Re: More on Mad Cow testing

Offbreed <offbreed_106@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

You may have heard the USDA is against blanket testing for mad cow disease?

It turns out the test kits are used to see if the disease is present in
a herd, not individual cows, because it is not all that reliable. A
false negative would mean the beef hits the market labeled as "safe",
and it might not be.

More complete, and pretty chaotic, discussion:


<http://stuartbuck.blogspot.com/2007/05/just-when-i-think-ive-heard-it-a
ll-this.html>



The cause of mad cow in the US is known, but is politically incorrect.
It is illegal to use the byproducts from cattle to make cattle feed.
However, the byproducts of hunter's deer or elk butchered in some small
meat packing plants gets used to make wild animal feed. In turn game
farms give this feed to deer and elk to complete the cycle of infection.
In 2001 CBS reported the extent of infected animals, but claimed
ignorance on the cause:

http://img218.imageshack.us/img218/4319/maddeerelkmap20ms.jpg
http://img218.imageshack.us/img218/6327/maddeerelkmap16dw.jpg

On occasion some hunter who also raises cattle tosses in a bag of wild
game feed along with his cattle feed and bingo, you get a mad cow.
Fortunately for the industry this is rare, but unfortunately deer and
elk hunters suffer the consequences of greed and corruption. The meat
packing industry wants deer and elk infected to drive people to the
grocer instead of harvesting deer and elk for meat.

.

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