It really bothers me that our government cares more about short-term economics and protecting the beef industry than protecting Americans' lives. The FDA and USDA could have learned from the UK's mistakes and instituted strict guidelines designed to prevent the development and spread of mad cow disease. Instead, they took half-measures and watched to see what would happen. The problem with that approach is that it takes years and years for the symptoms of variant CJD (the human form of mad cow disease) to manifest. Research suggests that the disease develops more quickly or more slowly in people depending on their genetics. What does that mean? A person infected in 2000 may not develop symptoms (and eventually die) until 2010, 2020, 2030, 2040...who knows when. Put simply, the government is just performing damage control since the shit won't hit the fan for at least a few more years. And the beef industry is shooting itself in the foot. It's sacrificing long-term stability for short-term profits. Once Americans begin to die of vCJD, the beef industry is going to experience massive losses. The bottom line is that our government cares more about short-term economics than people's lives. Countries such as Japan are currently testing every cow that enters the food supply. Less than 1% of U.S. cows are tested. People are going to die from nothing more than eating a hamburger at the wrong place at the wrong time. I just wish the government would step up and tell us what the magic number is...how many deaths do they consider acceptable? 10? 100? 1,000? And believe me, there is a magic number.
We should start a new section of the board entitled, "Epidemiology." LOL What exactly occurred? I heard something in my microbiology class today, but it was in passing and I haven't checked the headlines yet... So there has been a new case of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy reported in the U.S. today?
Yes, the third case. Fun fact...the second case would not have been confirmed if the USDA would have had its way. The USDA refused to perform further testing upon a sample with inconclusive results, but it was forced to. What does that tell me? The USDA doesn't want to find mad cow disease. When you don't want to find something, you're not going to look very hard for it...now are you?
A quote from a scientist developing a blood test for prions at the University of Texas... http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9118063/ This LONG incubation period has allowed the government to drag its feet. The public won't start pressuring the government to take serious action until people start dying. Of course, by that time, it will already be too late for many people.
I think the most interesting epidemiologic history surrounding a prion-caused illness is the case of kuru in Papua New Guinea. The pathologies are all very similar for these types of diseases...
