[Ken Scharabok]

"Could it be that they don't have a clue or do they think the average cattle producer is dumb."

Probably a combination thereof. I get the gut feeling the scientists and researchers don't really know where MCD comes from. Leading theory is Scrapie in sheep and MCD in cattle involve prions, which are sort of indestructable rogue viruses. However, sheep carcasses infected with Scrapie have been part of cattle feed as meat and bone meal (M&BM) for a long time. Why the sudden outbreak? Besides the two have totally different symptons. Scrapie causes an intense itching and the sheep do poorly simply because it is so distracting (imagine having Shingles all over your body). In cattle it causes a rabie-like symptoms with agressiveness and lack of coordination. If Chronic Wasting Disease in deer and elk is thrown into the mix, it also has different symptoms, as its name implies. In humans, the symptoms of vCJD are totally different still.

They are trying to deal with something they really don't understand.

Ken S. in WC TN

 

[Ken Scharabok]

Probably doesn't matter where the beef was delivered or even if it were consumed. Changes of getting vCJD from it are incredibly small. You're more in danger of contaminating the meat from an unsanitary countertop in your kitchen.

In England likely a substantial portion of the population ate beef from cattle which very likely had MCD at the time of slaughter. Say a population of 55M and half were exposed. From that some 143 came down with vCJD.

It may be these 143 were going to develop CJD in the future anywhere, as it occurs naturally on the order of about 1/1M. Exposure of the prions merely accelerated the process. Perhaps there was an outside trigger which caused the clusters of both MCD and vCJD totally independent of each other.

Cattle in the U.S. were fed B&BM from sheep carcasses for many years, some of which no doubt had Scrapie, yet not a single case of vCJD has been confirmed as originating in the U.S. Same for Canada from my understanding.

Even if there were full-blown MCD caused vCJD in the U.S. of 1,000 a year, it would still be only about 3% of those who die annually from the flu.

I'm not saying who cares, but rather let's keep this in perspective.

Ken S. in WC TN