Quote:
Originally posted by russotto
I'm not suprised they've found mad cow here. After all, there's been a "chronic wasting disease" endemic in wild ruminants for a long while now, and it's a spongiform encepholpathy as well. I suspect this isn't the British BSE but rather the domestic CWD having crossed the species barrier.
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Bottom line is that local feed providers have admitted to violating FDA guidelines by selling 'contaiminated' feed. Feed sold in 1997 may have resulted in the infected cow. How it was infected does not determine where else all this feed has gone. For that matter, it is not currently known from what herd this cow came from. IOW Korea, Japan, Australia, China, and Canada have good reason to ban American meat.
Currently, this is not a major problem from the perspective of consumers. However even the listeria shipped across America from Souderton PA demonstrates a fundamental problem with the food industry. FDA inspector can observe employees picking chickens off the floor and put them back on the 'clean' line - without cleaning. FDA inspector files a report. Nothing happens. No wonder livestock feed providers could do what the Brits were doing - without consequences. Public was even left uninformed.
Question is how widespread is the Mad Cow infection and how many more feed providers were selling 'contaminated' feed. For example, contaminated feed results in Mad Cow some four years later. Do we cull the entire herd? That is what the UK had to do.