Summary: Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy

In 1994, Gloucestershire, England was assailed by the infamous and unstoppable "flesh-eating bacteria" or Necrotizing Fasciitis, which virtually devoured its victims to death (2). In March of 1996, 2.6 million cows were slaughtered in the United Kingdom in an effort to rid themselves of the invasion of the Mad Cow disease. Another term for Mad Cow disease is Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE), which is a disease observed solely in cattle. Mad Cow disease or BSE is transmitted to humans via the consumption of infected beef resulting in a fatal human brain disorder known as Creutzfeldt-Jacob (CJD). As a result of this "British beef scare" 32 people died of CJD, of whose deaths were linked to Mad Cow disease (10.e). Similarly, 1 million chickens were gassed to death in Hong Kong in 1997 in order to prevent the already undertaking spread of Influenza A (H5N1) or "Bird Flu". The worst Influenza A epidemic occurred in the United States killing 20 million people in 1918 (10.b). In New York last month, five people died of a rare encephalitis disease caused by a West Nile-like virus, which is believed to have been transmitted from birds, who researchers found to have died from the West Nile virus (8). Finally, and probably the most menacing disease ever in human history would have to be HIV and AIDS, which is still infecting the human population worldwide in gross amounts.

In the past century there has been a substantial change in the way human beings raise and keep animals meant for food. While in the past there were great numbers of widely spaced small individual farms, now there are relatively few, but extremely large industrialized farms. And as the numbers of animals kept and slaughtered for human consumption increases, these industrialized farms, known as Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations or CAFO's, are having more and more of an impact on the environment and people around them. The concentration of animals causes a major problem with the waste products they produce, as well as the gases, chemicals, and other types of byproducts. And the increased use of antibiotics in the animals is beginning to have a profound effect on the health of not only the environment but the communities that exist around these industrialized farms. CAFO's, and their secondary industries, are also a large consumer of oil, gasoline, and other fuels which can have an indirect, but devastating effect on the environment. Luckily there are some who have come to recognize the problems, and potential future problems, involved in this type of animal farming and have begun to inform the public to the dangers these farms pose. And in response to this information, the public is beginning to force changes in the way these CAFO's operate and the impact they have on the environment and

Horse slaughter has been going on for a long time now and humans have increased their horsemeat consumption because of the mad cow disease. Mad cow disease is issued from the fattening foods farmers give to their cattle. In the food are sheep’s’ bones grinded into tiny, tiny bits. Ignorant till the outburst, makers didn’t know that in sheep bones there is the virus of the dreaded disease. The disease doesn’t affect sheep as it is only in their bones but when the cows eat it, it gets into their systems and is passed on through their meat to humans.

Mad cow disease is to serious and deadly that it is not worth the risk of eating beef from a feedlot. Michael Pollan stated, "Mad cow is a brain disease that is always fatal. It is spread by eating the brains of infected animals" (56). Clearly mad cow disease will kill anyone that gets infected so it is not worth the risk to eat CAFO beef. In addition, "Ground-up cattle brains were put into cattle feed and some of those cows got mad cow disease. Human beings who ate infected beef also got the disease..." (Pollan and Chevat 56). This shows how completely unnatural CAFOs are and why people should not eat or buy CAFO meat. It also illustrates just how dangerous mad cow disease is; that people should be cautious by boycotting CAFO beef. However, an author for the Los Angeles Times, Paul Roberts said, “there has never been a confirmed case of mad cow disease connected with anyone eating U.S. beef" (Rodgers). Evidently getting mad cow disease in the U.S. is unlikely. Pollan retaliated by saying "Then people in England began dying of a sickness called mad cow disease" (55-56). This shows that although people have not eaten infected beef in the U.S. they have in other places. Therefore if people want to stay safe then they should not eat the beef produced in CAFOs so that they do not get mad cow

“I aimed for the public’s hearts, and by accident I hit it in the stomach.” This quote was in response to the reaction of Upton Sinclair’s ground breaking exposé, “The Jungle”. On February 26, 1906 Sinclair shocked the Nation by exposing the horrors of slaughter houses and meat packing plants. Thousands of people have died from food-borne illnesses. E-coli, along with other diseases resulting from filthy food processing was revealed as the murderer. As shocking as it might have been back then, it is even more alarming to find out that conditions have not improved in the last one hundred nine years. Food-borne illnesses are still an extremely common occurrence. People should not have to worry about whether their purchased food, food that was “approved” by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), is safe to eat. Consumers shouldn’t have to worry about tainted or dirty meat. Cleaner meat packing facilities and stricter meat regulation on the part of the USDA should be a standard. Eating a burger should not have to be a life or death situation.

     Mad Cow Disease, scientifically referred to as (BSE) Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy, is a disease that affects those humans who eat the meat from infected cows. Mad Cow Disease is one of several fatal brain diseases called (TSE) Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy. (USDA) There was evidence of a new illness resembling the sheep disease scrapie. It was technically named BSE but quickly acquired the mad cow tag because of the way infected cattle behave. (CNN) In 1997, there was an award given to Stanley Prusiner, for concluding that a distorted protein called a prion was responsible for Mad Cow Disease, noted the long incubation period made it difficult to distinguish (Bryant).

Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) is a rare and fatal human neurodegenerative condition falling under the category of Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy (TSE) because of having characteristic of spongy degeneration of the brain that it causes and its ability to be transmitted. First it was described in the United Kingdom in March 1996 and it has been connected with exposure to a TSE of cattle known as Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) sometimes called Classical BSE, having been reported first in 1986 in the United Kingdom.

What is Mad Cow Disease? Mad Cow Disease "is a normally extremely rare neurological disorder that affects the central nervous system of an animal and a human. The disease infested brain of the animal or human is slowly, progressively, and severely damaged. It has been categorized as a disease, which falls into the category of a disease known as Spongiform Encephalopathy. Having Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy is an over-dramatized way of specifying that one has diseased brain tissue which is; spongy, porous, and no

feedlots (2.8 + 0.5%; USDA, 2013) only behind bovine respiratory disease and metabolic/digestive conditions. A survey conducted in Kansas 1970’s by Brower and Kiracofe (1972) indicated that 2% of all feedlot steers in Kansas experienced the buller steer syndrome. In the same manner, Brower and Kiracofe (1978) and Irwin et al. (1979) reported that the annual incidence of buller steers within the feedlot industry fell somewhere between 2 and 4%. A 15-year summary of buller incidence in Midwest feedlots consisting of over 5 million steers reported a buller incidence of 2.45% (Edwards, 1995). Furthermore, a 2-year study by Taylor et al. (1997b) at a western Canada feedlot using 78,445 male (intact) cattle indicated a buller incidence rate ranging from 0.0 to 11.2%, with an average incidence of

Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations I. Introduction A. Hook: Can you visualize your world is being harmed and you cannot help it. B. Thesis/Purpose Statement: The United States federal government should ban concentrated animal feeding operations. C. Preview of Main Points: 1. First I will talk about the problems of concentrated animal feeding operations 2. Second, I will talk about the causes of these problems.

Recently in the news has been a story about a patient admitted to a Sydney hospital, suffering from Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD). You are to write a 2000 word research report on this disease (it can include information on both CJD and VCJD relating to BSE, just make sure you note which one so that I know). In your report you should address the following:

When the law changes imposing regulations such as minimum wage laws, quotas on production, work safety regulations, or limiting the use of certain inputs, companies must change their production process to fit these regulations. In 2013 the FDA “...asked producers of veterinary antibiotics to revise labels to make it effectively illegal for farmers and ranchers to administer drugs for the purpose of promoting growth” (Kesmodel et al, 1). Although this did not completely eliminate the use of antibiotics for growth purposes, it did force many ranchers to re-engineer their business processes. One of the main ways that farmers have changed the way they raise livestock is through the use of different methods to protect their livestock from disease such as using vaccines and probiotics to help protect animals (Kesmodel et al,

The word BSE is short but it stands for a disease with a long name, bovine spongiform encephalopathy. "Bovine" means that the disease affects cows, "spongiform" refers to the way the brain from a sick cow looks spongy under a microscope, and "encephalopathy" indicates that it is a disease of the brain. BSE is a progressive neurologic disease of cows. Research shows that the first probable cases of BSE in cows occurred during the 1970 's with two cases of BSE being identified in 1986. BSE possibly originated as a result of feeding cattle meat-and-bone meal that contained BSE-infected products from a spontaneously occurring case of BSE or scrapie-infected sheep products. Scrapie is a prion disease of sheep. Similar diseases such as Chronic wasting disease which is in both deer and elk populations is devastating the hunting and the reproduction of deer. Other similar disease such a the Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease which occurs in the human body system. That is pretty scary for us humans. We have got to find a way to get this prion settled down and hopefully I can show you the way the scientist plan to get rid or at least slow it down. There is strong evidence and general agreement that the outbreak was then amplified and spread throughout the United Kingdom cattle industry by feeding rendered, prion-infected, bovine meat-and-bone meal to young calves. A lot of people wander what does it to the consumption of the meat does it ruin it or is it ok to eat? What does the meat that

The infectious agent in BSE is accepted to be a particular sort of misfolded protein called a prion. Prions won't vanish regardless of the fact that the meat containing them is cooked. Prion proteins convey the ailment in the middle of people and cause crumbling of the cerebrum.

This day in age we have heard so many rumors of how factory slaughter cattle farms are actually ran. Many people assume all beef cattle are kept outside in fields. But, this is not always the case. This paper is to serve to somewhat get a clearer picture of what really happens within a cattle slaughter house. In every phase of development within a factory slaughter farm, animals suffer needless changes and restricted, narrowed living conditions. Not only are the animals being affected by diseases or stress, but we too are being affected just as much. When the farms dump fesses on lands it will make its way into our water and air supply leaving behind pesticides and toxins affecting our immune systems. “Scientists have linked animal stress to problems with food quality and safety” (Animal Welfare). Like any human that suffers from stress and anxiety can be diagnosed with any sorts of illness, the same circumstances can happen to an animal when it is subjected to stress and pain, the animal is prone to disease and can produce lower quality meat, and milk. In this case the cattle being exposed to stress their milk and meat will have a lower quality.