tremors. Eventually came violent seizures as
well as unexplainable outbursts of emotion-hysterical laughter,
sometimes followed by uncontrollable crying. By late January, he
could no longer speak in sentences....

"'This is the worst thing I have seen,' [Tracie McEwen] says. 'I
wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy.'"

For nearly two years McEwen had donated blood plasma, which was
processed by Bayer into fractionated blood products in Clayton, NC,
then shipped to 46 countries around the globe. "The scope of this
is breathtaking," Tom Pringle says of the decision to release
McEwen's blood. "You've got a time bomb ticking in millions and
millions of people. And as they become donors, it spreads further."
Of the infected deer which almost certainly led to McEwen's death,
Pringle is unequivocal: "I think they have scrapie. Most cases trace
back to Ft. Collins, Colorado at the Foothills Research Station,
an experimental facility which was contaminated." Wild animals might
also contract the disease by raiding contaminated feed meant for
livestock.

It has recently been proven experimentally that even fly larvae,
after eating infected tissue, can transmit scrapie to hamsters; the
larvae were still infectious after death. Nevertheless, the US
government's BSE Red Book-Emergency Operations handbook states,
"Cleaning and disinfection is not necessary to prevent the spread
of BSE."

Pringle is not optimistic. In the US, "it would be a wrenching
experience to totally get away from the bovine economy, and
realistically, they're only going to take half-measures. It's like
a joke now to talk about containment. It's like locking the barn
door after the horse is gone. WTO, NAFTA, has really helped globalize
CJD. You don't know where your sutures are coming from, your shampoo,
your sunscreen. The Pandora's box has been opened."

Warning: Bone Meal is Hazardous to Your Health

Due to uncertainty concerning the existence of Mad Cow disease in
the USA, High Times no longer recommends the use of bone meal as a
soil amendment, as it is often made from material at highest risk
of carrying the infectious agent which causes CJD in humans.

According to Tom Pringle, Ph.D., "Bone meal is a higher risk material
than blood meal. Cases of CJD have often associated with gardens
and farms. . . You put this bone meal around the roses, you get the
aerosol in your eyes, your nose, cuts on your hand, inhale it. The
problem with the bone meal is it's made out of spinal cord. They
can pay to have it hauled off or they're going to grind it up and
make a gardening supplement. The eyes are a direct pipeline to the
brain, a prime route of infection experimentally."

Carleton Gajdusek, who discovered in 1957 that "kuru" (CJD) in New
Guinea was transmitted through cannibalistic practices, and whose
work forms the foundation upon which today's TSE research is based,
has no doubt of the extreme hazards of bone meal. In Deadly Feasts:
Tracking the Secrets of a Terrifying New Plague, a shocking account
of the worldwide spread of TSEs, Gajdusek tells Pulitzer-Prize
winning author Richard Rhodes, "'It's made from downer cattle [those
most likely to be infected with Mad Cow disease]. Ground extremely
fine. The instructions on the bag warn you not to open it in a
closed room. Gets up your nose.' The Nobel-laureate virologist who
knows more than anyone else in the world about transmissible
spongiform encephalopathy looked at me meaningfully: 'Do you use
bone meal on your roses?' I told him I did. He nodded. 'I wouldn't
if I were you.'"

Oprah Has a Cow

The possibility that Mad Cows might be stumbling around the American
ranch was first brought to the American mainstream by the Oprah
Winfrey Show and guest Howard Lyman of the Humane Society of the
United States, a former cattle rancher turned vegetarian. After
Oprah swore off hamburgers on national television, meat consumption
plummeted and the Texas Cattleman's Association stupidly amplified
the issue by immediately suing Winfrey. Oprah won the suit and
subsequent appeal, brought under Texas' "veggie libel law," which
makes it illegal to slander a food product. "Long live free speech,"
she said upon news of the Feb. 1998 verdict. "This has been one of
my most painful experiences, but it has made me a stronger person.
.. . I refuse to be muzzled."

Transcript:

Oprah's report on Mad Cow Disease April 15th, 1996

Oprah: You said this disease cold make Aids look like the common
cold?

Howard: Absolutely.

Oprah: That's an extreme statement you know?

Howard: Absolutely, and what we're looking at right now is we're
following exactly the same path that they followed in England. Ten
years of dealing with it as public relations rather than doing
something substantial about it. 100,000 cows per year in the United
States are fine at night, dead in the morning. The majority of those
cows are rounded up, ground up, fed back to other cows. If only one
of them has Mad Cow Disease, has the potential to effect thousands.
Remember today, the United States, 14% of all cows by volume are
ground up, turned into feed, and fed back to other animals.

Oprah: But cows are herbivores, they shouldn't be eating other cows.

Howard: That's exactly right, and what we should be doing is exactly
what nature says, we should have them eating grass not other cows.
We've not only turned them into carnivores, we've turned them into
cannibals.

Oprah: Now see, wait a minute, wait a minute. Let me just ask you
this right now Howard. How do you know the cows are ground up and
fed back to the other cows?

Howard: Oh, I've seen it. These are USDA statistics, they're not
something we're making up.

Oprah: Now doesn't that concern you all a little bit, right here,
hearing that?

Audience: Yeah!

Oprah: It has just stopped me cold from eating another burger!

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
http://disinfo.com/pages/article/id906/
See extensive hot links to references at the web site.
Also see Kirchheimer's newer, more extensive article
"Bovine Bioterrorism and the Perfect Pathogen: Mad Cow Disease is
Sweeping the World, including the USA" in the 2002 book
"Everything you Know is Wrong" ISBN 0-9713942-0-2

"Name withheld by request" wrote in message
...

Considering that the British Mad Cow crisis destroyed the UK beef
market,

Actually, at the moment UK beef prices , you know, that destroyed industry,
is currently got beef prices slightly higher than the US.



How much higher is a matter of debate. Dr. Richard Lacey, a leading
microbiologist whose early warnings were ignored by the British
government,

for good reason, he was predicting up to a million dead, the current
estimate is about 400.


Many drugs are derived from cattle, including growth hormones from
pituitary glands; adrenaline products; cortisone; insulin for
diabetics; and medications for the treatment of stomach ulcers.
Thromboplastin, a common blood coagulant used in surgery, is derived
from bovine brains. Pituitary extracts from Mad Cows (as well as
human donors with CJD) have been traced as the cause of CJD infection
in recipients.

yeah, like in the UK where all UK vaccines etc were produced on bovine
foetal serum. Pity we couldn't oblige you with millions of dead but current
estimate is probably 400.

This is the usual hysterical rubbish that the UK was deluged under for
years. Looks like you poor sods are going to get it now.

I'm sure Oz wouldn't mind if I repost the following of his

Jim Webster

Something I came across, just for fun.

Less than 150,000 cases. Ferguson NM, Ghani AC, Donnelly CA, Hagenaars TJ,
Anderson RM.
Estimating the human health risk from possible BSE infection of the British
sheep
flock. Nature. 2002 Jan 24;415(6870):420-4.

Less than 870,000. Ghani AC, Donnelly CA, Ferguson NM, Anderson RM.
Assessment of the
prevalence of vCJD through testing tonsils and appendices for abnormal prion
protein.
Proc R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2000 Jan 7;267(1438):23-9. (this is calculated
on the
numbers that could be worked out by testing the tonsils of apparently normal
people but
it depends on incubation periods for vCJD being known and that is a
difficult
calculation)

Less than millions. Ghani AC, Ferguson NM, Donnelly CA, Hagenaars TJ,
Anderson RM.
Epidemiological determinants of the pattern and magnitude of the vCJD
epidemic in Great
Britain. Proc R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 1998 Dec 22;265(1413):2443-52. This
article
explains why it will be difficult to put any specific figure on the total
number
without incubation period data or a change in the prevalence of disease
indicating a
peak of disease.

100-10,000,000. Dealler SF, Kent J. BSE: an update on the statistical
evidence. British
Food Journal. November 1995. This calculates the numbers by assuming that
bovine
tissues would contain similar infectivity to other species at a similar
point in their
incubation period and henc the dose given to human in the UK.

'few hundred'-millions. d'Aignaux JN, Cousens SN, Smith PG. Predictability
of the UK
variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease epidemic. Science. 2001 Nov
23;294(5547):1729-31.
They use back calculation like Dealler and come to similar figures.

Less than 100,000. Cousens SN, Vynnycky E, Zeidler M, Will RG, Smith PG.
Predicting the
CJD epidemic in humans. Nature. 1997 Jan 16;385(6613):197-8. This uses
several levels
of incubation period in predictions but still does not use very long ones as
would be
expected. They admit that at that time is is difficult to predict.

Less than 403. Valleron AJ, Boelle PY, Will R, Cesbron JY. Estimation of
epidemic size
and incubation time based on age characteristics of vCJD in the United
Kingdom.
Science. 2001 Nov 23;294(5547):1726-8. This depends on taking the case
distribution of
vCJD to fulfil specific factors then the incubation period is around 16
years (actually
quite reasonable - editor). It is possible, however that some of their
criteria are not
correct.

--
Oz
This post is worth absolutely nothing and is probably fallacious.
Note: soon (maybe already) only posts via despammed.com will be accepted.

"Name withheld by request" wrote in message
...

Considering that the British Mad Cow crisis destroyed the UK beef
market,

Actually, at the moment UK beef prices , you know, that destroyed industry,
is currently got beef prices slightly higher than the US.



How much higher is a matter of debate. Dr. Richard Lacey, a leading
microbiologist whose early warnings were ignored by the British
government,

for good reason, he was predicting up to a million dead, the current
estimate is about 400.


Many drugs are derived from cattle, including growth hormones from
pituitary glands; adrenaline products; cortisone; insulin for
diabetics; and medications for the treatment of stomach ulcers.
Thromboplastin, a common blood coagulant used in surgery, is derived
from bovine brains. Pituitary extracts from Mad Cows (as well as
human donors with CJD) have been traced as the cause of CJD infection
in recipients.

yeah, like in the UK where all UK vaccines etc were produced on bovine
foetal serum. Pity we couldn't oblige you with millions of dead but current
estimate is probably 400.

This is the usual hysterical rubbish that the UK was deluged under for
years. Looks like you poor sods are going to get it now.

I'm sure Oz wouldn't mind if I repost the following of his

Jim Webster

Something I came across, just for fun.

Less than 150,000 cases. Ferguson NM, Ghani AC, Donnelly CA, Hagenaars TJ,
Anderson RM.
Estimating the human health risk from possible BSE infection of the British
sheep
flock. Nature. 2002 Jan 24;415(6870):420-4.

Less than 870,000. Ghani AC, Donnelly CA, Ferguson NM, Anderson RM.
Assessment of the
prevalence of vCJD through testing tonsils and appendices for abnormal prion
protein.
Proc R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2000 Jan 7;267(1438):23-9. (this is calculated
on the
numbers that could be worked out by testing the tonsils of apparently normal
people but
it depends on incubation periods for vCJD being known and that is a
difficult
calculation)

Less than millions. Ghani AC, Ferguson NM, Donnelly CA, Hagenaars TJ,
Anderson RM.
Epidemiological determinants of the pattern and magnitude of the vCJD
epidemic in Great
Britain. Proc R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 1998 Dec 22;265(1413):2443-52. This
article
explains why it will be difficult to put any specific figure on the total
number
without incubation period data or a change in the prevalence of disease
indicating a
peak of disease.

100-10,000,000. Dealler SF, Kent J. BSE: an update on the statistical
evidence. British
Food Journal. November 1995. This calculates the numbers by assuming that
bovine
tissues would contain similar infectivity to other species at a similar
point in their
incubation period and henc the dose given to human in the UK.

'few hundred'-millions. d'Aignaux JN, Cousens SN, Smith PG. Predictability
of the UK
variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease epidemic. Science. 2001 Nov
23;294(5547):1729-31.
They use back calculation like Dealler and come to similar figures.

Less than 100,000. Cousens SN, Vynnycky E, Zeidler M, Will RG, Smith PG.
Predicting the
CJD epidemic in humans. Nature. 1997 Jan 16;385(6613):197-8. This uses
several levels
of incubation period in predictions but still does not use very long ones as
would be
expected. They admit that at that time is is difficult to predict.

Less than 403. Valleron AJ, Boelle PY, Will R, Cesbron JY. Estimation of
epidemic size
and incubation time based on age characteristics of vCJD in the United
Kingdom.
Science. 2001 Nov 23;294(5547):1726-8. This depends on taking the case
distribution of
vCJD to fulfil specific factors then the incubation period is around 16
years (actually
quite reasonable - editor). It is possible, however that some of their
criteria are not
correct.

--
Oz
This post is worth absolutely nothing and is probably fallacious.
Note: soon (maybe already) only posts via despammed.com will be accepted.

On Feb. 1, 2000 US Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman declared
a scrapie "emergency that threatens the sheep and goat industry of
this country," effectively admitting that the disease, with 20 known
strains, is out of control. "The sheep thing in the US is demonstrably
worse," says Pringle. "They know they've got scrapie in thirty-nine
states, that there are a lot of really infected flocks, and they
know those flocks are being eaten by people, and there's no effort
to keep scrapie out of the human food chain. They've gotten away
with murder."

Interesting....it fails to mention what has been done to help control
scrapies. The USDA encourages sheep flocks to use ear tags that are
registered with USDA to allow for tracking of infected sheep back to the
original flock and then the flock is destroyed. I think its sad when people
write e-mails and focus only on the bad, not the good.

AND....since when does Oprah have an educated scientific opinion on things?
She is just a fat vegetarian who blames all the worlds problems on cows. I
dont think any one can say too much untill they have been in the farmer's
shoes and understand the industry. Personally, I like to read about how
products from ruminants prevent cancer as well as many other problems.

back to the cows....

Sarah


Oprah Has a Cow

The possibility that Mad Cows might be stumbling around the American
ranch was first brought to the American mainstream by the Oprah
Winfrey Show and guest Howard Lyman of the Humane Society of the
United States, a former cattle rancher turned vegetarian. After
Oprah swore off hamburgers on national television, meat consumption
plummeted and the Texas Cattleman's Association stupidly amplified
the issue by immediately suing Winfrey. Oprah won the suit and
subsequent appeal, brought under Texas' "veggie libel law," which
makes it illegal to slander a food product. "Long live free speech,"
she said upon news of the Feb. 1998 verdict. "This has been one of
my most painful experiences, but it has made me a stronger person.
. . I refuse to be muzzled."

Transcript:

Oprah's report on Mad Cow Disease April 15th, 1996

Oprah: You said this disease cold make Aids look like the common
cold?

Howard: Absolutely.

Oprah: That's an extreme statement you know?

Howard: Absolutely, and what we're looking at right now is we're
following exactly the same path that they followed in England. Ten
years of dealing with it as public relations rather than doing
something substantial about it. 100,000 cows per year in the United
States are fine at night, dead in the morning. The majority of those
cows are rounded up, ground up, fed back to other cows. If only one
of them has Mad Cow Disease, has the potential to effect thousands.
Remember today, the United States, 14% of all cows by volume are
ground up, turned into feed, and fed back to other animals.

Oprah: But cows are herbivores, they shouldn't be eating other cows.

Howard: That's exactly right, and what we should be doing is exactly
what nature says, we should have them eating grass not other cows.
We've not only turned them into carnivores, we've turned them into
cannibals.

Oprah: Now see, wait a minute, wait a minute. Let me just ask you
this right now Howard. How do you know the cows are ground up and
fed back to the other cows?

Howard: Oh, I've seen it. These are USDA statistics, they're not
something we're making up.

Oprah: Now doesn't that concern you all a little bit, right here,
hearing that?

Audience: Yeah!

Oprah: It has just stopped me cold from eating another burger!

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
http://disinfo.com/pages/article/id906/
See extensive hot links to references at the web site.
Also see Kirchheimer's newer, more extensive article
"Bovine Bioterrorism and the Perfect Pathogen: Mad Cow Disease is
Sweeping the World, including the USA" in the 2002 book
"Everything you Know is Wrong" ISBN 0-9713942-0-2