1) Testing of cows in the U.S. is far more relaxed than many other countries. This Wikipedia article claims there are a large number of countries with import restrictions on meat exported FROM the U.S. due to the lack of thorough testing HERE!
2) In the U.S. hospitals and physicians are not required to report mad cow deaths.
Why is U.S. mad cow testing not up to par with our neighbors to the point where they're worried about eating the meat we ship them?
The Wikipedia article claims only 3 knows vCJD cases in the U.S. Maybe I should modify the article and bump that number up to 4? Now I'm not one for conspiracy theories. I typically fall in the camp that suggests a large organization doesn't know the left hand from the right hand and therefore things like mad cow testing and accurate reporting of mad cow related deaths might need improvement, but then again there is an awfully large sum of money involved. I think we're all aware of the nice things people do for money.
4 comments:
If you want to read a book about mad cow disease that will freak you out, check out Deadly Feasts by Richard Rhodes.
Also, I'd like to point out that if you don't eat meat, you can't get mad cow disease.
I think I'm sufficiently freaked out already. I ate fish today intead of beef. As far as acquiring the disease through meat consumption only, the Wikipedia article seems to suggest that we're not sure if we can also get the disease from vaccines, gelatins, or other products made with cow. At any rate, lowering my cow consumption will definitely help my health.
Dan's stepfather's mom got diagnosed with CJD a month ago or so... maybe more. They gave her 4-6 months. Such a quick degradation.
And to kassidy's point, Dan and I will not eat meat unless we know where it comes from. So... while it's possible for us to get it- it's highly unlikely. It's more expensive and less convenient which means we're down to eating meat less than 2x/month.
Another case? No I really feel like investigating how prevalent this disease really is.
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