Any Brits can fill in the Mad Cow details?

[Must_B_Free]

My mom was telling me that she recalled mad cow years ago when it was in Britain and in the news.

She said that some pro beef spokes person was sayng that the meat is safe even went and had his daughter on TV with him and fed her a bite of beef to demonstrate the safety.

She says the girl later got the disease and died, and the whole thing spun out of control... Does this ring a bell with anyone?



Thu, 23 Dec 1999 correspondence with Belgian journalist

"A national TV drew my attention to a reference supposedly in yesterday's (Dec 22, 1999) Le Monde alleging that Cordelia Selwyn Gummer (she of the famous picture in which, her father the Environment Minsiter under the last Conservative government during the BSE crisis, is seen in 1997 forcing her at age 4 to eat a beefbuger).... has now contracted the nvCJD."
French correspondent explains: "It's only a joke, in Le Monde. For French poeple it's a kind of "humour Britannique". Below is a translation of the Le Monde article:

London wonders about the severity of the outbreak
Le Monde daté du mercredi 22 décembre 1999 from our corresponder in London Patrice Claude

At the moment, girl Cordelia Gummer, 13, is all right. Her father John must wonder, however. Nine years ago, this well-intentionned daddy was ministry of Agriculture, in John Major's government. He was so sure, at that time, that "mad cow disease" could not involve humans that he had intended, in order to confort the people, to share, live on TV, a huge hambrger with his daughter, 4 years old at that time. The image remained, the certainties did not.

Pour l'instant, la petite Cordelia Gummer, treize ans, va bien. Son père John doit pourtant se poser des questions. Il y a neuf ans, ce papa bien intentionné était ministre de l'agriculture du gouvernement de John Major. Il était alors si sûr que la maladie de la « vache folle » ne pouvait affecter l'homme qu'il avait entrepris, pour rassurer le public, de partager, en direct à la télévision, un énorme hamburger avec sa fille alors âgée de quatre ans. L'image est restée, les certitudes se sont envolées.

Stepehn Churchill, first British victim of the prion, died in may 1995 at the age of 19. Ten more months were necessary before the government admits, in the House of Commons, march 1996, there might be a "link" betwenn BSE and vCJD. Today, thanks to the numerous scientific testimonies heard during the 21 months of public Enquiry, Lord Phillips declares in a naive way "we shall consider the important scientific evidences that suggest the bovine and human diseases are linked".

Stephen Churchill, première victime britannique du prion, est mort en mai 1995 à l'âge de dix-neuf ans. Il faudra attendre dix mois de plus pour que le gouvernement admette devant le Parlement, en mars 1996, qu'il pourrait bien exister « un lien » entre l'encéphalopathie spongiforme bovine (ESB) et la nouvelle forme de la maladie mortelle de Creutzfeldt-Jakob (MCJ). Aujourd'hui, au vu des multiples témoignages scientifiques entendus durant vingt et un mois d'enquête publique, Lord Phillips déclare candidement : « Nous allons notamment considérer les preuves scientifiques importantes qui nous suggèrent que les maladies bovines et humaines sont liées.

After presiding the auditions, this high judge in the Court of Lords of Justice must give his final report to the government on the 31st of March 2000. The Inquiry itself came to an end on the 17th of Dec. Afterwards, everything in the article concerns the final statement of Lord Phillips, and does not give further information on vCJD cases.

Après avoir présidé les auditions, ce haut magistrat de la Cour des Lords de justice du royaume doit rendre son rapport final au gouvernement le 31 mars 2000. L'enquête proprement dite a pris fin vendredi 17 décembre. Au total, 860 témoignages de responsables politiques, hauts fonctionnaires, experts et membres des familles des victimes ont été recueillis. Il s'agit avant tout d'établir les responsabilités publiques, politiques et éventuellement pénales de la gestion désastreuse de ce qu'on a appelé la « crise de la vache folle ». Plusieurs ministres conservateurs, à commencer par Margaret Thatcher et John Major, qui se sont toujours montrés rétifs à toute mesure de précaution, pourraient avoir à répondre de leur conduite.

DES LOBBIES ENCORE ACTIFS

Lord Phillips a rappelé que sa commission n'était pas à proprement parler de nature scientifique. Pourtant, a-t-il souligné, une chose est sûre : « Lorsque nous avons commencé nos travaux en mars 1998, vingt-quatre familles avaient perdu un des leurs du fait de cette nouvelle variante de la maladie de Creutzfeldt-Jakob. Aujourd'hui, le bilan a exactement doublé, et nul ne peut dire si ces quarante-huit victimes britanniques représentent seulement la partie émergée de l'iceberg. » Le professeur Peter Smith, qui préside le comité-conseil du gouvernement sur la maladie humaine, ne cachait pas, jeudi, son ignorance en la matière. « Si la période moyenne d'incubation est de dix ans, disait-il, alors nous sommes largement entrés dans l'épidémie, et elle pourrait être relativement limitée. Mais, si elle est de vingt ans, nous pourrions avoir à faire face à un problème beaucoup plus sérieux. »

Mais, le jour même où ces propos peu rassurants étaient reproduits dans la presse, le gouvernement annonçait la levée de l'interdiction décidée il y a deux ans des ventes de boeuf à l'os. Coïncidence « de fort mauvais goût », notait Roger Tomkins, père d'une des victimes. Tony Blair cédait ainsi à la forte pression du lobby des éleveurs mais aussi à celle des consommateurs : dans les supermarchés, ce fut la ruée...

[harper]

1. I'm not a Brit

but, I do remember when the official went on TV and fed his little daughter a bite of hamburger to demonstrate the safety of British beef. However, I don't think the little girl died of mad cow disease. That much is probably an urban myth.

[LibertyorDeath]

2. For good mad cow info

http://www.organicconsumers.org/madcow/ground122403.cfm

Beef is a 20 billion a year industry in the USA and

people will be purposely led to believe that everything is just fine.

Well it isn't.

[Must_B_Free]

3. updated with what I found

.

[TexasEditor]

4. I'm a Good Texan.

http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/98sep/madcow.htm

Could Mad Cow Disease Happen Here?
Britain's horrifying experience taught us a few things, but perhaps not enough to preclude an outbreak of our own

by Ellen Ruppel Shell

The recent British epidemic of mad-cow disease, and the twenty-seven cases of fatal human disease associated with it, have led to the slaughter of 3.7 million cattle and the near destruction of Great Britain's cattle industry. Observers have suggested that the outbreak was a factor in the toppling of John Major's Tory government. Mad-cow disease continues to haunt Britain, and Europe in general, even though the European Community, having made extraordinary efforts, appears to have contained the outbreak. The latest figures show that the incidence of the disease in Britain is less than a tenth what it was at the epidemic's height, when more than a thousand new cases were being diagnosed in cattle every week. Still, the pummeling of the British beef industry continues. Last December the British government banned the sale of most cuts of beef on the bone, including ribs, T-bone steaks, and oxtails. With (as of this writing) a worldwide ban on British beef exports, and a severe decline in domestic sales, the price of British beef has fallen to its lowest level in twenty years. Cattle tainted by association with the disease are quickly disposed of.

A similar epidemic in the United States would be even more catastrophic. Britain before the outbreak had roughly 10 million cows; we have more than 100 million. Cattle and dairy farmers are at the heart of thousands of rural economies, and earn approximately $54 billion a year through meat and milk sales; more than $100 billion in additional revenue is generated by related industries and services. No wonder, then, that when the British epidemic hit the front pages, two and a half years ago, the U.S. government reacted emphatically. The Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the United States Department of Agriculture rallied to reassure us that there was no sign of the disease in this country. Yet most of the conditions thought to have led to the epidemic in Britain also existed here. Despite official protestations to the contrary, and despite regulatory changes recently implemented, some of them still do. Given current agricultural practices, avoiding an American outbreak of this disease may be only a matter of chance. The question is, how lucky do we feel?

(continued)