Ag Dept. Cites Plants on Mad-Cow Rules: 1,000 VIOLATIONS.

[reprehensor]

Ag Dept. Cites Plants on Mad-Cow Rules

WASHINGTON - Inspectors have found more than 1,000 violations of rules aimed at preventing mad cow disease from reaching humans, the Agriculture Department said Monday. No contaminated meat reached consumers, the agency said.

The rules were created in response to the nation's first case of mad cow disease in December 2003. They require that brains, spinal cords and other nerve parts — which can carry mad cow disease — be removed when older cows are slaughtered. The at-risk tissues are removed from cows older than 30 months because infection levels are believed to rise with age.

The Agriculture Department said Monday it had cited beef slaughterhouses or processing plants 1,036 times for failing to comply with rules on removing those tissues, which are commonly called specified risk materials or SRMs. The violations occurred over 17 months, ending in May.

snip

"At no point in time did SRMs get to consumers," Picard said. "There was not one example of that."

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"We have never been at war with Eurasia."

What, me worry?

~gulp~

[fasttense]

1. Yeah right

"At no point in time did SRMs get to consumers," Picard said. "There was not one example of that."

Iraq has weapons of mass destruction. The unemployment rate is barely above five and inflation is under control.

Some hints for worried consumers. Don't cook beef with the bone in. Take the bone out before cooking. Don't' eat ground beef (cause you don't know what they ground into it). Say a prayer before you eat any beef.

[DeepModem Mom]

2. kick

[donsu]

3. this is just the tip of the iceberg

it's much worse then americans want to believe.

[DrBloodmoney]

4. Exactly why this physician

won't eat beef anymore.

The good news... prion diseases are transmittable through blood transfusions (Yay!).

The better news... we have no screening tests for vCJD in the blood. HIV and Hep B are covered. Hep C can still get ya.

The best news... no sentinel population. In the early 80's, all the hemophiliac boys had to have routine transfusions to replace their factor VIII. Now they have recombinant VIII (safe) so they won't be receiving these. This translates into a long lag time to gather data from the general population when folks start cropping up with vCJD until we can give positive correlation.

In 2004 a new report published in the Lancet medical journal showed that vCJD can be transmitted by blood transfusions (Peden, 2004). The finding alarmed healthcare officials because a large epidemic of the disease might arise in the near future. There is no test to determine if a blood donor is infected and is in the latent phase of vCJD. In reaction to this report, the British government banned anyone who had received a blood transfusion since January 1980, from donating blood in the future.

[DeepModem Mom]

5. Thanks for your professional opinion, and welcome to DU!!!