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USDA vets question agency's mad cow lab

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  1. USDA vets question agency's mad cow lab By Steve Mitchell United Press International 2-16-4

    WASHINGTON, Feb. 9 (UPI) -- The federal laboratory in Ames, Iowa, that conducts all of the nation's
    tests for mad cow disease has a history of producing ambiguous and conflicting results -- to the
    point where many federal meat inspectors have lost confidence in it, Department of Agriculture
    veterinarians and a deer rancher told United Press International.

    The veterinarians also claim the facility -- part of the USDA and known as the National Veterinary
    Services Laboratories -- has refused to release testing results to them and has been so secretive
    some suspect it is covering up additional mad cow cases.

    Distrust of the NVSL is so widespread among USDA veterinarians and meat inspectors it limits mad cow
    disease surveillance "tremendously," said a veterinarian with more than 25 years of experience with
    the agency.

    The veterinarian, who requested anonymity because he feared repercussions, said many agency
    inspectors do not consider it worth the trouble to inspect cows closely for signs of mad cow disease
    or to send brain samples to the NVSL because there is little chance the lab will issue a positive
    result, even if the cow is infected.

    In some instances, when USDA veterinarian inspectors have sent brains from cows they suspected of
    having mad cow disease, NVSL staff members have said they did not receive enough brain tissue or
    that they received the wrong part of the brain, the veterinarian explained.

    The inspectors insisted they sent in the entire brain, "but that is the end of the story," he added.

    The USDA's official stance is that the U.S. beef supply is free of mad cow disease, or bovine
    spongiform encephlopathy, but the veterinarian said, "Most agency veterinarians know mad cow is
    prevalent and epidemic (in U.S. herds). We're not talking about one or two cases."

    An international panel of mad cow experts, commissioned by the USDA to review the agency's response
    to the animal that tested positive for mad cow in Washington state in December, reached a similar
    conclusion in a report they issued last week.

    The panel said it was "probable" additional infected cows had been imported from Canada and Europe,
    some of which had been turned into cow feed and indigenously infected U.S. herds.

    The concern is humans can contract a fatal brain disease known as variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease
    from eating meat contaminated with the agent that causes mad cow disease.

    "The USDA has such a cohesive relationship with industry" that it wants to protect the $70 billion
    beef industry more than consumers, the veterinarian said, and noted colleagues with whom he is in
    close contact think the agency's mad cow surveillance program "is a laughing matter."

    When asked to comment for this story, USDA spokesman Jim Rogers requested UPI forward its questions
    about NVSL via e-mail. Although UPI complied with this request, the agency did not respond.

    ..................' upi.comview.cfm

  2. Wouldn't it seem that any concerned vets could send samples to an independent lab for confirmation?
    That would effectively squelch speculation.

  3. "John Gaquin" <[email hidden]> wrote in message "]news:[email hidden]...

    Quoted message said:


    Wouldn't it seem that any concerned vets could send samples to an independent lab for
    confirmation? That would effectively squelch speculation.

    'Without an outside lab also conducting tests, "we are not going to have a very independent
    analysis. It's very easy to control the results," .. The international panel's report advised the
    USDA to decentralize its mad cow testing program and permit other labs around the country to conduct
    tests and help facilitate the rapid testing of suspect animals.

    Friedlander said decentralizing the testing would be a good start toward restoring confidence in the
    results. Right now, he added, "Nobody is actually questioning the lab" or conducting confirmation
    tests of the results. ..' upi.comview.cfm

  4. "pearl" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
    "]news:[email hidden]...

    Quoted message said:

    USDA vets question agency's mad cow lab By Steve Mitchell United Press International

    Quoted message said:

    "The USDA has such a cohesive relationship with industry" that it wants to protect the $70 billion
    beef industry more than consumers, the veterinarian said, and noted colleagues with whom he is in
    close contact think the agency's mad cow surveillance program "is a laughing matter."


    "cohesive relationship" lol Actually the USDA (Inc) is the industry. The head PR wench, and the No.2
    guy both came to the agency from the Cattleman's Ass'n.

    Think it was this same wire service, upi, that's been trying for many months to get documentation to
    verify the USDA claim that they tested 20k cows.

    Imo, it's much ado about nothing. Recalling the major outbreak in the UK, about a dozen yrs ago (?),
    you'd think by now there's scientific proof that humans can catch it from cows. (the 140 or so,
    deaths in UK were not randomly distributed, they tended to occur in clusters). I suspect there's
    some other culprit than those prions, but all the research funding is limited to prions.

  5. "Jon Leipzig" <[email hidden]> wrote in message "]news:[email hidden]...

    Quoted message said:


    "pearl" <[email hidden]> wrote in message "]news:[email hidden]...

    Quoted message said:

    USDA vets question agency's mad cow lab By Steve Mitchell United Press International

    Quoted message said:

    "The USDA has such a cohesive relationship with industry" that it wants to protect the $70
    billion beef industry more than consumers, the veterinarian said, and noted colleagues with whom
    he is in close contact think the agency's mad cow surveillance program "is a laughing matter."


    "cohesive relationship" lol Actually the USDA (Inc) is the industry. The head PR wench, and the
    No.2 guy both came to the agency from the Cattleman's Ass'n.

    Think it was this same wire service, upi, that's been trying for many months to get documentation
    to verify the USDA claim that they tested 20k cows.

    Imo, it's much ado about nothing. Recalling the major outbreak in the UK, about a dozen yrs ago
    (?), you'd think by now there's scientific proof that humans can catch it from cows. (the 140 or
    so, deaths in UK were not randomly distributed, they tended to occur in clusters). I suspect
    there's some other culprit than those prions, but all the research funding is limited to prions.

    <repost>

    Could Mad Cow Disease Already be Killing Thousands of Americans Every Year? by Michael Greger, M.D.
    Wednesday, January 7, 2004 by CommonDreams.org

    October 2001, 34-year-old Washington State native Peter Putnam started losing his mind. One month he
    was delivering a keynote business address, the next he couldn't form a complete sentence. Once
    athletic, soon he couldn't walk. Then he couldn't eat. After a brain biopsy showed it was Creutzfeldt-
    Jakob disease, his doctor could no longer offer any hope. "Just take him home and love him," the
    doctor counseled his family.[1,2,3] Peter's tragic death, October 2002, may have been caused by Mad
    Cow disease.

    Seven years earlier and 5000 miles away, Stephen Churchill was the first in England to die. His
    first symptoms of depression and dizziness gave way to a living nightmare of terrifying
    hallucinations; he was dead in 12 months at age 19.[4] Next was Peter Hall, 20, who showed the first
    signs of depression around Christmas, 1994. By the next Christmas, he couldn't walk, talk, or do
    anything for himself.[5] Then it was Anna's turn, then Michelle's. Michelle Bowen, age 29, died in a
    coma three weeks after giving birth to her son via emergency cesarean section. Then it was Alison's
    turn. These were the first five named victims of Britain's Mad Cow epidemic. They died from what the
    British Secretary of Health called the worst form of death imaginable, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a
    relentlessly progressive and invariably fatal human dementia.[6] The announcement of their deaths,
    released on March 20, 1996 (ironically, Meatout Day[7]), reversed the British government's decade-
    old stance that British beef was safe to eat.[8]

    It is now considered an "incontestable fact" that these human deaths in Britain were caused by
    Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE), or Mad Cow disease.[9] Bovine means "cow or cattle,"
    spongiform means "sponge-like," and encephalopathy means "brain disease." Mad Cow disease is caused
    by unconventional pathogens called prions--literally infectious proteins--which, because of their
    unique structure, are practically invulnerable, surviving even incineration[10] at temperatures hot
    enough to melt lead.[11] The leading theory as to how cows got Mad Cow disease in the first place is
    by eating diseased sheep infected with a sheep spongiform encephalopathy called scrapie.[12]

    In humans, prions can cause Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), a human spongiform encephalopathy whose
    clinical picture can involve weekly deterioration into blindness and epilepsy as one's brain becomes
    riddled with tiny holes.

    We've known about Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease for decades, since well before the first mad cow was
    discovered in 1985. Some cases of CJD seemed to run in families; other cases seemed to just arise
    spontaneously in about one in a million people every year, and were hence dubbed "sporadic." The new
    form of CJD caused by eating beef from cows infected with Mad Cow disease, though, seemed to differ
    from the classic sporadic CJD.

    The CJD caused by infected meat has tended to strike younger people, has produced more psychotic
    symptoms, and has often dragged on for a year or more. The most defining characteristic, though, was
    found when their brains were sampled. The brain pathology was vividly reminiscent of Kuru, a disease
    once found in a New Guinea tribe of cannibals who ate the brains of their dead.[13] Scientists
    called this new form of the disease "variant" CJD.

    Other than Charlene, a 24 year old woman now so tragically dying in Florida, who was probably
    infected in Britain, there have been no reported cases of variant CJD in the U.S.[14] Hundreds of
    confirmed cases of the sporadic form of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, however, arise in the United
    States every year,[15] but the beef industry is quick to point out these are cases of sporadic CJD,
    not the new variant known to be caused by Mad Cow disease.[16] Of course, no one knows what causes
    sporadic CJD. New research, discussed below, suggests that not hundreds but thousands of Americans
    die of sporadic CJD every year, and that some of these CJD deaths may be caused by eating infected
    meat after all.

    Although the fact that Mad Cow disease causes variant CJD had already been strongly established,
    researchers at the University College of London nevertheless created transgenic mice complete with
    "humanized" brains genetically engineered with human genes to try to prove the link once and for
    all. When the researchers injected one strain of the "humanized" mice with infected cow brains, they
    came down with the same brain damage seen in human variant CJD, as expected. But when they tried
    this in a different strain of transgenic "humanized" mice, those mice got sick too, but most got
    sick from what looked exactly like sporadic CJD! The Mad Cow prions caused a disease that had a
    molecular signature indistinguishable from sporadic CJD. To the extent that animal experiments can
    simulate human results, their shocking conclusion was that eating infected meat might be responsible
    for some cases of sporadic CJD in addition to the expected variant CJD. The researchers concluded
    that "it is therefore possible that some patients with [what looks like] ... sporadic CJD may have a
    disease arising from BSE exposure."[17] Laura Manuelidis, section chief of surgery in the
    neuropathology department at Yale University comments, "Now people are beginning to realize that
    because something looks like sporadic CJD they can't necessarily conclude that it's not linked to
    [Mad Cow disease]..."[18]

    This is not the first time meat was linked to sporadic CJD. In 2001, a team of French researchers
    found, to their complete surprise, a strain of scrapie--"mad sheep" disease--that caused the same
    brain damage in mice as sporadic CJD.[19] "This means we cannot rule out that at least some sporadic
    CJD may be caused by some strains of scrapie," says team member Jean-Philippe Deslys of the French
    Atomic Energy Commission's medical research laboratory.[20]

    Population studies had failed to show a link between CJD and lamb chops, but this French research
    provided an explanation why. There seem to be six types of sporadic CJD and there are more than 20
    strains of scrapie. If only some sheep strains affect only some people, studies of entire
    populations may not clearly show the relationship. Monkeys fed infected sheep brains certainly come
    down with the disease.[21] Hundreds of "mad sheep" were found in the U.S. in 2003.[22] Scrapie
    remains such a problem in the United States that the USDA has issued a scrapie "declaration of
    emergency."[23] Maybe some cases of sporadic CJD in the U.S. are caused by sheep meat as well.[24]

    Pork is also a potential source of infection. Cattle remains are still boiled down and legally
    fed to pigs (as well as chickens) in this country. The FDA allows this exemption because no
    "naturally occurring" porcine (pig) spongiform encephalopathy has ever been found. But American
    farmers typically kill pigs at just five months of age, long before the disease is expected to
    show symptoms. And, because pigs are packed so tightly together, it would be difficult to spot
    neurological conditions like spongiform encephalopathies, whose most obvious symptoms are
    movement and gait disturbances. We do know, however, that pigs are susceptible to the disease--
    laboratory experiments show that pigs can indeed be infected by Mad Cow brains[25]--and hundreds
    of thousands of downer pigs, too sick or crippled by injury to even walk, arrive at U.S.
    slaughterhouses every year.[26]

    A number of epidemiological studies have suggested a link between pork consumption and sporadic CJD.
    Analyzing peoples' diet histories, the development of CJD was associated with eating roast pork,
    ham, hot dogs, pork chops, smoked pork, and scrapple (a kind of pork pudding made from various hog
    carcass scraps). The researchers concluded, "The present study indicated that consumption of pork as
    well as its processed products (e.g., ham, scrapple) may be considered as risk factors in the
    development of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease." Compared to people that didn't eat ham, for example,
    those who included ham in their diet seemed ten times more likely to develop CJD.[27] In fact, the
    USDA may have actually recorded an outbreak of "mad pig" disease in New York 25 years ago, but still
    refuses to reopen the investigation despite petitions from the Consumer's Union (the publishers of
    Consumer Reports magazine).[28]

    Sporadic CJD has also been associated with weekly beef consumption,[29] as well as the consumption
    of roast lamb,[30] veal, venison, brains in general,[31] and, in North America, seafood.[32,33] The
    development of CJD has also, surprisingly, been significantly linked to exposure to animal products
    in fertilizer,[34] sport fishing and deer hunting in the U.S.,[35] and frequent exposure to leather
    products.[36]

    We do not know at this time whether chicken meat poses a risk. There was a preliminary report of
    ostriches allegedly fed risky feed in German zoos who seemed to come down with a spongiform
    encephalopathy.[37] Even if chickens and turkeys themselves are not susceptible, though, they may
    become so-called "silent carriers" of Mad Cow prions and pass them on to human consumers.[38]
    Dateline NBC quoted D. Carleton Gajdusek, the first to be awarded a Nobel Prize in Medicine for his
    work on prion diseases,[39] as saying, "it's got to be in the pigs as well as the cattle. It's got
    to be passing through the chickens."[40] Dr. Paul Brown, medical director for the US Public Health
    Service, believes that pigs and poultry could indeed be harboring Mad Cow disease and passing it on
    to humans, adding that pigs are especially sensitive to the disease. "It's speculation," he says,
    "but I am perfectly serious."[41]

    The recent exclusion of most cow brains, eyes, spinal cords, and intestines from the human food
    supply may make beef safer, but where are those tissues going? These potentially infectious tissues
    continue to go into animal feed for chickens, other poultry, pigs, and pets (as well as being
    rendered into products like tallow for use in cosmetics, the safety of which is currently under
    review[42]). Until the federal government stops the feeding of slaughterhouse waste, manure, and
    blood to all farm animals, the safety of meat in America cannot be guaranteed.

    The hundreds of American families stricken by sporadic CJD every year have been told that it just
    occurs by random chance. Professor Collinge, the head of the University College of London lab, noted
    "When you counsel those who have the classical sporadic disease, you tell them that it arises
    spontaneously out of the blue. I guess we can no longer say that."

    "We are not saying that all or even most cases of sporadic CJD are as a result of BSE exposure,"
    Professor Collinge continued, "but some more recent cases may be-- the incidence of sporadic CJD has
    shown an upward trend in the UK over the last decade... serious consideration should be given to a
    proportion of this rise being BSE-related. Switzerland, which has had a substantial BSE epidemic,
    has noted a sharp recent increase in sporadic CJD."[43] In the Nineties, Switzerland had the highest
    rate of Mad Cow disease in continental Europe, and their rate of sporadic CJD doubled.[44]

    We don't know exactly what's happening to the rate of CJD in this country, in part because CJD is
    not an officially notifiable illness.[45] Currently only a few states have such a requirement.
    Because the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) does not actively monitor the disease on a national
    level,[46] a rise similar to the one in Europe could be missed.[47] In spite of this, a number of
    U.S. CJD clusters have already been found. In the largest known U.S. outbreak of sporadic cases to
    date,[48] five times the expected rate was found to be associated with cheese consumption in
    Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley.[49] A striking increase in CJD over expected levels was also reported
    in Florida[50] and New York (Nassau County)[51] with anecdotal reports of clusters of deaths in
    Oregon[52] and New Jersey.[53]

    Perhaps particularly worrisome is the seeming increase in CJD deaths among young people in this
    country. In the 18 years between 1979 and 1996, only a single case of sporadic CJD was found in
    someone under 30. Whereas between 1997 and 2001, five people under 30 died of sporadic CJD. So five
    young Americans dying in five years, as opposed to one young case in the previous 18 years. The true
    prevalence of CJD among any age group in this country remains a mystery, though, in part because it
    is so commonly misdiagnosed.[54]

    The most frequent misdiagnosis of CJD among the elderly is Alzheimer's disease.[55] Neither CJD nor
    Alzheimer's can be conclusively diagnosed without a brain biopsy,[56] and the symptoms and pathology
    of both diseases overlap. There can be spongy changes in Alzheimer's, for example, and senile
    Alzheimer's plaques in CJD.[57] Stanley Prusiner, the scientist who won the Nobel Prize for his
    discovery of prions, speculates that Alzheimer's may even turn out to be a prion disease as
    well.[58] In younger victims, CJD is more often misdiagnosed as multiple sclerosis or as a severe
    viral infection.[59]

    Over the last 20 years the rates of Alzheimer's disease in the United States have skyrocketed.[60]
    According to the CDC, Alzheimer's Disease is now the eighth leading cause of death in the United
    States,[61] afflicting an estimated 4 million Americans.[62] Twenty percent or more of people
    clinically diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, though, are found at autopsy not to have had
    Alzheimer's at all.[63] A number of autopsy studies have shown that a few percent of Alzheimer's
    deaths may in fact be CJD. Given the new research showing that infected beef may be responsible
    for some sporadic CJD, thousands of Americans may already be dying because of Mad Cow disease
    every year.[64]

    Nobel Laureate Gajdusek, for example, estimates that 1% of people showing up in Alzheimer clinics
    actually have CJD.[65] At Yale, out of a series of 46 patients clinically diagnosed with
    Alzheimer's, six were proven to have CJD at autopsy.[66] In another study of brain biopsies, out of
    a dozen patients diagnosed with Alzheimer's according to established criteria, three of them were
    actually dying from CJD.[67] An informal survey of neuropathologists registered a suspicion that CJD
    accounts for 2-12% of all dementias in general.[68] Two autopsy studies showed a CJD rate among
    dementia deaths of about 3%.[69,70] A third study, at the University of Pennsylvania, showed that 5%
    of patients diagnosed with dementia had CJD.[71] Although only a few hundred cases of sporadic CJD
    are officially reported in the U.S. annually,[72] hundreds of thousands of Americans die with
    dementia every year.[73] Thousands of these deaths may actually be from CJD caused by eating
    infected meat.

    The incubation period for human spongiform encephalopathies such as CJD can be decades.[74] This
    means it can be years between eating infected meat and getting diagnosed with the death sentence of
    CJD. Although only about 150 people have so far been diagnosed with variant CJD worldwide, it will
    be many years before the final death toll is known. In the United States, an unknown number of
    animals are infected with Mad Cow disease, causing an unknown number of human deaths from CJD. The
    U.S. should immediately begin testing all cows destined for human consumption, as is done in Japan,
    should stop feeding slaughterhouse waste to all farm animals (see
    organicconsumers.orgGregerBSE.cfm), and should immediately enact an active national
    surveillance program for CJD.[75]

    Five years ago this week, the Center for Food Safety, the Humane Farming Association, the Center for
    Media & Democracy, and ten families of CJD victims petitioned the FDA and the CDC to immediately
    enact a national CJD monitoring system, including the mandatory reporting of CJD in all 50
    states.[76] The petition was denied.[77] The CDC argued that their passive surveillance system
    tracking death certificate diagnoses was adequate. Their analysis of death certificates in three
    states and two cities, for example, showed an overall stable and typical one in a million CJD
    incidence rate from 1979 to
    1993.[78] But CJD is so often misdiagnosed, and autopsies are so infrequently done, that this system
    may not provide an accurate assessment.[79]

    In 1997, the CDC set up the National Prion Disease Pathology Surveillance Center at Case Western
    Reserve University to analyze brain tissue from CJD victims in the U.S. in hopes of tracking any new
    developments. In Europe, surveillance centers have been seeing most, if not all, cases of CJD. The
    U.S. center sees less than half. "I'm very unhappy with the numbers," laments Pierluigi Gambetti ,
    the director of the Center. "The British and Germans politely smile when they see we examine 30% or
    40% of the cases," he says. "They know unless you examine 80% or more, you are not in touch."[80]
    "The chance of losing an important case is high."[81]

    One problem is that many doctors don't even know the Center exists. And neither the CDC nor the
    Center are evidently authorized to reach out to them directly to bolster surveillance efforts,
    because it's currently up to each state individually to determine how--or even whether--they will
    track the disease. In Europe, in contrast, the national centers work directly with each affected
    family and their physicians.[82] In the U.S., most CJD cases--even the confirmed ones--seem to just
    fall through the cracks. In fact, based on the autopsy studies at Yale and elsewhere, it seems most
    CJD cases in the U.S. aren't even picked up in the first place.

    Autopsy rates have dropped in the U.S. from 50% in the Sixties to less than 10% at present.[83]
    Although one reason autopsies are rarely performed on atypical dementia cases is that medical
    professionals are afraid of catching the disease,[84] the primary reason for the decline in autopsy
    rates in general appears to be financial. There is currently no direct reimbursement to doctors or
    hospitals for doing autopsies, which often forces the family to absorb the cost of transporting the
    body to an autopsy center and having the brain samples taken, a tab that can run upwards of
    $1500.[85]

    Another problem is that the National Prion Disease Pathology Surveillance Center itself remains
    underfunded. Paul Brown, medical director for the National Institutes of Health, has described the
    Center's budget as "pitiful," complaining that "there isn't any budget for CJD surveillance."[86] To
    adequately survey America's 290 million residents, "you need a lot of money." UK CJD expert Robert
    Will explains, "There was a CJD meeting of families in America in which... [the CDC] got attacked
    fairly vigorously because there wasn't proper surveillance. You could only do proper surveillance if
    you have adequate resources."[87] "I compare this to the early days of AIDS," says protein chemist
    Shu Chen, who directs the Center's lab, "when no one wanted to deal with the crisis."[88]

    Andrew Kimbrell, the director of the Center for Food Safety, a D.C.-based public interest group,
    writes, "Given what we know now, it is unconscionable that the CDC is not strictly monitoring these
    diseases."[89] Given the presence of Mad Cow disease in the U.S., we need to immediately enact
    uniform active CJD surveillance on a national level, provide adequate funding not only for autopsies
    but also for the shipment of bodies, and require mandatory reporting of the disease in all 50
    states. In Britain, even feline spongiform encephalopathy, the cat version of Mad Cow disease, is an
    officially notifiable illness. "No one has looked for CJD systematically in the U.S.," notes NIH
    medical director Paul Brown. "Ever."[90]

    The animal agriculture industries continue to risk public safety, and the government seems to
    protect the industries' narrow business interests more than it protects its own citizens. Internal
    USDA documents retrieved through the Freedom of Information Act show that our government did indeed
    consider a number of precautionary measures as far back as 1991 to protect the American public from
    Mad Cow disease. According to one such document, however, the USDA explained that the "disadvantage"
    of these measures was that "the cost to the livestock and rendering industries would be
    substantial."[91]

    Plant sources of protein for farm animals can cost up to 30% more than cattle remains.[92] The
    Cattlemen's Association admitted a decade ago that animal agribusiness could indeed find
    economically feasible alternatives to feeding slaughterhouse waste to other animals, but that the
    they did not want to set a precedent of being ruled by "activists."[93]

    Is it a coincidence that USDA Secretary Veneman chose Dale Moore, former chief lobbyist for the
    National Cattlemen's Beef Association, as her chief of staff?[94] Or Alison Harrison, former
    director of public relations for the Cattlemen's Association, as her official spokeswoman?[95] Or
    that one of the new Mad Cow committee appointees is William Hueston, who was paid by the beef
    industry to testify against Oprah Winfrey in hopes of convicting her of beef "disparagement"?[96]
    After a similar conflict of interest unfolded in Britain, their entire Ministry of Agriculture was
    dissolved and an independent Food Safety Agency was created, whose sole responsibility is to protect
    the public's health. Until we learn from Britain's lesson, and until the USDA stops treating this as
    a PR problem to be managed instead of a serious global threat,
    [1994] millions of Americans will remain at risk.

    Michael Greger, M.D., has been the Chief BSE Investigator for Farm Sanctuary since 1993 and the Mad
    Cow Coordinator for the Organic Consumers Association since 2001.

    For periodic updates on the Mad Cow crisis send a blank email to DrGregerMadCowUpdates-
    [email hidden]

    REFERENCES:

    (Full text of specific articles available by emailing [email hidden])

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    6 PA News 30 November 1998.

    7 meatout.orgmeatout.org

    8 Brown, Paul. "Beef Crisis." Guardian 26 March 1996a: 7.

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    15 Journal of the American Medical Association, November 8, 2000; 284(18).

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    17 "BSE prions propagate as either variant CJD-like or sporadic CJD-like prion strains in transgenic
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    18 United Press International. 29 December 2003. organicconsumers.orgCJD122903.cfm

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    20 "BSE may cause more CJD cases than thought New Scientist 28 November 2002.

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    25 The Veterinary Record 127(1990):338.

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    29 Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease surveillance in the UK: sixth annual report 1997. Edinburgh, Scotland:
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    30 American Journal of Epidemiology Vol. 122, No. 3 (1985), pgs. 443-451.

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    National CJD Surveillance Unit, 1998.

    32 Quarterly Journal of Medicine 93(2000):617.

    33 American Journal of Epidemiology 98( 1973):381-394.

    34 Lancet 1998; 351:1081-5.

    35 American Journal of Epidemiology 122(1985)443-451.

    36 Lancet 1998; 351:1081-5.

    37 Schoon, H.A., Brunckhorst, D. and Pohlenz J. (1991) Spongiform Encephalopathy in a Red-Necked
    Ostrich, Tierartzliche Praxis, 19, 263-5

    38 Journal of Virology 75(21):10073-89 (2001).

    39 nobel.segajdusek lecture.html

    40 NBC Dateline 14 March 1997.

    41 Pearce, Fred. "BSE May Lurk in Pigs and Chickens." New Scientist 6 April 1996: 5.

    42 organicconsumers.orgtallow123103.cfm

    43 "BSE May Have Caused Some Cases Of CJD As Well As vCJD." The Guardian. 29 November 2002.

    44 Lancet 360(2002):139-141.

    45 Neuroepidemiology 14 (1995): 174-181.

    46 cdc.govbsecjdqa.htm

    47 Altman, Lawrence K. "U.S. Officials Confident That Mad Cow Disease of Britain Has Not Occurred
    Here." New York Times 27 March 1996: 12A.

    48 Flannery, Mary. "Twelve - Fifteen 'Mad Cow' Victims a Year in Area." Philadelphia Daily News 26
    March 1996: 03.

    49 Neurology 43 (1993): A316.

    50 Neurology 44 (1994): A260.

    51 Annals of Clinical and Laboratory Science 31(2001):211.

    52 Boule, Margie. "Despite Anecdotal Evidence, Docs Say No Mad Cow Disease Here." Oregonian 16
    April 1996:C01.

    53 Burlington County Times 23 June 2003. phillyburbs.com112 06232003
    112425.html

    54 Philip Yam. The Pathological Protein: Mad Cow, Chronic Wasting, and Other Deadly Prion Diseases.
    New York: Springer-Verlag Press, 2003

    55 British Journal of Psychiatry 158 (1991):457-70.

    56 Neurology 38 (1989): 76-79.

    57 Neurology 39 (1989): 1103-1104.

    58 New England Journal of Medicine 310 (1984): 661-663.

    59 "Brain Disease May Be Commoner Than Thought -Expert." Reuter Information Service 15 May 1996.

    60 cdc.gov00001820.htm

    61 cdc.govalzheimr.htm

    62 nimh.nih.govnumbers.cfm

    63 Neurology 34 (1984): 939.

    64 The Lancet 336 (1990):21.

    65 Folstein, M. "The Cognitive Pattern of Familial Alzheimer's Disease." Biological Aspects of
    Alzheimer's Disease. Ed. R. Katzman. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, 1983.

    66 Alzheimer Disease and Associated Disorders 2 (1989): 100-109.

    67 Teixeira, F., et al. "Clinico-Pathological Correlation in Dementias." Journal of Psychiatry and
    Neuroscience 20 (1995): 276-282.

    68 British Journal of Psychiatry 158 (1991): 457-70.

    69 Mahendra, B. Dementia Lancaster: MTP Press Limited, 1987: 174.

    70 Archives of Neurology 44 (1987): 24-29.

    71 Neurology 38 (1989): 76-79.

    72 cdc.govbsecjdqa.htm

    73 Dementia and Normal Aging, Cambridge University Press, 1994.

    74 Neurology 55 (2000):1075.

    75 Lancet Infectious Disease. 1 August 2003.

    76 mad-cow.orgjan99 petition.html

    77 centerforfoodsafety.orgCDCrspn1.html

    78 Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report 12 April 1996: 295-303.

    79 Neurology 43 (1993): A316.

    80 The Wall Street Journal. 30 November 2001.

    81 Beacon Journal (Akron). 5 June 2001. organicconsumers.orgCJD6501.cfm

    82 New York Times 30 January 2001.

    83 abcnews.go.comHS autopsydearth 03130.html

    84 Altman, Lawrence K. "Four States Watching for Brain Disorder." New York Times 9 April 1996.

    85 medicomm.nettp a15.htm

    86 organicconsumers.orgfact43001.cfm

    87 Case Western Reserve University Magazine - Summer 2001.

    88 Case Western Reserve University Magazine - Summer 2001.

    89 USA Today. 7 January 1999.

    90 Philip Yam. The Pathological Protein: Mad Cow, Chronic Wasting, and Other Deadly Prion Diseases.
    New York: Springer-Verlag Press, 2003

    91 Rampton, S and J. Stauber. Mad Cow USA: Could the Nightmare Happen Here? Common Courage Press;
    (September 1997):149-50. Full text available free online at prwatch.orgmadcow.html

    92 Food Chemical News 25 March 1996: 30.

    93 Food Chemical News 5 July 1993: 57-59.

    94 philly.com5884855.htm

    95 organicconsumers.orgusda1204.cfm

    96 prwatch.orgoprah.html

    97 "World Health Organization says BSE is a major threat"
    organicconsumers.orgBSE7601.cfm

    commondreams.org0107 07.htm

  6. pearl said:
    Jon Leipzig said:
    Quoted message said:

    Could Mad Cow Disease Already be Killing Thousands of Americans Every


    Year?

    Quoted message said:

    by Michael Greger, M.D.

    Pearl you're such a gem. Notice this is a question, not a statement. (could Mad Martians be causing
    Mad Human Disease??)

    Quoted message said:
    Quoted message said:

    the doctor counseled his family.[1,2,3] Peter's tragic death, October


    2002,

    Quoted message said:
    Quoted message said:

    may have been caused by Mad Cow disease.

    keyword: may

    Quoted message said:
    Quoted message said:

    These were the first five named victims of Britain's Mad Cow epidemic.


    They died from what the British

    Quoted message said:

    Secretary of Health called the worst form of death imaginable,


    Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease,

    Quoted message said:

    a relentlessly progressive and invariably fatal human dementia.

    Well, no, they they didn't die from MC, they died from CJD, variations of which have been around
    long before the first MC.

    Quoted message said:

    It is now considered an "incontestable fact" that these human deaths in


    Britain were

    Quoted message said:

    caused by Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE), or Mad Cow disease

    No surprise it's considered "incontestable", no naysayers are allowed to the party. Yes it is a
    party (just keep focused on these evil Prions, and you'll get lotsa dough for "research"😉 They won't
    fund anyone with a different point of view.

    Quoted message said:

    The CJD caused by infected meat has tended to strike younger people, has


    produced

    Quoted message said:

    more psychotic symptoms, and has often dragged on for a year or more. The


    most

    Quoted message said:

    defining characteristic, though, was found when their brains were sampled.


    The brain

    Quoted message said:

    pathology was vividly reminiscent of Kuru, a disease once found in a New


    Guinea tribe

    Quoted message said:

    of cannibals who ate the brains of their dead.[13] Scientists called this


    new form of the

    Quoted message said:

    disease "variant" CJD.

    Other than Charlene, a 24 year old woman now so tragically dying in


    Florida, who was

    Quoted message said:

    probably infected in Britain, there have been no reported cases of variant


    CJD in the

    Quoted message said:

    U.S.[14] Hundreds of confirmed cases of the sporadic form of


    Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease,

    Quoted message said:

    however, arise in the United States every year,[15] but the beef industry


    is quick to point

    Quoted message said:

    out these are cases of sporadic CJD, not the new variant known to be


    caused by Mad

    Quoted message said:

    Cow disease.[16] Of course, no one knows what causes sporadic CJD. New


    research,

    Quoted message said:

    discussed below, suggests that not hundreds but thousands of Americans die


    of sporadic

    Quoted message said:

    CJD every year, and that some of these CJD deaths may be caused by eating


    infected

    Quoted message said:

    meat after all.

    Although the fact that Mad Cow disease causes variant CJD had already been


    strongly

    Quoted message said:

    established, researchers at the University College of London nevertheless


    created

    Quoted message said:

    transgenic mice complete with "humanized" brains genetically engineered


    with human genes

    Quoted message said:

    to try to prove the link once and for all. When the researchers injected


    one strain of the

    Quoted message said:

    "humanized" mice with infected cow brains, they came down with the same


    brain damage

    Quoted message said:

    seen in human variant CJD, as expected. But when they tried this in a


    different strain of

    Quoted message said:

    transgenic "humanized" mice, those mice got sick too, but most got sick


    from what looked

    Quoted message said:

    exactly like sporadic CJD! The Mad Cow prions caused a disease that had a


    molecular

    Quoted message said:

    signature indistinguishable from sporadic CJD. To the extent that animal


    experiments can

    Quoted message said:

    simulate human results, their shocking conclusion was that eating infected


    meat might be

    Quoted message said:

    responsible for some cases of sporadic CJD in addition to the expected


    variant CJD. The

    Quoted message said:

    researchers concluded that "it is therefore possible that some patients


    with [what looks like]

    Quoted message said:

    ... sporadic CJD may have a disease arising from BSE exposure."[17] Laura


    Manuelidis,

    Quoted message said:

    section chief of surgery in the neuropathology department at Yale


    University comments,

    Quoted message said:

    "Now people are beginning to realize that because something looks like


    sporadic CJD

    Quoted message said:

    they can't necessarily conclude that it's not linked to [Mad Cow


    disease]..."[18]

    Quoted message said:


    This is not the first time meat was linked to sporadic CJD. In 2001, a


    team of French

    Quoted message said:

    researchers found, to their complete surprise, a strain of scrapie--"mad


    sheep"

    Quoted message said:

    disease--that caused the same brain damage in mice as sporadic CJD.[19]


    "This means we

    Quoted message said:

    cannot rule out that at least some sporadic CJD may be caused by some


    strains of scrapie,"

    Quoted message said:

    says team member Jean-Philippe Deslys of the French Atomic Energy


    Commission's medical

    Quoted message said:

    research laboratory.[20]

    Population studies had failed to show a link between CJD and lamb chops,


    but this French

    Quoted message said:

    research provided an explanation why. There seem to be six types of


    sporadic CJD and

    Quoted message said:

    there are more than 20 strains of scrapie. If only some sheep strains


    affect only some people,

    Quoted message said:

    studies of entire populations may not clearly show the relationship.


    Monkeys fed infected

    Quoted message said:

    sheep brains certainly come down with the disease.[21] Hundreds of "mad


    sheep" were found

    Quoted message said:

    in the U.S. in 2003.[22] Scrapie remains such a problem in the United


    States that the USDA

    Quoted message said:

    has issued a scrapie "declaration of emergency."[23] Maybe some cases of


    sporadic CJD in

    Quoted message said:

    the U.S. are caused by sheep meat as well.[24]

    Pork is also a potential source of infection. Cattle remains are still


    boiled down and legally

    Quoted message said:

    fed to pigs (as well as chickens) in this country. The FDA allows this


    exemption because no

    Quoted message said:

    "naturally occurring" porcine (pig) spongiform encephalopathy has ever


    been found. But

    Quoted message said:

    American farmers typically kill pigs at just five months of age, long


    before the disease is

    Quoted message said:

    expected to show symptoms. And, because pigs are packed so tightly


    together, it would

    Quoted message said:

    be difficult to spot neurological conditions like spongiform


    encephalopathies, whose most

    Quoted message said:

    obvious symptoms are movement and gait disturbances. We do know, however,


    that pigs

    Quoted message said:

    are susceptible to the disease--laboratory experiments show that pigs can


    indeed be

    Quoted message said:

    infected by Mad Cow brains[25]--and hundreds of thousands of downer pigs,


    too sick

    Quoted message said:

    or crippled by injury to even walk, arrive at U.S. slaughterhouses every


    year.[26]

    Quoted message said:


    A number of epidemiological studies have suggested a link between pork


    consumption

    Quoted message said:

    and sporadic CJD. Analyzing peoples' diet histories, the development of


    CJD was

    Quoted message said:

    associated with eating roast pork, ham, hot dogs, pork chops, smoked pork,


    and

    Quoted message said:

    scrapple (a kind of pork pudding made from various hog carcass scraps).


    The

    Quoted message said:

    researchers concluded, "The present study indicated that consumption of


    pork as well

    Quoted message said:

    as its processed products (e.g., ham, scrapple) may be considered as risk


    factors in the

    Quoted message said:

    development of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease." Compared to people that didn't


    eat ham,

    Quoted message said:

    for example, those who included ham in their diet seemed ten times more


    likely to

    Quoted message said:

    develop CJD.[27] In fact, the USDA may have actually recorded an outbreak


    of

    Quoted message said:

    "mad pig" disease in New York 25 years ago, but still refuses to reopen


    the

    Quoted message said:

    investigation despite petitions from the Consumer's Union (the publishers


    of Consumer

    Quoted message said:

    Reports magazine).[28]

    Sporadic CJD has also been associated with weekly beef consumption,[29] as


    well

    Quoted message said:

    as the consumption of roast lamb,[30] veal, venison, brains in


    general,[31] and, in

    Quoted message said:

    North America, seafood.[32,33] The development of CJD has also,


    surprisingly,

    Quoted message said:

    been significantly linked to exposure to animal products in


    fertilizer,[34] sport fishing

    Quoted message said:

    and deer hunting in the U.S.,[35] and frequent exposure to leather


    products.[36]

    Quoted message said:


    We do not know at this time whether chicken meat poses a risk. There was a


    preliminary

    Quoted message said:

    report of ostriches allegedly fed risky feed in German zoos who seemed to


    come down

    Quoted message said:

    with a spongiform encephalopathy.[37] Even if chickens and turkeys


    themselves are not

    Quoted message said:

    susceptible, though, they may become so-called "silent carriers" of Mad


    Cow prions and

    Quoted message said:

    pass them on to human consumers.[38] Dateline NBC quoted D. Carleton


    Gajdusek, the

    Quoted message said:

    first to be awarded a Nobel Prize in Medicine for his work on prion


    diseases,[39] as

    Quoted message said:

    saying, "it's got to be in the pigs as well as the cattle. It's got to be


    passing through the

    Quoted message said:

    chickens."[40] Dr. Paul Brown, medical director for the US Public Health


    Service,

    Quoted message said:

    believes that pigs and poultry could indeed be harboring Mad Cow disease


    and passing

    Quoted message said:

    it on to humans, adding that pigs are especially sensitive to the disease.


    "It's speculation,"

    Quoted message said:

    he says, "but I am perfectly serious."[41]

    The recent exclusion of most cow brains, eyes, spinal cords, and


    intestines from the human

    Quoted message said:

    food supply may make beef safer, but where are those tissues going? These


    potentially

    Quoted message said:

    infectious tissues continue to go into animal feed for chickens, other


    poultry, pigs, and

    Quoted message said:

    pets (as well as being rendered into products like tallow for use in


    cosmetics, the safety

    Quoted message said:

    of which is currently under review[42]). Until the federal government


    stops the feeding of

    Quoted message said:

    slaughterhouse waste, manure, and blood to all farm animals, the safety of


    meat in America

    Quoted message said:

    cannot be guaranteed.

    The hundreds of American families stricken by sporadic CJD every year have


    been told

    Quoted message said:

    that it just occurs by random chance. Professor Collinge, the head of the


    University College

    Quoted message said:

    of London lab, noted "When you counsel those who have the classical


    sporadic disease,

    Quoted message said:

    you tell them that it arises spontaneously out of the blue. I guess we can


    no longer say that."

    Quoted message said:


    "We are not saying that all or even most cases of sporadic CJD are as a


    result of BSE

    Quoted message said:

    exposure," Professor Collinge continued, "but some more recent cases may


    be-- the

    Quoted message said:

    incidence of sporadic CJD has shown an upward trend in the UK over the


    last decade...

    Quoted message said:

    serious consideration should be given to a proportion of this rise being


    BSE-related.

    Quoted message said:

    Switzerland, which has had a substantial BSE epidemic, has noted a sharp


    recent

    Quoted message said:

    increase in sporadic CJD."[43] In the Nineties, Switzerland had the


    highest rate of Mad

    Quoted message said:

    Cow disease in continental Europe, and their rate of sporadic CJD


    doubled.[44]

    Quoted message said:


    We don't know exactly what's happening to the rate of CJD in this country,


    in part

    Quoted message said:

    because CJD is not an officially notifiable illness.[45] Currently only a


    few states have

    Quoted message said:

    such a requirement. Because the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) does not


    actively

    Quoted message said:

    monitor the disease on a national level,[46] a rise similar to the one in


    Europe could be

    Quoted message said:

    missed.[47] In spite of this, a number of U.S. CJD clusters have already


    been found.

    Quoted message said:

    In the largest known U.S. outbreak of sporadic cases to date,[48] five


    times the

    Quoted message said:

    expected rate was found to be associated with cheese consumption in


    Pennsylvania's

    Quoted message said:

    Lehigh Valley.[49] A striking increase in CJD over expected levels was


    also reported

    Quoted message said:

    in Florida[50] and New York (Nassau County)[51] with anecdotal reports of


    clusters

    Quoted message said:

    of deaths in Oregon[52] and New Jersey.[53]

    Perhaps particularly worrisome is the seeming increase in CJD deaths among


    young

    Quoted message said:

    people in this country. In the 18 years between 1979 and 1996, only a


    single case of

    Quoted message said:

    sporadic CJD was found in someone under 30. Whereas between 1997 and 2001, five people under 30
    died of sporadic CJD. So five young Americans dying


    in five

    Quoted message said:

    years, as opposed to one young case in the previous 18 years. The true


    prevalence

    Quoted message said:

    of CJD among any age group in this country remains a mystery, though, in


    part

    Quoted message said:

    because it is so commonly misdiagnosed.[54]

    The most frequent misdiagnosis of CJD among the elderly is Alzheimer's


    disease.[55]

    Quoted message said:

    Neither CJD nor Alzheimer's can be conclusively diagnosed without a brain


    biopsy,[56]

    Quoted message said:

    and the symptoms and pathology of both diseases overlap. There can be


    spongy changes

    Quoted message said:

    in Alzheimer's, for example, and senile Alzheimer's plaques in CJD.[57]


    Stanley Prusiner,

    Quoted message said:

    the scientist who won the Nobel Prize for his discovery of prions,


    speculates that

    Quoted message said:

    Alzheimer's may even turn out to be a prion disease as well.[58] In


    younger victims,

    Quoted message said:

    CJD is more often misdiagnosed as multiple sclerosis or as a severe viral


    infection.[59]

    Quoted message said:


    Over the last 20 years the rates of Alzheimer's disease in the United


    States have

    Quoted message said:

    skyrocketed.[60] According to the CDC, Alzheimer's Disease is now the


    eighth leading

    Quoted message said:

    cause of death in the United States,[61] afflicting an estimated 4 million


    Americans.[62]

    Quoted message said:

    Twenty percent or more of people clinically diagnosed with Alzheimer's


    disease, though,

    Quoted message said:

    are found at autopsy not to have had Alzheimer's at all.[63] A number of


    autopsy studies

    Quoted message said:

    have shown that a few percent of Alzheimer's deaths may in fact be CJD.


    Given the new

    Quoted message said:

    research showing that infected beef may be responsible for some sporadic


    CJD, thousands

    Quoted message said:

    of Americans may already be dying because of Mad Cow disease every


    year.[64]

    Quoted message said:


    Nobel Laureate Gajdusek, for example, estimates that 1% of people showing


    up in

    Quoted message said:

    Alzheimer clinics actually have CJD.[65] At Yale, out of a series of 46


    patients clinically

    Quoted message said:

    diagnosed with Alzheimer's, six were proven to have CJD at autopsy.[66] In


    another study

    Quoted message said:

    of brain biopsies, out of a dozen patients diagnosed with Alzheimer's


    according to

    Quoted message said:

    established criteria, three of them were actually dying from CJD.[67] An


    informal survey

    Quoted message said:

    of neuropathologists registered a suspicion that CJD accounts for 2-12% of


    all dementias

    Quoted message said:

    in general.[68] Two autopsy studies showed a CJD rate among dementia


    deaths of about

    Quoted message said:

    3%.[69,70] A third study, at the University of Pennsylvania, showed that


    5% of patients

    Quoted message said:

    diagnosed with dementia had CJD.[71] Although only a few hundred cases of


    sporadic

    Quoted message said:

    CJD are officially reported in the U.S. annually,[72] hundreds of


    thousands of Americans

    Quoted message said:

    die with dementia every year.[73] Thousands of these deaths may actually


    be from CJD

    Quoted message said:

    caused by eating infected meat.

    The incubation period for human spongiform encephalopathies such as CJD


    can be

    Quoted message said:

    decades.[74] This means it can be years between eating infected meat and


    getting

    Quoted message said:

    diagnosed with the death sentence of CJD. Although only about 150 people


    have so far

    Quoted message said:

    been diagnosed with variant CJD worldwide, it will be many years before


    the final death

    Quoted message said:

    toll is known. In the United States, an unknown number of animals are


    infected with Mad

    Quoted message said:

    Cow disease, causing an unknown number of human deaths from CJD. The U.S.


    should

    Quoted message said:

    immediately begin testing all cows destined for human consumption, as is


    done in Japan,

    Quoted message said:

    should stop feeding slaughterhouse waste to all farm animals (see
    organicconsumers.orgGregerBSE.cfm), and should


    immediately

    Quoted message said:

    enact an active national surveillance program for CJD.[75]

    Five years ago this week, the Center for Food Safety, the Humane Farming


    Association,

    Quoted message said:

    the Center for Media & Democracy, and ten families of CJD victims


    petitioned the FDA

    Quoted message said:

    and the CDC to immediately enact a national CJD monitoring system,


    including the

    Quoted message said:

    mandatory reporting of CJD in all 50 states.[76] The petition was


    denied.[77] The CDC

    Quoted message said:

    argued that their passive surveillance system tracking death certificate


    diagnoses was

    Quoted message said:

    adequate. Their analysis of death certificates in three states and two


    cities, for example,

    Quoted message said:

    showed an overall stable and typical one in a million CJD incidence rate


    from 1979 to

    Quoted message said:

    1993.[78] But CJD is so often misdiagnosed, and autopsies are so


    infrequently done,

    Quoted message said:

    that this system may not provide an accurate assessment.[79]

    In 1997, the CDC set up the National Prion Disease Pathology Surveillance


    Center

    Quoted message said:

    at Case Western Reserve University to analyze brain tissue from CJD


    victims in the

    Quoted message said:

    U.S. in hopes of tracking any new developments. In Europe, surveillance


    centers have

    Quoted message said:

    been seeing most, if not all, cases of CJD. The U.S. center sees less than


    half. "I'm

    Quoted message said:

    very unhappy with the numbers," laments Pierluigi Gambetti , the director


    of the Center.

    Quoted message said:

    "The British and Germans politely smile when they see we examine 30% or


    40% of

    Quoted message said:

    the cases," he says. "They know unless you examine 80% or more, you are


    not in

    Quoted message said:

    touch."[80] "The chance of losing an important case is high."[81]

    One problem is that many doctors don't even know the Center exists. And


    neither the

    Quoted message said:

    CDC nor the Center are evidently authorized to reach out to them directly


    to bolster

    Quoted message said:

    surveillance efforts, because it's currently up to each state individually


    to determine

    Quoted message said:

    how--or even whether--they will track the disease. In Europe, in contrast,


    the national

    Quoted message said:

    centers work directly with each affected family and their physicians.[82]


    In the U.S.,

    Quoted message said:

    most CJD cases--even the confirmed ones--seem to just fall through the


    cracks. In fact,

    Quoted message said:

    based on the autopsy studies at Yale and elsewhere, it seems most CJD


    cases in the

    Quoted message said:

    U.S. aren't even picked up in the first place.

    Autopsy rates have dropped in the U.S. from 50% in the Sixties to less


    than 10% at

    Quoted message said:

    present.[83] Although one reason autopsies are rarely performed on


    atypical dementia

    Quoted message said:

    cases is that medical professionals are afraid of catching the


    disease,[84] the primary

    Quoted message said:

    reason for the decline in autopsy rates in general appears to be


    financial. There is

    Quoted message said:

    currently no direct reimbursement to doctors or hospitals for doing


    autopsies, which

    Quoted message said:

    often forces the family to absorb the cost of transporting the body to an


    autopsy center

    Quoted message said:

    and having the brain samples taken, a tab that can run upwards of


    $1500.[85]

    Quoted message said:


    Another problem is that the National Prion Disease Pathology Surveillance


    Center itself

    Quoted message said:

    remains underfunded. Paul Brown, medical director for the National


    Institutes of Health,

    Quoted message said:

    has described the Center's budget as "pitiful," complaining that "there


    isn't any budget

    Quoted message said:

    for CJD surveillance."[86] To adequately survey America's 290 million


    residents, "you

    Quoted message said:

    need a lot of money." UK CJD expert Robert Will explains, "There was a CJD


    meeting

    Quoted message said:

    of families in America in which... [the CDC] got attacked fairly


    vigorously because there

    Quoted message said:

    wasn't proper surveillance. You could only do proper surveillance if you


    have adequate

    Quoted message said:

    resources."[87] "I compare this to the early days of AIDS," says protein


    chemist Shu

    Quoted message said:

    Chen, who directs the Center's lab, "when no one wanted to deal with the


    crisis."[88]

    Quoted message said:


    Andrew Kimbrell, the director of the Center for Food Safety, a D.C.-based


    public

    Quoted message said:

    interest group, writes, "Given what we know now, it is unconscionable that


    the CDC is

    Quoted message said:

    not strictly monitoring these diseases."[89] Given the presence of Mad Cow


    disease in

    Quoted message said:

    the U.S., we need to immediately enact uniform active CJD surveillance on


    a national

    Quoted message said:

    level, provide adequate funding not only for autopsies but also for the


    shipment of

    Quoted message said:

    bodies, and require mandatory reporting of the disease in all 50 states.


    In Britain, even

    Quoted message said:

    feline spongiform encephalopathy, the cat version of Mad Cow disease, is


    an officially

    Quoted message said:

    notifiable illness. "No one has looked for CJD systematically in the


    U.S.," notes NIH

    Quoted message said:

    medical director Paul Brown. "Ever."[90]

    The animal agriculture industries continue to risk public safety, and the


    government seems

    Quoted message said:

    to protect the industries' narrow business interests more than it protects


    its own citizens.

    Quoted message said:

    Internal USDA documents retrieved through the Freedom of Information Act


    show that

    Quoted message said:

    our government did indeed consider a number of precautionary measures as


    far back as

    Quoted message said:

    1991 to protect the American public from Mad Cow disease. According to one


    such

    Quoted message said:

    document, however, the USDA explained that the "disadvantage" of these


    measures was

    Quoted message said:

    that "the cost to the livestock and rendering industries would be


    substantial."[91]

    Quoted message said:


    Plant sources of protein for farm animals can cost up to 30% more than


    cattle remains.[92]

    Quoted message said:

    The Cattlemen's Association admitted a decade ago that animal agribusiness


    could indeed

    Quoted message said:

    find economically feasible alternatives to feeding slaughterhouse waste to


    other animals,

    Quoted message said:

    but that the they did not want to set a precedent of being ruled by


    "activists."[93]

    Quoted message said:


    Is it a coincidence that USDA Secretary Veneman chose Dale Moore, former


    chief

    Quoted message said:

    lobbyist for the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, as her chief of


    staff?[94] Or

    Quoted message said:

    Alison Harrison, former director of public relations for the Cattlemen's


    Association, as

    Quoted message said:

    her official spokeswoman?[95] Or that one of the new Mad Cow committee appointees is William
    Hueston, who was paid by the beef industry to


    testify against

    Quoted message said:

    Oprah Winfrey in hopes of convicting her of beef "disparagement"?[96]


    After a similar

    Quoted message said:

    conflict of interest unfolded in Britain, their entire Ministry of


    Agriculture was dissolved

    Quoted message said:

    and an independent Food Safety Agency was created, whose sole


    responsibility is to

    Quoted message said:

    protect the public's health. Until we learn from Britain's lesson, and


    until the USDA

    Quoted message said:

    stops treating this as a PR problem to be managed instead of a serious


    global threat,

    Quoted message said:

    [97] millions of Americans will remain at risk.

    Michael Greger, M.D., has been the Chief BSE Investigator for Farm


    Sanctuary since

    Quoted message said:

    1993 and the Mad Cow Coordinator for the Organic Consumers Association


    since 2001.

    Quoted message said:


    For periodic updates on the Mad Cow crisis send a blank email to DrGregerMadCowUpdates-
    [email hidden]

    REFERENCES:

    (Full text of specific articles available by emailing


    [email hidden])

    Quoted message said:


    1 Spokesman Review. 22 September 2003 organicconsumers.orgputnam92203.cfm

    2 HealthDayNews. 26 September 2003


    healthday.comview.cfm

    Quoted message said:


    3 Reuters. 27 December 2003


    organicconsumers.orgcjd122703.cfm

    Quoted message said:


    4 Moyes, Jojo. "Depression Leads to Painful Death." Independent 21 March


    1996: 1.

    Quoted message said:


    5 "Victims' Families Cry Cover-Up by Protecting Beef Industry, Government


    Cost Lives,

    Quoted message said:

    They Say." Miami Herald 26 March 1996: 7A.

    6 PA News 30 November 1998.

    7 meatout.orgmeatout.org

    8 Brown, Paul. "Beef Crisis." Guardian 26 March 1996a: 7.

    9 British Medical Journal 322(2001):841.

    10 Journal of Infectious Diseases 161 (1990): 467-472.

    11 Bentor, Yinon. Chemical Element.com - Lead. Jun. 3, 2003.
    chemicalelements.compb.html

    12 British Medical Journal 322(2001):841.

    13 Bulletin of the World Health Organization 70 (1992): 183- 190.

    14 organicconsumers.orgflorida1304.cfm

    15 Journal of the American Medical Association, November 8, 2000; 284(18).

    16 bseinfo.orgdsplocationContent.cfm

    17 "BSE prions propagate as either variant CJD-like or sporadic CJD-like


    prion

    Quoted message said:

    strains in transgenic mice expressing human prion protein." EMBO Journal,


    Vol. 21,

    Quoted message said:

    No. 23, 6358-6368, 2002.


    emboj.oupjournals.org6358

    Quoted message said:


    18 United Press International. 29 December 2003. organicconsumers.orgCJD122903.cfm

    19 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 98(2001):4142.

    20 "BSE may cause more CJD cases than thought New Scientist 28 November


    2002.

    Quoted message said:


    21 Journal of Infectious Disease 142(1980):205-8.

    22


    aphis.usda.govyearly report.html

    Quoted message said:


    23 March 17, 2000 Federal Register (Volume 65,:Page 14521). mad-mad-
    cow.org/00/apr00scrapie.html

    24 "Sheep consumption: a possible source of spongiform encephalopathy in


    humans."

    Quoted message said:

    Neuroepidemiology. 4(1985):240-9.

    25 The Veterinary Record 127(1990):338.

    26 National Hog Farmer. 15 February 2002.

    27 American Journal of Epidemiology Vol. 122, No. 3 (1985), pgs. 443-451.

    28 consumersunion.orgpsecpi301.htm

    29 Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease surveillance in the UK: sixth annual report


    1997. Edinburgh,

    Quoted message said:

    Scotland: National CJD Surveillance Unit, 1998.

    30 American Journal of Epidemiology Vol. 122, No. 3 (1985), pgs. 443-451.

    31 Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease surveillance in the UK: sixth annual report


    1997. Edinburgh,

    Quoted message said:

    Scotland: National CJD Surveillance Unit, 1998.

    32 Quarterly Journal of Medicine 93(2000):617.

    33 American Journal of Epidemiology 98( 1973):381-394.

    34 Lancet 1998; 351:1081-5.

    35 American Journal of Epidemiology 122(1985)443-451.

    36 Lancet 1998; 351:1081-5.

    37 Schoon, H.A., Brunckhorst, D. and Pohlenz J. (1991) Spongiform


    Encephalopathy

    Quoted message said:

    in a Red-Necked Ostrich, Tierartzliche Praxis, 19, 263-5

    38 Journal of Virology 75(21):10073-89 (2001).

    39 nobel.segajdusek lecture.html

    40 NBC Dateline 14 March 1997.

    41 Pearce, Fred. "BSE May Lurk in Pigs and Chickens." New Scientist 6


    April 1996: 5.

    Quoted message said:


    42 organicconsumers.orgtallow123103.cfm

    43 "BSE May Have Caused Some Cases Of CJD As Well As vCJD." The Guardian. 29 November 2002.

    44 Lancet 360(2002):139-141.

    45 Neuroepidemiology 14 (1995): 174-181.

    46 cdc.govbsecjdqa.htm

    47 Altman, Lawrence K. "U.S. Officials Confident That Mad Cow Disease of


    Britain Has

    Quoted message said:

    Not Occurred Here." New York Times 27 March 1996: 12A.

    48 Flannery, Mary. "Twelve - Fifteen 'Mad Cow' Victims a Year in Area."


    Philadelphia

    Quoted message said:

    Daily News 26 March 1996: 03.

    49 Neurology 43 (1993): A316.

    50 Neurology 44 (1994): A260.

    51 Annals of Clinical and Laboratory Science 31(2001):211.

    52 Boule, Margie. "Despite Anecdotal Evidence, Docs Say No Mad Cow Disease


    Here."

    Quoted message said:

    Oregonian 16 April 1996:C01.

    53 Burlington County Times 23 June 2003. phillyburbs.com112 06232003
    112425.html

    54 Philip Yam. The Pathological Protein: Mad Cow, Chronic Wasting, and


    Other Deadly

    Quoted message said:

    Prion Diseases. New York: Springer-Verlag Press, 2003

    55 British Journal of Psychiatry 158 (1991):457-70.

    56 Neurology 38 (1989): 76-79.

    57 Neurology 39 (1989): 1103-1104.

    58 New England Journal of Medicine 310 (1984): 661-663.

    59 "Brain Disease May Be Commoner Than Thought -Expert." Reuter


    Information Service

    Quoted message said:

    15 May 1996.

    60 cdc.gov00001820.htm

    61 cdc.govalzheimr.htm

    62 nimh.nih.govnumbers.cfm

    63 Neurology 34 (1984): 939.

    64 The Lancet 336 (1990):21.

    65 Folstein, M. "The Cognitive Pattern of Familial Alzheimer's Disease."


    Biological

    Quoted message said:

    Aspects of Alzheimer's Disease. Ed. R. Katzman. Cold Spring Harbor


    Laboratory, 1983.

    Quoted message said:


    66 Alzheimer Disease and Associated Disorders 2 (1989): 100-109.

    67 Teixeira, F., et al. "Clinico-Pathological Correlation in Dementias."


    Journal of

    Quoted message said:

    Psychiatry and Neuroscience 20 (1995): 276-282.

    68 British Journal of Psychiatry 158 (1991): 457-70.

    69 Mahendra, B. Dementia Lancaster: MTP Press Limited, 1987: 174.

    70 Archives of Neurology 44 (1987): 24-29.

    71 Neurology 38 (1989): 76-79.

    72 cdc.govbsecjdqa.htm

    73 Dementia and Normal Aging, Cambridge University Press, 1994.

    74 Neurology 55 (2000):1075.

    75 Lancet Infectious Disease. 1 August 2003.

    76 mad-cow.orgjan99 petition.html

    77 centerforfoodsafety.orgCDCrspn1.html

    78 Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report 12 April 1996: 295-303.

    79 Neurology 43 (1993): A316.

    80 The Wall Street Journal. 30 November 2001.

    81 Beacon Journal (Akron). 5 June 2001.


    organicconsumers.orgCJD6501.cfm

    Quoted message said:


    82 New York Times 30 January 2001.

    83


    abcnews.go.comHS autopsydearth 03130.htm l

    Quoted message said:


    84 Altman, Lawrence K. "Four States Watching for Brain Disorder." New York


    Times 9 April 1996.

    Quoted message said:


    85 medicomm.nettp a15.htm

    86 organicconsumers.orgfact43001.cfm

    87 Case Western Reserve University Magazine - Summer 2001.

    88 Case Western Reserve University Magazine - Summer 2001.

    89 USA Today. 7 January 1999.

    90 Philip Yam. The Pathological Protein: Mad Cow, Chronic Wasting, and


    Other Deadly

    Quoted message said:

    Prion Diseases. New York: Springer-Verlag Press, 2003

    91 Rampton, S and J. Stauber. Mad Cow USA: Could the Nightmare Happen


    Here?

    Quoted message said:

    Common Courage Press; (September 1997):149-50. Full text available free


    online at

    Quoted message said:

    prwatch.orgmadcow.html

    92 Food Chemical News 25 March 1996: 30.

    93 Food Chemical News 5 July 1993: 57-59.

    94 philly.com5884855.htm

    95 organicconsumers.orgusda1204.cfm

    96 prwatch.orgoprah.html

    97 "World Health Organization says BSE is a major threat"
    organicconsumers.orgBSE7601.cfm

    commondreams.org0107 07.htm

  7. "Jon Leipzig" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
    "]news:[email hidden]...

    Quoted message said:


    pearl said:
    Jon Leipzig said:
    Quoted message said:

    Could Mad Cow Disease Already be Killing Thousands of Americans Every


    Year?

    Quoted message said:

    by Michael Greger, M.D.


    (MAJOR snip - took about a full minute)

    Talk about beating a dead horse.......er cow. 'Nuff already, people! Jeesh! kili

  8. "kilikini" <[email hidden]> wrote in message

    Quoted message said:


    "Jon Leipzig" <[email hidden]> wrote in message -"]news:[email hidden]-
    berlin.de...

    Quoted message said:


    pearl said:

    "Jon Leipzig" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:
    >

    Quoted message said:

    Could Mad Cow Disease Already be Killing Thousands of Americans Every


    Year?

    Quoted message said:

    by Michael Greger, M.D.


    (MAJOR snip - took about a full minute)

    Sorry, I accidently clicked _Send, then Outhouse Xpress gave me the option to send later. Didn't
    know they would automatically send it the next time logging in to OE. I was just getting warmed up.
    (mericfully) all my Mad Cow articles are on my crashed HDrive.)

    Might want to negotiate a refund with your ISP.

    Quoted message said:

    Talk about beating a dead horse.......er cow. 'Nuff already, people!

    If it's "nuff" already, why'd you bother responding at all?? Imo, their own vets questioning the Mad
    C lab, is a New horse, hopefully it won't die soon..

  9. "Jon Leipzig" <[email hidden]> wrote in message "]news:[email hidden]...

    Quoted message said:


    pearl said:
    Jon Leipzig said:
    Quoted message said:

    Could Mad Cow Disease Already be Killing Thousands of Americans Every Year? by Michael
    Greger, M.D.

    Pearl you're such a gem.

    That's sweet of you.

    Quoted message said:

    Notice this is a question, not a statement.

    Yes. A question which is thoroughly addressed in the article.

    Quoted message said:

    (could Mad Martians be causing Mad Human Disease??)

    There is no reason to think it. No supporting evidence.

    <restore> October 2001, 34-year-old Washington State native Peter Putnam started losing his mind.
    One month he was delivering a keynote business address, the next he couldn't form a complete
    sentence. Once athletic, soon he couldn't walk. Then he couldn't eat. After a brain biopsy showed it
    was Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, his doctor could no longer offer any hope. "Just take him home and
    love him,"

    Quoted message said:
    Quoted message said:
    Quoted message said:

    the doctor counseled his family.[1,2,3] Peter's tragic death, October 2002, may have been caused
    by Mad Cow disease.

    keyword: may

    No. Keywords: '34-year-old', and 'a brain biopsy showed it was Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease'. -You
    should be aware that a key feature of vCJD is that it can strike down young people.

    Quoted message said:
    Quoted message said:

    These were the first five named victims of Britain's Mad Cow epidemic. They died from what the
    British Secretary of Health called the worst form of death imaginable, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease,
    a relentlessly progressive and invariably fatal human dementia.

    Well, no, they they didn't die from MC,

    It doesn't say that. Read it again.

    Quoted message said:

    they died from CJD,

    That is what it says.

    Quoted message said:

    variations of which have been around long before the first MC.

    That is correct.

    'TSEs are a mysterious class of diseases that are called by different names in different species.
    For instance some identified types of TSE are Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD), and its specific
    strain, new variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (nvCJD) which is a human disease apparently caused by
    the same agent which causes bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) or British "mad cow" disease,
    Fatal Familial Insomnia (FFA), Gerstmann-Straussler-Scheinker Syndrome (GSS), scrapie in sheep,
    transmissible mink encephalopathy (TME) in mink in North America, and chronic wasting disease (CWD)
    in deer and elk in North America. There may be different strains of TSE within species, and new
    strains may be produced when TSEs move from one animal species to another.

    The common characteristics of TSE diseases are that they are invariably fatal. '
    icta.orgmadcow.htm

    Quoted message said:
    Quoted message said:

    It is now considered an "incontestable fact" that these human deaths in Britain were caused by
    Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE), or Mad Cow disease

    No surprise it's considered "incontestable", no naysayers are allowed to the party. Yes it is a
    party (just keep focused on these evil Prions, and you'll get lotsa dough for "research"😉 They
    won't fund anyone with a different point of view.

    Sounds like you have an axe to grind. Have you applied for research funds? What is your hypothesis,
    Jon? Based on what?

    <long snip- took all of 3 seconds (just highlight and hit return, kilikini.)

  10. "Jon Leipzig" <[email hidden]> wrote in message "]news:[email hidden]...

    Quoted message said:


    "kilikini" <[email hidden]> wrote in message

    Quoted message said:


    "Jon Leipzig" <[email hidden]> wrote in message -"]news:[email hidden]-
    berlin.de...

    Quoted message said:


    "pearl" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:
    > "Jon Leipzig" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:
    > >

    > Could Mad Cow Disease Already be Killing Thousands of Americans Every Year? by Michael
    > Greger, M.D.

    (MAJOR snip - took about a full minute)

    Sorry, I accidently clicked _Send, then Outhouse Xpress gave me the option to send later. Didn't
    know they would automatically send it the next time logging in to OE. I was just getting warmed
    up. (mericfully) all my Mad Cow articles are on my crashed HDrive.)

    Might want to negotiate a refund with your ISP.

    You could always hit Reply again.. 😉.

    Quoted message said:
    Quoted message said:

    Talk about beating a dead horse.......er cow. 'Nuff already, people!

    If it's "nuff" already, why'd you bother responding at all??

    I can understand that people much rather this all just go away, but it simply doesn't work that way,
    - and ignoring the emerging facts can only allow the situation to worsen - the industry banks on the
    apathy and indifference of a large segment of the public.

    Quoted message said:

    Imo, their own vets questioning the Mad C lab, is a New horse, hopefully it won't die soon..

    That I certainly agree with.

  11. "pearl" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
    "]news:[email hidden]...

    Quoted message said:
    Quoted message said:

    No surprise it's considered "incontestable", no naysayers are allowed to


    the

    Quoted message said:
    Quoted message said:

    party. Yes it is a party (just keep focused on these evil Prions, and you'll


    get

    Quoted message said:
    Quoted message said:

    lotsa dough for "research"😉 They won't fund anyone with a different point of view.

    Sounds like you have an axe to grind. Have you applied for research funds? What is your
    hypothesis, Jon? Based on what?

    Lol! No, I don't do research. Besides, I'm disabled with TLS (terminal lethargy syndrome) .

    If yer so interested in MC, I'm surprised you haven't heard of the (possible) link to the use of
    organphospates on cows to control the warble fly. IIRC, it either depletes or inhibits the
    utilization of copper, allowing for an excess of manganese to enter the brain. Supposedly manganese
    is the culprit in creating "rogue" prions. (this is in ref to the MC outbreak in the UK, a dozen yrs
    ago(?) ) Probably adding fuel to the fire, was the manganese enriched milk replacement formula as a
    growth enhancer. While they use these OP's in the US, in the UK they used skin-penetrating form,
    gel, I think. Also it was in a more concentrated dose than the US version. Trivia: the only other
    country to have a major outbreak at about the same time was Switzerland......coincidentally, the
    only country to use the same type/strength of OP's as in the UK.

    The British organic farmer/amateur scientist working on this OP theory had his house set afire twice
    (supposedly), also his lawyer & vet were killed in auto "accidents". His vet discovered he could
    dramatically relieve the symptoms of MC in 30 minutes by administering the antidotes to nerve gas.
    (these OP's are derivatives of mustard gas) Bet you'll never see a demo of this on TV in the US.

    Natch, this begs the Q of mad deer/elk/moose. IIRC, some of these "mad" areas are known to have
    copper deficient soil. (Just recalling tidbits from memory, till I amass a new arsenal of refs or
    gain access to my HD ) Then I wondered about the "mad humans" in New Guinea. I think kuru is
    similar to CJD. Don't know if there's a manganese connection or not, but I discovered the Japanese,
    back in the 40's, were injecting the natives with contaminated sheep brains as part of their bio-
    warfare program. Some of these tribes were practicing cannibalism long before this kuru surfaced in
    about 1950 (?).

    human brains to women and/or kids, knowing some would go mad.

  12. "Jon Leipzig" <[email hidden]> wrote in message "]news:[email hidden]...

    Quoted message said:


    "pearl" <[email hidden]> wrote in message "]news:[email hidden]...


    <..>

    Quoted message said:

    If yer so interested in MC, I'm surprised you haven't heard of the (possible) link to the use of
    organphospates on cows to control the warble fly.

    <ahem> tinyurl.com2mozq tinyurl.com3yjod

    'Organophosphates severely interfere with normal nervous system function, impeding the breakdown and
    recycling of acetylcholine, one of the main carriers of excitatory nerve impulses; its uncontrolled
    accumulation at the site of nerve synapses can force the nervous systems of both insects and humans
    into a virtually uncontrollable state of overdrive. ..'
    organicconsumers.orgtokaronwar120902.cfm

    OP poisoning symptoms- tension, anxiety, headaches, slurred speech, tremor, convulsions, paralysis,
    and even death. If death occurs, it is caused by asphyxia resulting from respiratory failure.

    Quoted message said:

    IIRC, it either depletes or inhibits the utilization of copper, allowing for an excess of
    manganese to enter the brain. Supposedly manganese is the culprit in creating "rogue" prions.

    I hear you.

    '... Cambridge scientist David R. Brown is hot on the trail. His recent research has shown that the
    prion proteins linked to BSE can bond destructively with manganese found in animal feeds or mineral
    licks. His latest, as yet unpublished work has found a tenfold increase in the metal manganese in
    brains of CJD victims.

    All this is fully consistent with the Purdey hypothesis. These manganese-tipped prions could be the
    principal cause of the neurological degeneration seen in BSE. But manganese is only the bullet --
    organophosphate insecticide is the high-velocity gun. It fires manganese into the brain by depleting
    copper which the manganese then replaces. Purdey says the manganese-tipped prions set off lethal
    chain reactions that neurologically burn through the animal. ..

    A number of researchers have found that organophosphate (OP) in systemic warble fly insecticide can
    deform the prion molecule, rendering it ineffective at buffering free radical effects in the body.
    Worse still, the prion is then partial to bond with manganese and become a 'rogue' prion. A chain
    reaction whereby rogue prions turn others to rogues also, can explain the bovine spongiform disease
    mechanism.

    Brown showed how prion protein bonds benignly with copper, but lethally with manganese. Even natural
    variations in relative environmental availability of manganese versus copper can trigger prion
    degradation.

    Chickens notoriously excrete most of the supplements fed to them -- including manganese. And their
    manganese-rich excreta have been blended into cattle feed in the UK. .. Purdey has built evidence
    from around the world that explains and predicts the incidence in humans and animals: a cluster of
    CJD in Slovakia, Eastern Europe -- around a manganese plant; Rocky Mountain deer with Chronic
    Wasting Disease (CWD), who were found to be eating pine needles rich in manganese; the futile
    slaughter of sheep in Cyprus -- only for BSE to reemerge within years. ...' Organophosphates
    Implicated In Mad Cow Disease cqs.comopmadcow.htm

    Quoted message said:

    (this is in ref to the MC outbreak in the UK, a dozen yrs ago(?) )

    Yes.

    Quoted message said:

    Probably adding fuel to the fire, was the manganese enriched milk replacement formula as a growth
    enhancer.

    And given in mineral supplements, and in the chicken excrement in feed (!).

    Quoted message said:

    While they use these OP's in the US, in the UK they used skin-penetrating form, gel, I think. Also
    it was in a more concentrated dose than the US version.

    Didn't Purdey think that 'Phosmet', in particular, was implicated?

    Quoted message said:

    Trivia: the only other country to have a major outbreak at about the same time was
    Switzerland......coincidentally, the only country to use the same type/strength of OP's as
    in the UK.

    Right.

    Quoted message said:

    The British organic farmer/amateur scientist working on this OP theory had his house set afire
    twice (supposedly), also his lawyer & vet were killed in auto "accidents". His vet discovered he
    could dramatically relieve the symptoms of MC in 30 minutes by administering the antidotes to
    nerve gas. (these OP's are derivatives of mustard gas)

    But the damage is done!

    Quoted message said:

    Bet you'll never see a demo of this on TV in the US.

    Nor Ireland. :

    Quoted message said:

    Natch, this begs the Q of mad deer/elk/moose. IIRC, some of these "mad" areas are known to have
    copper deficient soil.

    Manganese rich perhaps. However that couldn't just suddenly come about.

    '..The most troubling explanation for CWD's appearance came from neither state agency but from
    veteran agricultural and environmental writer Mike Irwin, freelancing in Madison's Capital Times.
    Irwin's groundbreaking reporting linked CWD to a group of landowners in western Dane County who, in
    1990, began a concentrated effort at deer management in order to raise "super" bucks. The
    landowners, who controlled 12 abutting square-mile sections in the northwestern part of the town of
    Vermont, agreed to give young bucks six years to grow so they'd develop the imposing antlers and
    muscular bodies that would get them into the record books. Then they began long-term feeding of
    nutritional supplements to wild deer. Their effort succeeded: Between 1990 and 2000, Dane County
    recorded the third-highest number of trophy bucks in North America.

    Up until August 1997, when the FDA, reacting to Britain's mad cow epidemic, banned all ruminant-to-
    ruminant feeding (sheep, cattle, goats, elk, deer, antelope and buffalo) in the United States,
    Midwestern rendering plants routinely processed Wisconsin deer carcasses into meat and bone meal
    that went into feed mill products fed back to ruminants, including deer. (Cows, sheep and deer can
    still legally be processed into bone and blood meal feed for pigs, pets and chickens; then they can
    be rendered and fed back to cows, deer and other ruminants.)

    The feeding practice may have amplified the disease in the same way feeding spread TSEs among the
    Fore people, Britain's cows and the Wisconsin mink, something further suggested by the fact that 11
    of the first 18 cases of CWD found in Wisconsin came from the "super buck" area. The connection is
    especially vexing because "that kind of feeding has been going on all over the state," says author
    Stauber, "more evidence that CWD is spread all over Wisconsin." The DNR did ban feeding of deer
    statewide once CWD was discovered, but by then, much of the damage had been done. ..............'
    milwaukeemagazine.comcwd.html

    Quoted message said:

    (Just recalling tidbits from memory, till I amass a new arsenal of refs or gain access to my HD )

    Okay.

    The thing is, as Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies _are_ transmissible, doesn't that prove
    that there is some kind of infectious agent involved, (even though other factors such as
    organophosphate poisoning and excess manganese could certainly be contributory)?

    Quoted message said:

    Then I wondered about the "mad humans" in New Guinea. I think kuru is similar to CJD. Don't know
    if there's a manganese connection or not, but I discovered the Japanese, back in the 40's, were
    injecting the natives with contaminated sheep brains as part of their bio-warfare program. Some of
    these tribes were practicing cannibalism long before this kuru surfaced in about 1950 (?).

    Here's a recent piece about that;

    Mad Cow Disease/Kuru/CJD In The Fore Tribe 1-2-4

    Before and during World War II, at the infamous Camp 731 in Manchuria, the Japanese military
    contaminated prisoners of war with certain disease agents.

    They also established a research camp in New Guinea in 1942. There they experimented upon the Fore
    Indian tribe and inoculated them with a minced-up version of the brains of diseased sheep containing
    the visna virus which causes "mad cow disease" or Creutzfeldt÷Jakob disease.

    About five or six years later, after the Japanese had been driven out, the poor people of the Fore
    tribe developed what they called kuru, which was their word for "wasting", and they began to shake,
    lose their appetites and die. The autopsies revealed that their brains had literally turned to mush.
    They had contracted "mad cow disease" from the Japanese experiments.

    When World War II ended, Dr Ishii Shiro÷the medical doctor who was commissioned as a General in the
    Japanese Army so he could take command of Japanâs biological warfare development, testing and
    deployment÷was captured. He was given the choice of a job with the United States Army or execution
    as a war criminal. Not surprisingly, Dr Ishii Shiro chose to work with the US military to
    demonstrate how the Japanese had created mad cow disease in the Fore Indian tribe.

    In 1957, when the disease was beginning to blossom in full among the Fore people, Dr Carleton
    <http://mail.yahoo.com/config/login?/gajdusek.html> Gajdusek of the US National Institutes of Health
    headed to New Guinea to determine how the minced-up brains of the visna-infected sheep affected
    them. He spent a couple of years there, studying the Fore people, and wrote an extensive report. He
    won the Nobel Prize for "discovering" kuru disease in the Fore tribe.

    whale.toscott7.html>whale.toscott7.html

    Quoted message said:

    human brains to women and/or kids, knowing some would go mad.

    That's crazy.

  13. "pearl" <[email hidden]> wrote in messag

    Quoted message said:

    <ahem> tinyurl.com2mozq tinyurl.com3yjod

    OIC...you've been mad about cows for a good while....

    Quoted message said:

    organicconsumers.orgtokaronwar120902.cfm

    One of the sites I lost....thanx

    Quoted message said:
    Quoted message said:

    While they use these OP's in the US, in the UK they used


    skin-penetrating

    Quoted message said:
    Quoted message said:

    form, gel, I think. Also it was in a more concentrated dose than the US version.

    Didn't Purdey think that 'Phosmet', in particular, was implicated?

    Yup. Don't know if it goes under a diff- name in the US, but in the UK it was about 4x the strength
    of the powdered form in USA.

    Quoted message said:
    Quoted message said:

    The British organic farmer/amateur scientist working on this OP theory


    had

    Quoted message said:
    Quoted message said:

    his house set afire twice (supposedly), also his lawyer & vet were


    killed in

    Quoted message said:
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    auto "accidents". His vet discovered he could dramatically relieve the symptoms of MC in 30
    minutes by administering the antidotes to nerve


    gas.

    Quoted message said:
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    (these OP's are derivatives of mustard gas)

    But the damage is done!

    I wasn't sure if these "accidents" were true, but I just came across new accounts from the UK
    verifying these events.

    Quoted message said:
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    Bet you'll never see a demo of this on TV in the US.

    Nor Ireland. :

    Quoted message said:
    Quoted message said:

    that 11 of the first 18 cases of CWD found in Wisconsin came from the


    "super buck" area. >>milwaukeemagazine.comcwd.html

    Darn , I was raised in Wisc., never heard of this b-4..

    Quoted message said:

    The thing is, as Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies _are_ transmissible, doesn't that prove
    that there is some kind of infectious agent involved, (even though other factors such as
    organophosphate poisoning and excess manganese could certainly be contributory)?

    other than these "rogue" prions, I don't think so. If it's something in the feed, why have there
    been no outbreaks in all those countries importing the same feed from the UK??

    Quoted message said:

    Here's a recent piece about that; Mad Cow Disease/Kuru/CJD In The Fore Tribe 1-2-4
    whale.toscott7.html>whale.toscott7.html

    Solves that riddle, I guess.

    Interesting, I recall refs to "manganese madness" in areas of volcano activity and/or manganese
    mines in various parts of the globe. Might find it again, while looking for something else....

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