Is Mad Cow Disease in America? (The Defining Line)

[Guest guest]

" Robert Cohen " <notmilk@e...>

Tue May 27, 2003 3:26 am

Is Mad Cow Disease in America? (The Defining Line)

 

 

Is Mad Cow Disease in America? (The Defining Line)

 

Memorial Day marks the unofficial launch date for each

summer's barbecue season. Ladies and gentlemen, start your

grills. Yesterday, Memorial Day, May 26, 2003, I received

this email letter from a readers in McBain, Michigan:

 

" Rumor has it that there are 3 herds quarantined

in the McBain, MI, area for mad cow, as of yet it

is only a rumor but we are in a big dairy area. "

 

I subsequently spoke with that reader, three Mcbain

dairy farmers, the wife of the Mayor of McBain, one

McBain veterinarian, the editor of a dairy magazine,

and a television producer friend. What I've learned

has my head spinning.

 

For the past five years, I have written a daily column

on milk-related issues. I have missed very few days,

and have built an enormous readership. Many thousands of

people representing every state in America and many other

nations read the Notmilk letter. Of course, information

travels two-ways on our worldwide electronic communications

highway, so that if anybody was going to get a tip about

America's first Mad Cow, I would represent as good a

candidate as any to receive such information, I suppose.

 

Nearly nine months ago, I asked: " Do we have Mad

Cow Disease in America? " On September 4, 2002,

I answered my own question based upon the evidence

before me:

 

" In my opinion, we do not. " That's what I wrote.

 

notmilk/message/1053

 

Yesterday, based upon new evidence, I have changed

my opinion. Mad Cow Disease is now here in America.

 

In 1907, Dr. Alzheimer published a treatise regarding

a disease that would one day carry his name. He also

mentored two young associates, Dr. Creutzfeldt and

Dr. Jakob. They too identified a similar brain-wasting

disease that now has Europe in a panic. The brains of

cows turn into a sponge-like mass and their behavior

is called " mad. "

 

The version of this disease affecting cows is called

bovine spongiform encephalitis or BSE. The human

variant of Mad Cow Diesease has been named

Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease or CJD.

 

The protein causing CJD has no DNA, and has been described

as more like a crystal than cellular material. In labs, 1000

degree Fahrenheit heat does not destroy this protein particle.

Some scientists say that once infected, the incubation period

can last anywhere from one month to thirty years. As the

human brain turns into a sponge, this spongiform encephalitic

condition physically debilitates those so infected.

 

Since the early 1900s, one out of one million people

have naturally developed CJD, the human brain-wasting

disease. Based upon that statistic, 280 Americans (out of

our 280 million population) would be expected to be diagnosed

with CJD in 2003. Due to the popularity of Mad Cow Disease,

such a diagnosis has often been concluded by relatives laying

blame upon infected deer, elk, or cows.

 

THE DEFINING LINE

 

Young people are not supposed to get CJD. This has traditionally

been a disease occurring in people over age 60. England finally

admitted that they had a problem after young people started

dying from CJD.

 

In a moment you will read about two men, both under thirty years

of age, who have died in Michigan from CJD, the human version

of Mad Cow Disease. Remarkably, both men were in the same

Ann Arbor hospital.

 

Up until now, young Americans have neither caught nor died from

the disease. I doubt that the New York Times or 60 Minutes

will report this news, for there is a powerful effort in

America to keep Mad Cow Disease under wraps. When the story

does hit front page status, Americans may panic much the same way

people did in Britain. Many new vegetarians are waiting to be

created by this revelation of animal disease. This is the key.

The defining line. Young people. And so it has happened.

 

Two Michigan men have gotten CJD. They have both died. One man

was 28 years old, and the other 26. Both lived their entire

lives in Michigan. Neither had traveled to England or any other

nation with Mad Cow Disease, and neither had eaten wild deer

or elk. The National Institutes of Health provided grant money

to treat these men when they were alive, and then analyze their

brains to confirm this pathology. The grant number was AG14359.

The Michigan Alzheimer's Disease Research Center also provided

support under NIH grant P50-AG0871.

 

The American Academy of Neurology recently reported this

(not-so well publicized) news at one of their conferences.

For confirmation, contact Kathy Stone, telephone 651-695-2763,

e-mail: kstone@a...

 

If you or any friend or family member continues to eat

beef, please share this information with them.

 

Robert Cohen

http://www.notmilk.com

 

 

 

 

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