I was watching a special on Madcow, I think it aired on PBS. You shouldn't be alarmed at the amounts of people that are showing infection. You
should be alarmed however, that Mad Cow and Creutzfeldt-Jakob have about a 10-20 year dormancy period before signs of infection are known.
CNN.com
"The good news about the 1997 infected beef crisis in Great Britain is that it only killed 130 people, Stauber said. The bad news is that people have
been dying from meat they ate 10 years ago."
organic consumers.org
It's funny because some cannibalistic tribes actually contract this disease, it comes from eating infected brain tissue.
Kuru: A Story of Friends and Cannibals
It causes cysts inside of our grey matter, and causes large lesions. Chickens contract it as well because their feed is mixed with bone meal, which
comes from the parts of chickens not going for human consumption. IE heads, lips, beaks, anything.
"an easy path of transmission, according to the Madison author, would have been through the dried raw cattle blood protein that's not only legal to
include in animal feed in the United States, but is commonly used as a protein source in certain calf supplements"
Dr. Clarence Gibbs, Acting Chief of the Laboratory of Central Nervous System Studies at the National Institutes of Health, testified before Congress
January 29, 1997, saying that bone meal derived from infected rendered animals has been fed to chickens. "Poultry would be expected to shed massive
quantities of the infectious amyloid [prion protein] in their feces. Chicken manure is widely used as fertilizer on vegetable crops. This means that
vegetarians might be at risk," Dr. Gibbs testified.[1]
Environmental Research Home
And yes, I do believe that only after some people tested positive for Madcow, did they decide to start regulating and testing for it.
"The European Commission stressed the assessment related only to whether BSE might be present in live cattle, not to any risk to humans through food
consumption."
CNN.com
I say keep eating beef, If youre going to get it chances are you already have it, but havent started exhibiting signs. Besides, the test to find out
if something is positive requires a certain portion of the brain, and if it isnt done correctly, it winds up testing negative anyways.
[edit on 9/28/2005 by denial28]