Texas Woman's Death Probed for Mad Cow Tie

[Tab]

BEAUMONT, Texas - The family of a Beaumont woman is waiting for test results to find out if she died from a form of an affliction connected to mad cow disease.

Burnell Baize, 71, died Oct. 16 of the rare Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, which eats holes in the brain and always causes death, the Beaumont Enterprise reported Sunday.
...
"This is a scary, scary malady," said her son Gene Barnes, 53.

Baize began to suffer from dementia during the late summer, he said. In the last week of her life, she was in a coma.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=541&ncid=718&e=3&u=/ap/20041121/ap_on_he_me/woman_s_death

You know, they might also want to run tests on some individuals at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave in Washington, D.C. who also are showing signs of dementia - and - they hail from Texas too.

[w4rma]

1. Don't eat beef in America. There is a reason that they refuse to ALLOW

folks to test the cows and it isn't because they think the cows are disease free.

[Kali]

3. Hey

There is testing, granted not enough, but we have a very safe food supply in this country. Most health risk is from too much food, not food-borne illness. And I'm not even talking about consumer driven choice of organic, local grown. You can minimise risk and still enjoy good beef. Unthinking panic over a "scary" disease while you still put your body into a metal can and hurtle along at 60 - 70 mph is simply NOT logical.

[grease_monkey]

4. you have a good point about statistical ignorance

I mean we are pushed into being scared of things that the media and govt are using to manipulate us. Shark attacks, snakes, terrorism. WTC 911 killed 3000, but 5000 die every day in AMerica through various dieaseses.

[RhodaGrits]

5. They are not testing enough cows to have any idea what

the incidence of BSE is here. Not testing reminds me of having electronic voting machines without paper trails - There's only one reason to do it. They are testing more sick downer cows but until they test a larger % of the cows that walk in, we are sticking our heads in the sand and hoping all is well.

When the USDA refused to allow that one company to test ALL their cattle at their own expense and market it as tested... cowflops.

Dept of Agric and BushCo are treating this like it is a marketing problem - certainly couldn't apply any science and common sense to it. Might panic the masses and this way the shit won't hit the fan until some other administration is in office down the road. Let them deal with it.

We just keep shoving our problems off - which is going to get us first... nukes? global warming? a large % of the adult beef-eating population incubating prions? peak oil?

Sorry for the rant... these days just about everything is setting me off LOL

And my metal can has regular airbags, side airbags, knee airbags and reinforced steel... I love speed but I also reduce risk where I can.

[SleeplessinSoCal]

20. Americans are Gamblers at Heart

It's the only reason I think we settle for what has been deregulated and other maladies like the national debt and gambling with Health and Social Security.

Isn't gambling some type of illness in itself?

[VegasWolf]

29. Exactly, I heard that they are testing less than 1% of non-downer

cows in the US. Boy do I feel safe.

[leftchick]

6. there is indeed testing....

but the USDA is avoiding testing the huge meat processing plants that supply beef products to the major grocery and restaurant chains. If the only samples for their testing come from the smaller meat processing plants there is less likelihood of finding something untoward.

edit: I just finifhed reading about the unsafe US meat industry in the Nov. 2004 issue of Vanity Fair titled : Order The Fish.

[fugue]

10. I don't do either one

Eat beef or ride around in cars.

[Kali]

12. heh heh well one will sure decrease your chance of early demise

the other is pleasure denied. Not talking about a nice drive in the country, either. Talking a nice steak over wood coals....... :9






Note: I am just joking around, I don't have any problem with folks' food choices until they try to inflict them on others, the same attitude I have towards superstition and religion. Not to say I am above dishing out a little ridicule, but bottom line is I believe in freedom and choice.

[VegasWolf]

30. How about a nice juicy deep-fried brainburger with that beer :)

[daa]

23. Disagree

After the first incident they never tested another cow in that state (Wahsingotn or Oregon). And what about all the people that died from green onions at Chi Chis?

I disagree and do not believe the food is nearly as safe as you say.

[Kali]

28. Testing most certainly is going on

not on Farm, granted, but at slaughter it sure is. I don't have the number in front of me but it is some percentage of all slaughtered and any suspicious cases (downers, other nuerological symptoms).

Again if you do a little math the rate of death or even serious illness from food born disease is VERY low. Our food is pretty damn safe. And abundant - the real health problem, not disease organisms.

My personal little observation after raising some kids in the country, is a certain amount of the food borne illness that crops up is due to people self selecting for lack of immunity by living in TOO clean of an environment. Children that grow up in virtually sterile environments are not exposed to many everyday organisms that "outdoor" or more widely exposed kids are immune to.

[AlCzervik]

2. Hey just in time for congress to repeal food labeling!

[daa]

24. We just have to accept

this is what the american people voted for: more troops in Iraq, no labelling on food, no testing for Mad Cow, and 100,000 kids to lose student loans.

And how could I forget outsourcing. Now we read today that Chinese chemists wokr for $25,000 instead of the $250,000 top chemists make is this country. The solution, Big Pharma is relocating research to China. There is another worthless degree in Amerioa.

[demodonkey]

7. My family raised beef cows and I know properly fed beef is SAFE.

Cattle herds raised on feed containing no animal by-products are OK.

We used to raise our own beef and sold some direct to customers; feeding the cattle nothing but grass, hay, and home-grown grain (corn, oats, etc. ground on-farm into cattle feed.) NO added "protein" from animal products, and no added hormones, etc.

If you like to eat meat, shop around locally and find a farmer who does it like this. If you have a freezer, you can usually buy a side or quarter of such home-raised beef at waaayyy less than per-pound commercial "store" prices. You will get safer meat with better quality, get the exact cuts of meat you want, AND help an independent farmer.

[Kali]

9. Thankyou and right on

The truth is that even in the scientific community there is quite some disagreement about prions and transmission (and I don't mean to sound like the morons who claim there is scientific disagreement about global warming - I am talking about REAL debate) Nevertheless, if one follows the above advice, along with avoiding nerve tissue you should be alright. Even in England the incidence of human varient is pretty low in relation to exposure. Yes it is a horrible sounding disease, and yes we should do all we can to prevent within reason, but I would say the panic comes more from alarmist reaction that doesn't use logic in its arguement.

[warrens]

26. You're right

The issue is turning herbivores into carnivorous cannibals. Most of the smaller guys (and some of them are very LARGE smaller guys) have no problem with safe food supply and testing. It's the very large guys, who donate big bucks, who oppose both. The USDA actually refused to allow several smaller companies to test their own cattle, saying it would set a bad precedent for those who refuse to do so, making the usual Republican claim of "junk science."

[Eurobabe]

32. BINGO, you win and so do local organic farmers

which is why I will go out of my way to get the homegrown stuff. Have been eating organic meat since last August, lost 15 lbs. in process. the shit they put in cows (hormones and antibiotics) are part of what is making people FAT and DIS-EASED.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

8. The folks at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue have a different affliction

called Mad Cowboy Disease. Even though they have a particularly advanced sort of dementia, they keep moving around and creating mischief.

[rodeodance]

11. see this also--bush delays mc regulation till post election

http://organicconsumers.org/madcow/Bush92704.cfm

[Kali]

13. some solid info from WHO

http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs113/en/

[Liberty Belle]

14. tip of the iceberg

I'm a journalist. This administration has ignored dozens of cases of potential mad cow disease clustered in New Jersey and New York. Many involved people who ate at the same race track in NJ. Here in California, a neighbor had a friend who died of a mad cow-like illness. No investigation was pursued. They aren't looking because they don't want to know. The "regulators" Bush appointed are former cattle barons, so it's the fox guarding the henhouse.

We should test every cow, like Japan does. Although feeding practices have improved here, there are still loopholes. Our beef supply is not safe. Even properly fed cows can become contaminated at slaughterhouses, where blood from contaminated cows can infect healthy carcasses. If you eat beef, eat organic.

[lostnfound]

22. Reading Molly Ivins' Bushwhacked, chapter about Listeria

gives me a new outlook on these comments.

The Bush Administration's priority? Sending stern warnings to its meat inspectors that they have a 'solemn responsibility' not to stop a
production line unnecessarily and that they will be held accountable for doing so.

[bhikkhu]

15. The Point of This Case

Creutzfeldt-Jakob's has never been linked to mad cow. Were it linked to mad cow, the implications would be that we have a massive mad cow problem, and one that doesn't appear in any of the testing that is being done currently.

Mad cow is extremely rare, Creutzfeld-Jacob's is not. Further, due to the similarity of its symptoms to Alheimer's, it is possibly much more common than is currently thought.

[Occulus]

17. Isn't CJD the human 'version' of mad cow, though?

Aren't they both caused by the same thing? Or am I talking out of my butt?

[veggiemama]

18. Read "Mad Cow USA"--everything you need to know about BSE is in there

Y'all can download it here--and it's free:

http://www.prwatch.org/books/madcow.html

[warrens]

25. vCJD is the human form of BSE

CJD is almost identical, but is not traceable to beef. It can be genetic and is often called "spontaneous." The worry I have is the routine diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease without autopsy. I have a suspicion that a lot of it might be undiagnosed vCJD.

[yellowcanine]

27. All "dementia" deaths should be autopsied for vCJD, imo.

It is the only way to be sure that some cases aren't slipping through unnoticed. If people are dying of vCJD, we certainly want to know about it, though in practical terms, there is probably little that could be done, as most were likely infected before more safeguards were applied. I don't know if there is any way of dating the onset of infection - I doubt it. The only thing we can do is continue to tighten up the controls on the meat supply.

[fortyfeetunder]

16. Where's Oprah?

Remember her being named in a lawsuit by some cattleman association in TX..about her remarks on hamburger? Oprah, you might be vindicated...

[veggiemama]

19. Oprah's co-defendant and expert was Howard Lyman

The original "Mad Cowboy". He's a former cattle rancher, now a vegan and activist. Visit his website here:

http://www.madcowboy.com/

[RebelOne]

21. This is one of the many reasons I am a vegetarian. n/t

[RhodaGrits]

31. Two good sites for the "other" side (not the USDA Bush approved one):

This is a very even-handed approach to facts:

http://www.priondata.org/data/A_USBSE.html

For more on why you can't trust your government:

http://www.davelouthan.org/

For info on Dave Louthan see info from NYT:

February 3, 2004, Tuesday
SCIENCE DESK
Man Who Killed the Mad Cow Has Questions of His Own
By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr. (New York Times) 1107 words

Shooting a cow turned Dave Louthan into a crusader.

On Dec. 9, at Vern's Moses Lake Meats in Moses Lake, Wash., Mr. Louthan killed the only mad cow found in the United States.

Two weeks later, he says, he was dismissed after four years as Vern's slaughterer when he talked to the television crews outside and told them he was sure the cow, ground into hamburger, had already been eaten. The plant's owners did not return calls seeking comment.

''I got a big mouth,'' he said in a telephone interview. Since then, it has gotten bigger. Using borrowed computers -- he has none of his own, only ''a microwave and a TV that gets four channels'' -- he started writing to newspapers, and is to testify today before the Washington State Legislature.

Contrary to reports from the federal Department of Agriculture, he asserts that the cow he killed was not too sick to walk. And it was caught not by routine surveillance, he says, but by ''a fluke'': he killed it outdoors because he feared it would trample other cows lying prostrate in its trailer, and the plant's testing program called for sampling cows killed outside only.

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