Mad Cows In America? "The white man must treat the beasts of this land as his brothers. For whatever happens to the beasts soon happens to man. All things are connected." —Chief Seattle "For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast..." — Solomon (Ecclesiastes 3:19) Every one has heard of "mad cow disease," but we usually assume that the problem is only in Europe. However, that is unfortunately not the case. In Stetsonville, Wisconsin, minks that ate rendered products [which contained BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy) or mad-cow disease] contracted TME [transmissible mink encephalopathy, the mink form of BSE] in just seven months. Of the 7,300 minks that ate the rendered products, 60% developed clinical signs of spongiform disease, and all of these eventually died from it. Moove Over Milk, pg. 110.   Possibly even more astounding and alarming is the fact that, According to Dr. Richard F. Marsh, a veterinarian at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, mad cow disease may have risen spontaneously in American cattle without them receiving any tainted feed at all!1   And according to Dr. Joseph Gibbs, a leading BSE expert at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke in Bethesda, MD., Spontaneous cases of [BSE] may occur in one cow in every million each year.2 This is without the cow ever being exposed to the disease either through its feed or pasture mates (see Appendix 6)! With 150 million cows in the U.S., that means that 150 could develop [BSE] each year all on their own... Moove Over Milk, pg. 113,114. While the U.S. presently tests 1 out of every 18,000 beef cows slaughtered, Switzerland tests 1 out of every 60. During one night, Ireland will test twice as many cows as the U.S. tests in a single year. In France, where there are 5.7 million cows, 20,000 animals are being tested each week and 153 BSE infected animals were found in 2000. Compare that to the U.S., where we only tested 2,300 out of a total of 100 million cows in an entire year. Last Generation, July/August 2001, pg. 21, Volume 12, Number 1. In Europe, ‘downers' or ‘fallen stock' include any cow that is kept out of the food chain due to a neurological illness, broken limb, or other reasons. All downers are required by law to be tested for BSE....If the U.S. defined downers as Switzerland does, they would be testing 1.75% of beef cattle, or 630,000 cows a year. Ibid, pg. 22.   December 25, 2003, the first case of mad cow in the U.S. was confirmed in Washington state. In a CNN report posted the day before the case was confirmed, there were some alarming statements. Quoting John Stauber, they said, "There are more cases, no doubt about it." John Stauber, author of Mad Cow, USA in a CNN report, December 24, 2003.   In the same article, a critic of the cattle industry's safety standards gave the dismal outlook that this is probably only "the tip of an invisible iceberg."   Unfortunately, the National Veterinary Service Laboratories (NVSL) in Ames, Iowa, which is responsible for all the testing for mad cow and its equivalents, has gotten itself a strong reputation for giving ambiguous or conflicting results, rendering the surveillance of BSE virtually impossible. One USDA veterinarian of more than two decades confided, Most agency veterinarians know mad cow is prevalent and epidemic (in North American cattle). We're not talking about one or two cases.   Another thing that I should mention before moving on is that at six-and-a-half years old, this dairy cow in Washington was "old." Cows would normally live to be at least twenty. But in today's fast-paced production industry, cows are slaughtered after usually only two lactations, meaning by the ripe "old" age of two or three they are slaughtered.   Now this is a critical point. BSE can be in the system doing its fearful work, but because it is slow in progression its fearful affects may not be seen for several years. This is one of the reasons we don't see more BSE cases in spite of the evidence pointing to its prevalence. Although the animals as yet show no outward signs of the disease, they may still carry the deadly prions.   Unfortunately, the USDA is evidently more interested in protecting the $70 billion beef industry than insuring the safety of the consumers. While the U.S. flagrantly ignores virtually all safety measures, it naively says that it is safe to eat the meat. Playing the game of "don't see, don't have," America courts deadly results in epidemic proportions, not only in the livestock but in the people as well. We cannot keep playing the game, what we don't know may not only hurt us, it could kill us! Keep in mind cattle are not the only critters to carry the deadly spongiform encephalopathy.   Chronic wasting disease in deer and elk herds is prevalent. And while we are told that BSE is very difficult to spread (a convenient and comforting ploy), for deer the mere touching of noses or licking the same salt will transfer the disease from one to another. TSE (transmissible spongiform encephalopathy) variants have been found in pigs, ostrich, sheep, and domestic and wild cats, to list just a few.3   But mad cow disease is not the only worry in the cattle industry today. Bovine leukemia virus (BLV)...is found in 20% of the [dairy] cows and 60% of the [beef] herds in the United States....BLV has also been found to infect human cells in vitro. In recent years [another] cattle virus has been discovered in American herds. The virus, which was first isolated in domestic cattle in the 1970s, is called bovine immunodeficiency virus [or BIV], because its genetic structure is so closely related to the HIV, or AIDS, virus. Scientists have successfully [!] infected human cells with BIV. In 1991 the USDA released the results of its four-year investigations on BIV to the Foundation of Economic Trends. The findings are disturbing. According to the USDA, the cows' AIDS virus is widespread among dairy cows and beef cattle...4   And unfortunately, ... the cow AIDS virus is continuing to spread among American cattle with no cure in sight.... Beyond Beef, by Jeremy Rifkin, pg. 143,144.5   Can we really believe that God would bless something so potentially dangerous to those He loves so much? Wouldn't we consider a parent who allowed a child to play with a loaded gun unloving, cruel, irresponsible? And could we think any different of a God who did virtually the same with His children? Thankfully, God is a truly loving Father. All rights reserved Copyright © 2006 By J. Lee