(Blog Post) The first report of BSE was in the UK in 1986. Around 180,000 cows in the UK were suspected to have been infected in the years after that, but since the incubation period of this disease is 3 to 8 years, the government couldn’t risk waiting: almost 4.5 million cows were killed, without having visible symptoms. These days, cows are tested before entering into the human food chain. Full Story »
Posted by Jack Powers
Mildly informative on the science and biology of mad cow disease and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, but largely ignores the societal question of what is, or is not being done about it. There is a common belief (beef-lief?) that the reported incidences of mad cow are relatively small now because the agribusiness beef industry has successfully blocked most government oversight and testing for the disease. Nations still blocking imports of US beef are not mentioned.
Soon after 1986, cases of a similar disease in humans in the UK were reported, and by October 2009, 166 people had acquired and died from variable Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease ... More »
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