Nature’s Payback: Mad Cow Disease


The Christmas holiday has come and gone, but nature, ever intent on surprises, has given us all a holiday gift which most of us feel we can do without. It’s called Mad Cow Disease. It could also be called Nature’s Revenge, but I’ll get back to that later. It’s worrisome to say the least. Anytime you’re sitting down to dinner and you start looking apprehensively at the steak in front of you….well, you get the picture.

Actually Mad Cow is only a worry if you are in the habit of eating beef products. Or in the habit of using cosmetics based on beef products. Or in the habit of drinking milk. But since that includes a lot of people, a lot of people have a right to be worried. The scientific term is for the illness is Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy or (BSE). BSE wipes out the nervous system of cattle and is transmissible to other cattle, especially in the conditions of a commercial stock yard.

Humans get something related to BSE by eating contaminated meat or meat products. That disease is called Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease or (CJD). Worldwide there have been few reported cases of CJD, but that fact alone is not very comforting.

This latest case of Mad Cow originated in Washington State, but where the unfortunate cow got the disease is not clear. In any event , the US Department of Agriculture is trying desperately to convince everyone who’ll listen that the US beef supply is safe. According to CNN, Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman said Wednesday that the chances of anyone becoming sick from U.S. meat possibly tainted with the disease is "extremely low."

“Extremely low?” What’s that suppose to mean?

It appears that the risk of catching Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD) is highest among the young, the weak and very old. So risk involved might be high or low depending on whose actually eating that hamburger, or steak, or what have you. Or maybe even drinking cow’s milk. Which children are known to do, big time.

The attitude of Secretary Veneman is curiously similar to that of British officials during the beginning of Britain’s Mad Cow epidemic. Originally, the administration of John Major simply ignored the public’s concerns about Mad Cow. People can still remember that government minister making a point of feeding a hamburger to his daughter for the benefit of the media. Just to show everyone how safe Britains beef was.

Big mistake. In the end 10 million cattle had to be destroyed.

In any event, if the one case of Mad Cow is just that, one case, then people shouldn’t have to worry much about the hamburgers their eating. But it’s not that simple. US beef production and export is a big business. What would happen if the beef business simply collapsed because of beef being banned in say, Japan, or Korea or Europe , South American or Canada?

And people just aren’t all that assured by statements coming out of the Agriculture Department. Beef consumption is going to take a nose-dive. Which is not good for the economy, although it might be better for your health.

Which leads me to wonder. Cows in the US are regularly fed feed which is at least partially made up of the remains of other cows that have gone before them. In other words, in order to supply beef to the world, an animal which has evolved as a vegetarian, has now become cannibal and unknowing omnivore. It took millions of years of evolution for the cow to develop as a vegetarian. So what is happening to the cow’s physiology? Could it be that Nature is hitting back at us for attempting to overturn evolution? I don’t know, but it’s worth looking into.

Meantime everyone ought to cut back on steaks; at least until the problem is better understood. Less beef is probably more healthful anyway, notwithstanding the existence of Mad Cow.

Yet, turkey, pork and chicken are OK, but it’s hard to beat good meat.

Punditwalla--