Will Mad Cow Disease Get YOU? First US Human BSE Case Possible

First US Human Mad Cow Disease Case?

Mad Cow Disease may have already claimed its first human victim in the United States.

But while we wait for confirmation that a second animal has been diagnosed with the disease – known as Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) – little is being heard about the possibility that a California man died from eating infected beef.

In both cases, independent tests by overseas laboratories are required to confirm or rule out the existence of BSE-related pathogens in both the man who died, and the "downer cow" that the USDA revealed late Friday (June 10 2005) was likely the second such case discovered in America.

The first case occurred in Washington State in 2003 when a cow imported from Canada was found to be infected. That led to an almost instant ban on US beef imports by major trading partners such as Japan and South Korea, and a subsequent loss to the beef industry of close to $5 billion.

The USDA quickly assured the public that it would introduce tougher testing protocols, while at the same time insisting that there was no danger to human health because the animal brain and spinal tissues that carry the disease had not found their way into the human food chain.

Despite that assurance about that one cow, it has been impossible to track down all the 80 animals that came into the US from Canada in the same shipment as the infected cow..

Therefore, no-one can be sure that tissues and meat from other infected animals have not found their way into the human food chain.

But the official position is that only two animals at most – among the millions that are slaughtered – have shown signs of BSE. Therefore there is no danger to people.

More Tests Needed

In an AP article in the Seattle Times (Saturday June 11 2006 ) US Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns is quoted as saying more tests were needed to confirm that a Texas cow had the disease. Those tests would be conducted in a laboratory in England .

As in the first incident, Johanns emphasized that the animal did not enter the food supply, therefore meat is safe to eat.

England and the rest of Europe are familiar with BSE. It infected as many as 180,000 livestock in the 80’s and 90’s, all but wiped out the British cattle industry, and claimed scores of human lives.

It’s cause has been attributed to the use of animal protein in animal feed – feeding dead but infected animal blood and tissue back to live animals in feed supplements - a practice now banned in many countries.

Naturally the USDA does not point out in its press releases or public statements that the vast majority of the millions of animals slaughtered in America are never tested for BSE at all. In fact, the USDA has refused to allow voluntary testing, and has denied requests by some processors to test all the animals they slaughter.

One only has to be an aware consumer – not a scientist of any kind – to `equate official statements such as "I am going to have a steak" as a footnote to their announcements that BSE has been discovered in animals, with Russian roulette. Or with the bravado (and ignorance) of those who literally drank Agent Orange in Vietnam to ‘prove’ that it was safe. (Note too that the military has been known to deny any link between Agent Orange and later cancer and deaths among troops who were sprayed by that defoliant).

First US Human Death?

Which brings us to the case of a California man who died in November 2004. Patrick Hicks, 49, of Riverside, Calif., was diagnosed by the National Prion Disease Pathology Surveillance Center in Cleveland as having suffered a brain-wasting illness called sporadic Creutzfeldt Jakob disease.

According to an article on the Organic Consumers Association web site (see following link) "Hicks's family, and Dr. Ron Bailey, a neurologist at Riverside Medical Center, wanted a second opinion, however, because the initial autopsy had been botched and they thought his symptoms were consistent with a related disease called variant CJD, which humans can contract from eating beef products contaminated with the mad cow pathogen."

They asked that brain tissue be sent to France for further testing, but that has been delayed – and there are now questions as to whether any brain tissue that is sent there will in fact be from Hicks’s autopsy, or from someone else.

Few responsible writers would suggest that there is a cover-up going on here. But suspicion is natural when the release of such information is deliberately timed for late Friday night - and the story virtually disappears over the weekend.

Clearly, the timing is intended to minimise exposure and in turn public awareness of a situation that could potentially endanger the lives and health of all meat-eating Americans. And that is no exaggaeration, given the facts from Europe's past experience with Mad Cow Disease.

Add to that the specter of yet another multi-billion dollar hit for the beef industry, and one could argue that the health and fitness of US citizens is being coldly balanced against the bottom line of a spreadsheet.

But whatever happens at the oifficial level, responsibility for one's health comes down to a personal level.

Like the first sneeze that heralds the beginning of an influenza epidemic, the warning signs are out.

* There is an unequivocal link between BSE and brain disease in humans.

* BSE has found its way to America.

* There is absolutely no way anyone – official or not – can guarantee beyond a shadow of doubt that it is not in the food chain.

On the one hand, the USDA can tell us that nothing from diseased cows is in the human food chain – and at the same time not tell us that millions of other cows have not been tested.

On the other hand, the OCA insists that "current U.S. policies put livestock – and, subsequently, humans – at risk for fatal, brain-wasting diseases."

You’d have to be mad not to make sure that your meat comes from a healthy source.

© 2005 Michael Knight

USDA Announces Possible Second Mad Cow
The official version - no risk to humans