COW WITH MAD-COW DISEASE CONFIRMED IN CALIFORNIA, USDA SAYS

[titaniumsalute]

Source: Bloomberg

Breaking.

Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/

[Renew Deal]

1. HOLY COW

[Hassin Bin Sober]

11. Holy cow brain

[Warpy]

55. You mean holEy cow brain

[snagglepuss]

2. k and r

[Ecumenist]

3. WHERE, do you know? The link doesn't provide any other information....

[titaniumsalute]

7. More info to come...it just broke.

[LeftyMom]

4. Here's the article.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-24/mad-cow-case-confirmed-in-central-california-usda-says.html

[DJ13]

9. In "Central California"

Gee, that narrows it down to a few hundred miles.

[tech_smythe]

25. actually that helps

there's a M A S S I V E cow farm/etc in that area that serves a good chunk of the US.
It means go local until this blows over.
Hell you should buy locally anyway for a ton of reasons.

[DJ13]

26. It means go local until this blows over.

Well, the problem is I live in "Central California".

Thats why I wanted more specifics than that linked article provided.

[Ecumenist]

36. Me Too, DJ13, me too! I'm in the north but I would LOVE more information.

[ag_dude]

38. USDA report...

http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/usda/usdahome?contentid=2012/04/0132.xml&contentidonly=true

It was at a plant in Hanford, CA.

[Ecumenist]

40. Oh, it's in Hanford? NOT SURPRISED, THEN. I lived in Merced County for 5 years...

[KamaAina]

28. Doesn't look like it's Harris Ranch

The first U.S. case of mad cow disease in six years has been found in a dairy cow in central California,

Questrion: Is BSE transmitted through milk?

[Kali]

37. no, not transmitted through milk

brain and possibly other nerve tissue (spinal cord)

here is the CDC info on BSE: http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvrd/bse/

[BlueToTheBone]

29. the giant cattle pens.

Very disgusting. I believe that Mad-Cow could come from there.

[Ecumenist]

10. I hope that more is reported because this isn't too informative at all. I live in northern

California and eat meat BUT I eat either Halal or Kosher which doesn't use feed that contains contaminants, (GRASS and grain). I still need to find out more.

[ag_dude]

32. It was a dairy cow

and she didn't make it to the food chain.

[virgogal]

5. Scary stuff.

[FailureToCommunicate]

6. That's it! I've HAD it!

I'm voting "Democrat" in hopes of keeping the USDA (among other things that are good)

Thought I was gonna say I was going vegetarian? Nope lots of problems there too without USDA.

http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/usda/usdahome?navid=FOOD_SAFETY

[nadinbrzezinski]

8. And we are having cow for lunch

Well that's it, we are on a future chicken and fish diet.

I will not risk pryons...

[Spoonman]

22. Chicken and fish

Ever heard of salmonella and mercury?

[nadinbrzezinski]

23. Yes, and you can cook the salmonella thank you

as long as you use precautions, and farmed fish actually does not have those issues with mercury.

This is an infected brain... and the death from this is terrible

[HereSince1628]

12. Quick do something! It's a Prionity!!!!!!!

[Baitball Blogger]

13. Hmm...

Someone locally just died of CJD. I don't know which kind. I believe she was under sixty. It happened very quickly. In a matter of a month.

I read that at least 16 people a year die in Florida of CJD, not the mad cow version. The question will be if the CDC is keeping accurate records.

BTW, I'm not sure that they keep tabs of data for people who die of it over 55.

Here are some links that I looked up the other day.

http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/cjd/detail_cjd.htm

http://www.doh.state.fl.us/disease_ctrl/epi/htopics/popups/cjd.htm

Just looked it up in the obits in today's paper. She was 52.

[freshwest]

14. Wow, damn. No media coverage of that nationally. Corporations won't allow it.

[HereSince1628]

48. I think there was surveillance program for classic and variant CJD run by Case Western U and CDC

and that it conducted the lab work to confirm prions in all suspect cases.

I'm not sure what the status of that program is.

[Nihil]

67. Check the memory hole ...

... and I mean the politically-caused ones not the CJD-caused ones ...

When responsible farmers are prevented by law from labelling their tested produce
as "safe" in order to protect the profits of the irresponsible farm conglomerates
(who neither test nor produce safe meat) then ...

[kaiden]

15. I work with a woman who uses "human waste" on her vegetable garden.

She goes to a county wastewater treatment plant (a county in which meth labs, etc. are located) and she buys bags of the stuff for a buck a piece. Now, I don't care how many times you "treat" waste, the stuff humans eat (with hormones, etc.) and the stuff with which we medicate and houseclean -- all that crap goes down the drain and then is "composted." If she brings tomatoes to work, I'm not eating them. The gist is yes, you can get CJD from eating beef that has been fed the intestines of other animals (mostly sheep) which gives the cow scrapies which, in turn, becomes BSE or mad cow. It would be easy to transfer those prions to people . . .

[Baitball Blogger]

17. Does anybody know if we resumed testing after the Bush years?

Or did this cow just present symptoms, and that's how they caught it?

[rhett o rick]

18. Great question. My guess is no and yes. nm

[Megahurtz]

74. Gross

Eeeeew sick!

[unionworks]

16. serious and sobering news

Those responsible for a safe food supply have really dropped the ball on this....

[Kali]

31. actually, if they caught it they did NOT drop the ball

it would be nice to have some real info, though. I hate these PANIC NOW stories. (especially involving our food supply - which despite those same frequent headlines, is pretty damn safe)

[kentauros]

33. Taking your sports analogy a step further

those same agencies hired their referees from the same companies they are supposed to regulate. The USDA is filled with people that used to work in the food and agriculture "industries".

Or, they "protect their own" to borrow a recently used phrase.

[ag_dude]

35. Do you even know any USDA food inspectors?

Because I know six and not one of them fits the description you just gave. They all started with the USDA right out of college.

Just for the record, the USDA found the cow and reported it.

[kentauros]

43. No, I don't.

My only source of information on this subject is the news (Pacifica, The Nation, The Texas Observer, Jim Hightower, et cetera) over the last few decades I've been paying attention to this kind of thing. My analogy stands, tho. Because "referees" also applies tothe regulators whom we KNOW come from the industries.

[ag_dude]

44. It's pretty much irrelevant but where do you want them to come from?

I say irrelevant because it just doesn't work the way you seem to think it does. The career process is almost always reversed from what you seem to be describing.

Very few people go into private industry and then become inspectors for the USDA. The food inspector positions are typically the kind of thing where you go into it, get experience, and then get a job in the industry based on your experience.

Regardless, those 'referees' that you seem so bent on disparaging are the ones that caught the problem and reported it, at a very direct and deep cost to the industry.

[kentauros]

56. I'd rather they all came from academia

as with the ones you know. I am primarily refering to the people at the top as I said before. There's still room for criticism of the lower echelons, though.

Yes these inspectors caught this one. And yet, from those same sources I listed, I have also read of inspectors allowing things to go through whatever process with clear regulatory violations. This tells me that there is corruption in the system.

Unless you are trying to infer there's no such thing because you know six of them personally?

[ag_dude]

57. I never said there's no such thing.

I do know the industry and the career paths people follow. It comes from experience as opposed to listening to political news sources.

You however have made repeated hyperbolic claims that are not the slightest big grounded in reality.

Corruption in a government bureaucracy? Shocking. This must be isolated to the beef industry of course.

Get real, that's no reason to throw the hard working USDA food inspectors WHO IDENTIFIED, STOPPED, AND REPORTED A CASE OF MAD COW DISEASE TODAY AT SEVERE COST TO THE INDUSTRY YOU ARE CLAIMING OWNS THEM under the bus.

[kentauros]

58. Not outright stated but certainly implied

in your previous posts to me.

It also appears that merely reading reports from LIBERAL sources isn't good enough for me. In order to have an informed opinion on this subject I must know people in the business instead. Right.

[4th law of robotics]

46. +1

[cosmicone]

19. Beef - especially brains must be avoided now. n/t

[unkachuck]

62. damn....I just bought a months supply of head cheese....n/t

[cosmicone]

66. head cheese is pork -- you're ok n/t

[Smilo]

20. I wonder if this could be connected.......

http://www.organicconsumers.org/madcow/coverup011005.cfm

Possible Cover Up of Human Mad Cow Disease in California
-- Public health officials have ruled out the human version of mad cow disease as the cause of death for a California man, but the man's neurologist told United Press International the man had several symptoms of the fatal disease and questions remain about the case.
Patrick Hicks, 49, died late last year at Reche Canyon Health Care Center in Colton, Calif., as first reported by UPI in November. Upon Hicks' death, Dr. Ron Bailey, a neurologist at Riverside Medical Center in Riverside, Calif., who treated him, arranged for a sample of his brain to be sent to the National Prion Disease Pathology Surveillance Center in Cleveland. NPDPSC is funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to analyze brain specimens for possible variant Creutztfeldt Jakob disease, a fatal condition humans can contract from eating beef
products infected with the mad cow pathogen.
"Clinically, the case did look like it was variant CJD -- no question about that," Bailey told UPI.

[RebelOne]

21. I m SO GLAD I am a vegetarian

so that I don't have to worry about news like this.

[benld74]

24. Ya ever notice how a head of cauliflower kinda looks like a brain?

[Mr.Turnip]

27. Let me just say don't panic yet people.

We have cases of Mad Cow in the U.S. every few years but nothing major has come of it yet, there is no reason to believe this will be any different at this moment.

[ag_dude]

30. It's a DAIRY cow

Wasn't a beef animal.

[Kali]

47. I agree with your comment about the inspectors above, and I know the system worked to catch this

but if you know anything about the beef industry, then you know full well a hella lot of hamburger is from dairy animals...

(and I am a rancher so this is serious stuff to me)

[ag_dude]

49. I do, and I am as well.

If you notice, that was my first reply, learned the whole story afterward.

Evidently she was a borderline downer and thus in the high risk category that gets checked.

[Kali]

52. I just sent some stuff to the sale for Thursday

damn! on the other side of the coin, if prices crash meat in the store isn't going to be so insane (haven't seen hamburger under $3/lb for months - even with the pink slime BS.

been seeing 4 and 500 lb calves going for well over $2

[ag_dude]

54. It's been nice here in Texas the past few months

Finally got rain and the prices were up above that $2 mark.

Now that prices are coming back down, it's stopped raining, and now this. Good times.

[ForgoTheConsequence]

59. What ag sector do you work in?

Because dairy cows are also sold for slaughter.

[geardaddy]

34. Guess the California cows aren't so happy after all.

[ag_dude]

39. The freaking out over this makes me think of a chapter from Thinking Fast and Slow

about how people focus so intently on small numbers.

There were 29 deaths worldwide due to BSE last year.

[4th law of robotics]

45. That would make swimming pools far more dangerous

than beef.

I wonder if the same people freaking out of this have such a visceral reaction to the sight of a large body of water.

/the USDA did it's job. They caught this and responded appropriately. So . . . lets all panic?

[marias23]

41. Vegetarianism Changed Me Life

One of the best things I ever did was give up meat - not only to avoid contaminants (antibiotics, feed additives, etc.) but because of the great new dishes I found. The cookbook "American Wholefoods Cuisine's 1300 recipes changed my life.

[ForgoTheConsequence]

61. It changed mine also.

Way more meat available for me. Thanks!

[BadgerKid]

42. IIRC, *'s USDA blocked private mad cow testing. n/t

[angstlessk]

50. Pink Slime is what is putting mad cow into our food!

Prions cannot be irradiated..they live on...

[AverageJoe90]

72. Frankly, we could have been able to cure Prion diseases by now......

....if the medical establishment wasn't so damn crooked and incompetent. n/t

[angstlessk]

73. I agree..cancer could be cured if there weren't so much money to be made 'curing' it

[IamK]

51. Cheaper Steak on the horizon..!

Headed to Outback...

[progressoid]

53. heh heh heh.

[Baitball Blogger]

60. More info.

I just picked up with a lot of hedging words. I won't be happy until they take a sample testing.

- - - - - - - -
However, fears of a potential backlash among consumers and big importers of U.S. beef fueled a sell-off in Chicago live cattle futures, with memories still sharp of the first case in 2003 that caused a $3 billion drop in exports. It took until 2011 before those exports fully recovered.

There is no evidence that humans can catch mad cow -- or Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE)-- from drinking the milk of an infected cow. The risk of transmission generally comes when the brain or spinal tissue is consumed by humans or another animal, which did not occur in this case.

snip

"I would say this is an extremely isolated, atypical event," said Dr. Bruce Akey, professor of veterinary medicine and director of the Animal Health Diagnostic Center at Cornell University, which tests for Mad Cow and Chronic Wasting diseases for New York state and several Northeastern states.

"There is still no evidence at all that BSE is anything but an extremely rare event in the United States, and nothing that poses a threat to the human or animal food chain."



http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/entertainment_tv_tvblog/2012/04/trayvon-martin-remains-top-story-with-public-poll-finds.html

[salin]

63. Is this a surprise to anyone?

Really? In the last "scare" several smaller niche organizations (think organic) proposed testing all of their animals. The Dept of Ag (under Bush) prevented this move. The big, corporate operations didn't want to risk the cost of testing all animals.

Big point to Free Marketers:

The big corporate operations wanted the gvt to prevent smaller operations from testing and fueling a market-based program to prevent Mad Cow disease. If the smaller operations were willing to take on the cost of testing every cow - and the enough of the public was willing to pay the higher cost for the meat that was certified as testing, then that would be an example of the free market working. If not enough people were willing to pay the extra cost, than those companies wanting to test and certify that all cows were free of the disease, would either fail or find the practice economically infeasable.

But those operations working to serve the niche operations were prevented from doing so. Why? Because the fed govt in the form of the Dept of Agriculture prevented such programs and advertising.

This ruling was not in the public interest. It was anti free markets (as preventing to even see if those companies willing to take on the added cost could turn a profit). The ruling only served the interest of big corporate operations who didn't want to risk that the small operations might earn more customers and thus might force them to take on the cost of testing each animal.

This story is an object lesson on two levels. The first and most obvious that our contemporary govt discourages the free enterprise system, and second that lobbying money to protect business interests trumps the public good both from the executive and legislative branches of govt.

Our system is broken.

[Nihil]

68. Only that the report made it out this time.

"But, as you see, it's a beautiful day, the beaches are open and people are having
a wonderful time. Amity, as you know, means 'friendship'."

[TygrBright]

64. ONE cow with mad-cow disease in CA?

How about the couple of hundred alleged humans with mad-human disease in Congress?

proportionately,
Bright

[CenaW]

65. Beef lovers might enjoy a drop in prices. . .

"Always look on the bright side of life"..........

[Evasporque]

69. Feed cows cows and this is what you get....nt

[Eugene]

70. Two major South Korean retailers halt sales of US beef

Source: BBC

25 April 2012 Last updated at 09:50 GMT

Two major South Korean retailers halt sales of US beef

Two of South Korea's biggest retailers have halted sales of US beef after the discovery of a case of "mad cow" disease in the US.

Lotte Mart and Home Plus have temporarily suspended sales at their stores after a dairy cow in California was found infected with the disease.

Meanwhile, South Korean authorities said they will step up checks on beef imports from the US.

South Korea imported 107,000 tonnes of beef from the US in 2011.

[font size=1]-snip-[/font]

Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-17821764

[sarcasmo]

71. AH 1, AH 2, AH 3, Take me out to the ball game, Steve get me some budweiser.

[schmice]

75. If you think it was just one lone cow who never got into the system...you're crazy n/t

[taught_me_patience]

76. For every one found

I'm sure hundreds were not and made it into the food supply. Good thing I don't eat cow brains.