About Mad Cow
Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) is the scientific term for a disease which affects the brains of cattle. Soon after BSE was first discovered in the United Kingdom, it became more commonly known as “mad cow disease,” most likely because of the emotional response it generated with the public. Unlike most livestock diseases, BSE is not caused by a bacterial or viral infection, but rather is the result of infectious prions. These are unique proteins that may bond with a cow’s brain cells, altering their composition and ultimately leading to the animal’s death. Mad cow disease is believed to be transferred to cattle when they eat these infectious proteins, yet science has shown the disease can only affect those cows that are genetically susceptible.
A similar disease, scrapie, has affected sheep in the United Kingdom since at least the mid- 18th century. Scientists believe that through centuries of close contact in rural England, the disease managed to transfer to cattle, where it was first identified in 1985. In the years that followed, more than 180,000 cows became infected in the U.K. The British practice of processing central nervous tissue into animal feed allowed the prions to spread rapidly through their herds. As the British exported feed and live animals to various regions of the world, cases of BSE began to appear in other countries.
In 1997 the United States banned materials that can possibly contain prions from cattle feed, while also eliminating these specified risk materials from the human food supply. This firewall feed ban, in place now for nearly seven years, ensures that BSE cannot spread through American herds the way it did in Europe, where such a feed ban did not occur until after mad cow disease had reached epidemic proportions.
Last December a dairy cow in Washington state was diagnosed with BSE, causing a flurry of media coverage and activity from groups trying to take advantage of what they saw as potential opportunity. Yet domestic beef consumption did not decrease in the wake of the discovery because American consumers seem to understand the truth about mad cow disease:there is no tangible risk of being infected from beef.Only one animal, out of the 35 million slaughtered in the United States every year, has been infected with BSE. Even if more cases were to be discovered, the prions which cause BSE reside only in the central nervous system–the brain, spinal cord and other nervous tissue–which are not eaten by humans.
The Washington State Holstein infected with mad cow disease was born in Canada, before the 1997 firewall feed ban implemented to block the spread of the disease. In Europe there were hundreds of thousands of infected animals, yet only 153 people have ever contracted the related form of the disease, variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD). The European experience with BSE provides ample evidence that the disease is not readily transmissible to humans. In the United States only one case of BSE has ever been found, largely because of the quick response of government and industry to the threat of the disease.
That response grew even stronger when it was discovered that mad cow disease had entered the U.S.
The Department of Agriculture banned the slaughter of “downed” cattle for human consumption, as the infected animal was not able to walk when it was sent to slaughter.
USDA will test more than five times more cattle for BSE in 2004 than it did in 2003. Meanwhile the Food and Drug Administration imposed even more stringent restrictions on livestock feed composition to reinforce already strong barriers against mad cow disease.
While American consumers continue to remain confident that the U.S. food supply is the safest in the world, several important export markets banned imports of U.S. beef immediately following the discovery of a single case of mad cow disease. Some of these countries, namely Japan, demand that every cow be tested for BSE. In a country that consumes as much beef as the United States, this would not only be a logistical nightmare, but largely unnecessary for several reasons.
The existence of an isolated case of mad cow disease is not grounds for panic. The disease has virtually no pathway for transfer to humans, and strict government feed regulations will effectively prevent its spread to other cattle. Moreover, modern statistical analysis allows scientists to determine whether BSE is present in the herds without testing every animal. By testing hundreds of thousands of animals, as the U.S. will do this year, analysts can learn nearly as much as by testing every cow.
Despite attempts by pressure groups to scare the American public about the safety of their food–a tactic that has worked well in the past–Americans continue to show confidence in our food safety. Only one case has ever been found in the United States because the government and industry long ago took the necessary measures to prevent its spread. These measures have been reinforced with new regulations that will effectively eliminate any opportunity for the further spread of BSE. The U.S. beef supply remains the safest in the world.
Mad-cow-facts will help you learn more about the disease, and will keep you up to date on the latest developments. On this site you will find news articles about mad cow disease, analyses on the actual risks associated with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), and commentary on how some groups and industries exploit our fears regarding mad cow disease and variant Creutzfeld-Jakob Disease (vCJD) for profit and other ulterior motives.We welcome public comments and recommendations, and encourage interested users to visit our homepage at http://www.cgfi.org/.
