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| Mad Cow Disease |
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With the recent headlines of Mad Cow disease
in America, many people are anxiously waiting to see how serious
the issue will become. From concern over new cases that have
not been discovered, to knowing how to recognize the human
form of the disease, many people are starting to realize that
this problem is not going away.
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| Is the
United States in danger? |
| "Until the
Federal Government stops the feeding of slaughterhouse waste,
manure and blood to all farm animals, the safety of meat in
America cannot be guaranteed," says Dr. Michael Gregor,
Chief BSE Investigator for Farm Sanctuary. In December of
2003 on a farm in Washington, the first official case of Mad
Cow disease in the United States was confirmed. With the enormous
cattle industry in America and the risky feeding methods they
use, it is only a matter of time before new cases appear.
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| How did
it all start? |
The first case of Mad Cow disease,
or Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE), was discovered
in 1985. It is believed to have originated from feeding cows
sheep that had scrapie, a spongiform encephalopathy disease
in sheep. Cows may not be the only ones at risk for infection
because it is common practice in the United States to boil
cattle remains down and legally feed them to pigs and chickens.
While no proven cases have been found among pigs, no one can
say for sure that they have not contracted the disease because
most pigs are killed at five months of age, long before the
disease begins to show symptoms. Although no chickens have
shown signs of the disease either, they also have the potential
to be carriers.
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| What is
Mad Cow disease and How is it diagnosed? |
| Mad Cow disease is a brain disease
caused by infectious proteins, which cause holes to form and
grow in the brain. Because of their unique structure, these
proteins are practically invulnerable, surviving incineration
at temperatures hot enough to melt lead. The human form of the
disease, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, has two strains that researchers
focus on - variant CJD and sporadic CJD. After the outbreak
in Britain in 1996 of variant CJD, researchers found the definite
link between it and Mad Cow disease. The link between sporadic
CJD and Mad Cow disease is weaker, but researchers at the University
of London did find a strong possible connection. Every year,
thousands of people die of sporadic CJD and the true prevalence
of CJD in this country among any age group remains a mystery
because it is so often misdiagnosed. The symptoms of CJD greatly
mimic that of Alzheimer's and dementia in the elderly and Multiple
Sclerosis and severe viral infections in younger people. In
the last decade, the rates of Alzheimer's disease have skyrocketed.
The only way to know for certain if someone has Alzheimer's
or CJD is to conduct an autopsy at the time of death, and only
10 percent of all deaths in this country are autopsied. The
most horrifying fact of all, is that CJD can have an incubation
period of decades, so it will be many years before the real
death toll is known. |
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