The False BSE Scare

BSE: Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy, or Mad Cow Disease

BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy) is a progressive neurological disorder of cattle that results from infection by an unusual transmissible agent called a prion. The nature of the transmissible agent is not well understood. Currently, the most accepted theory is that the agent is a modified form of a normal protein known as prion protein. For reasons that are not yet understood, the normal prion protein changes into a pathogenic (harmful) form that then damages the central nervous system of cattle.

BSE is contracted through feeding cattle byproducts to cattle. These byproducts include parts of the nervous system. This feed was banned in the USA in 1997 and most was fed to cattle slaughtered before 24 months of age before the ban.

The USA has now had 6 reported cases of BSE between  2005-2018. One case was a cow imported from Canada, 4 were atypical (not normal) form of BSE. One from a very old cow that was considered only possibly BSE infected

From the information on these pages you will  learn how safe USA Beef is. No one has contracted vCJD from eating USA Beef!  When countries banned the import of USA beef due to the BSE cases it was not done for purely health safety reasons. It was done in retaliation to US acting protect our cattle industry from importing cattle due to the many more cases these countries had or for economic reasons only.

vCJD (Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease) In Humans

There has been 4 people die in the USA from vCJD all 4 contracted disease outside the USA. - see this link    http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/   CDC: vCJD Page