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.

...................'
http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=...9-061848-3665r

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

"John Gaquin" > wrote in message ...
>
> 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.
...'
http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=...9-061848-3665r

"pearl" > wrote in message
...
> USDA vets question agency's mad cow lab
> By Steve Mitchell
> United Press International


> "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.

"Jon Leipzig" > wrote in message ...
>
> "pearl" > wrote in message
> ...
> > USDA vets question agency's mad cow lab
> > By Steve Mitchell
> > United Press International
>
>
> > "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 http://organicconsumers.org/madcow/GregerBSE.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,
[97] 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


REFERENCES:

(Full text of specific articles available by emailing )

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2 HealthDayNews. 26 September 2003 http://www.healthday.com/view.cfm?id=515265

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45 Neuroepidemiology 14 (1995): 174-181.

46 http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/diseases/cjd/bsecjdqa.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.
http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/ne...03-112425.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 http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00001820.htm

61 http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/alzheimr.htm

62 http://www.nimh.nih.gov/publicat/numbers.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 http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/diseases/cjd/bsecjdqa.htm

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

74 Neurology 55 (2000):1075.

75 Lancet Infectious Disease. 1 August 2003.

76 http://www.mad-cow.org/jan99_petition.html#ddd

77 http://www.centerforfoodsafety.org/li/CDCrspn1.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. http://www.organicconsumers.org/madcow/CJD6501.cfm

82 New York Times 30 January 2001.

83 http://abcnews.go.com/sections/livin...rth_03130.html

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

85 http://www.medicomm.net/Consumer%20Site/tp/tp_a15.htm

86 http://www.organicconsumers.org/madcow/fact43001.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
http://prwatch.org/books/madcow.html

92 Food Chemical News 25 March 1996: 30.

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

94 http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/5884855.htm

95 http://organicconsumers.org/madcow/usda1204.cfm

96 http://www.prwatch.org/prwissues/1998Q1/oprah.html

97 "World Health Organization says BSE is a major threat"
http://www.organicconsumers.org/madcow/BSE7601.cfm

http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0107-07.htm

"pearl" > wrote in message news:
> "Jon Leipzig" > wrote in message news:
> >

> Could Mad Cow Disease Already be Killing Thousands of Americans Every
Year?
> 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??)

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

keyword: may

>>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, they died from CJD, variations of
which have been around long before the first MC.

> 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.




> 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 http://organicconsumers.org/madcow/GregerBSE.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,
> [97] 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
>
>
> REFERENCES:
>
> (Full text of specific articles available by emailing
)
>
> 1 Spokesman Review. 22 September 2003
> http://www.organicconsumers.org/madcow/putnam92203.cfm
>
> 2 HealthDayNews. 26 September 2003
http://www.healthday.com/view.cfm?id=515265
>
> 3 Reuters. 27 December 2003
http://www.organicconsumers.org/madcow/cjd122703.cfm
>
> 4 Moyes, Jojo. "Depression Leads to Painful Death." Independent 21 March
1996: 1.
>
> 5 "Victims' Families Cry Cover-Up by Protecting Beef Industry, Government
Cost Lives,
> They Say." Miami Herald 26 March 1996: 7A.
>
> 6 PA News 30 November 1998.
>
> 7 http://meatout.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.
> http://www.chemicalelements.com/elements/pb.html
>
> 12 British Medical Journal 322(2001):841.
>
> 13 Bulletin of the World Health Organization 70 (1992): 183- 190.
>
> 14 http://www.organicconsumers.org/madcow/florida1304.cfm
>
> 15 Journal of the American Medical Association, November 8, 2000; 284(18).
>
> 16 http://www.bseinfo.org/dsp/dsplocati...ocationId=1267
>
> 17 "BSE prions propagate as either variant CJD-like or sporadic CJD-like
prion
> strains in transgenic mice expressing human prion protein." EMBO Journal,
Vol. 21,
> No. 23, 6358-6368, 2002.
http://emboj.oupjournals.org/cgi/con...ull/21/23/6358
>
> 18 United Press International. 29 December 2003.
> http://organicconsumers.org/madcow/CJD122903.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.
>
> 21 Journal of Infectious Disease 142(1980):205-8.
>
> 22
http://www.aphis.usda.gov/vs/nahps/s...ly-report.html
>
> 23 March 17, 2000 Federal Register (Volume 65,:Page 14521).
> http://www.mad-cow.org/00/apr00scrapie.html
>
> 24 "Sheep consumption: a possible source of spongiform encephalopathy in
humans."
> 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 http://www.consumersunion.org/food/psecpi301.htm
>
> 29 Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease surveillance in the UK: sixth annual report
1997. Edinburgh,
> 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,
> 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
> in a Red-Necked Ostrich, Tierartzliche Praxis, 19, 263-5
>
> 38 Journal of Virology 75(21):10073-89 (2001).
>
> 39 http://www.nobel.se/medicine/laureat...k-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 http://organicconsumers.org/madcow/tallow123103.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.
>
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>
> 46 http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/diseases/cjd/bsecjdqa.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.
>
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>
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>
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>
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> Oregonian 16 April 1996:C01.
>
> 53 Burlington County Times 23 June 2003.
> http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/ne...03-112425.html
>
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Other Deadly
> Prion Diseases. New York: Springer-Verlag Press, 2003
>
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> 15 May 1996.
>
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>
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>
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>
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>
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>
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>
> 73 Dementia and Normal Aging, Cambridge University Press, 1994.
>
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>
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>
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>
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>
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>
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>
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>
> 81 Beacon Journal (Akron). 5 June 2001.
http://www.organicconsumers.org/madcow/CJD6501.cfm
>
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>
> 83
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/livin...arth_03130.htm
l
>
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>
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>
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>
> 87 Case Western Reserve University Magazine - Summer 2001.
>
> 88 Case Western Reserve University Magazine - Summer 2001.
>
> 89 USA Today. 7 January 1999.
>
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Other Deadly
> Prion Diseases. New York: Springer-Verlag Press, 2003
>
> 91 Rampton, S and J. Stauber. Mad Cow USA: Could the Nightmare Happen
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> Common Courage Press; (September 1997):149-50. Full text available free
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>
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>
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>
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>
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>
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>
> 97 "World Health Organization says BSE is a major threat"
> http://www.organicconsumers.org/madcow/BSE7601.cfm
>
> http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0107-07.htm
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>

"Jon Leipzig" > wrote in message
...
>
> "pearl" > wrote in message news:
> > "Jon Leipzig" > 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)

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

"kilikini" > wrote in message
>
> "Jon Leipzig" > wrote in message
> ...
> >
> > "pearl" > wrote in message news:
> > > "Jon Leipzig" > 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.


> 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..

"Jon Leipzig" > wrote in message ...
>
> "pearl" > wrote in message news:
> > "Jon Leipzig" > wrote in message news:
> > >
>
> > 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.

> Notice this is a question, not a statement.

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

> (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,"
> >>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.

> >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.

> they died from CJD,

That is what it says.

> 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. '
http://www.icta.org/legal/madcow.htm

> > 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.)>

"pearl" > wrote in message
...

> > 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?

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 (?).

trivia: Some of these male-dominated tribes were sexist pigs. They fed the
human brains to women and/or kids, knowing some would go mad.