Now We’re Getting Somewhere!

I know; upon closer inspection this is pretty bad news about the evolution of BSE in America. But that’s just the thing – this proves there is an evolution to BSE in America and it’s happening right under our noses. No news isn’t good news in regards to BSE. Anything we can learn will bring us closer to finding the key to how this disease works so we can cure it in humans and animals.

I’ve felt all along that we must have missed something in researching prion disease over the last 250 years, likely something obvious and simple. There’s certainly a missing link with TSEs, which is why I’m glad when something like this comes out to shed some light on the disease and how we approach it.

Remember the feed ban that has been in affect in the U.S. since 1997? This is the feed ban the USDA refers to when it tells you American beef is safe from mad cow disease. It’s the feed ban that supposedly means cows aren’t being fed other ground up cows. (Our fantastic system of checks and balances on this is a whole other post). Every time a cow tests positive, it’s always too old to have been affected by the feed ban, because the cows have been age 12 or age 10 and must have contracted BSE before the feed ban went into affect. This is usually the point where U.S. agriculture secretary Mike Johanns tells you that American beef is safe.

In previous posts, I’ve talked about why no one in this country can ever categorically tell you that American beef is safe to eat. Johanns ought to be ashamed of himself in much the same way Phillip Morris should be ashamed of peddling cigarettes. Because when you peddle things that can kill people, people die.

Which brings me back to this new article. The last two cows to test positive for BSE in the U.S. have been found to have carried atypical strains of BSE. This is leading scientists to believe older cows such as these are susceptible to this atypical strain, feed ban be dammed. And we’re back to the drawing board.

This is why my license plate says “CURE CJD.” The cure is the answer. That’s what we have to work for. We aren’t sure how the disease travels through the body and onto the brain once it enters. We aren’t sure if the feed ban is working now. We aren’t certain that these people in the U.S. dying of CJD aren’t in fact victims of a U.S. BSE outbreak.

I have just been contacted by a relative of a 40-year-old woman who died of CJD. Yes, 40-year-olds, 25-year-olds, and 30-year-olds are dying of CJD in America. Since our feed bans and animal testing procedures are an obvious sham, the only answer to stopping this madness is really finding the cure of this disease.

Here’s a link to the article about this latest research into atypical strains of BSE:

http://www.rapidcityjournal.com/articles
/2006/05/31/news/local/news05.txt

Before you eat that next burger, remember that America only tests less than one tenth of one percent of the cows eaten in this country. (See Vicki Sutton’s article in a previous post for more on that).