What is mad cow disease?
Mad cow is the bovine form of a fatal illness that causes the brain to turn spongy. We believe the disease spread in the U.K. through the practice of recycling bits of slaughtered cattle into feed, which was then fed to other cows as a protein supplement. The tissues that seem able to transmit the disease are primarily the brain, spinal cord and certain nerves.
Can humans contract it?
In Europe, mostly in the U.K., humans have contracted variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, which has been linked to mad cow. A person with vCJD gradually loses motor coordination and the ability to recognize and respond to family members. It's been seen mostly in younger people. It's tragic and fatal.
How do you get it?
Strangely, the people who got sick don't appear to be different—in what they ate, when they ate it, where they worked—from people who didn't get sick. The assumption is that these people, perhaps unknowingly, ingested brains or spinal cords from infected animals—by eating sausage, for example, or brains, which are a delicacy in some countries.
What is foot-and-mouth disease?
Foot-and-mouth, or hoof-and-mouth, is a viral disease that gives animals sores around their mouths and hooves, causing them to lose weight. It is extremely contagious to other animals but not harmful to humans. Meat and milk from infected animals carry no risk for people.
So is it safe to eat meat?
In my opinion, it is. We've never had a case of mad cow disease or vCJD here. I've been studying mad cow for several years, as requested by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and it's important for people to know that steps are being taken in this country to protect animals and humans. We have inspectors in every slaughterhouse, and if an animal were in the advanced stages of this disease, it would be spotted.
The U.S. government enacted a ban on livestock imported from the U.K. in 1989, and since 1997 there has been a law against recycling into feed solid parts from any animal known to be susceptible to mad cow or a similar disease. Brains aren't considered by the USDA to be meat, so if food has brain in it, it says so on the packaging. You can avoid those products if you want to be extremely careful, though the risk is very, very low.
As for the E. coli outbreaks, accidents do occur in the food supply. The best defense against E. coli, salmonella and other microbes is to follow the handling and cooking directions on the package of meat, such as to cook hamburger thoroughly.
Could any Americans have contracted vCJD from eating beef imported prior to 1989?
It's impossible to say for sure, but the likelihood is also very low. Most animals imported from the U.K. before 1989 were brought in as breeding stock, not for food. And there is no evidence that we imported any sick animals, even before the ban. Remember, the USDA has been screening for mad cow since 1990.
Should we worry about other cow-derived products such as cosmetics, medicine, supplements or pet food?
There's little risk from the materials that go into cosmetics and medicines because they have been tested and don't transmit mad cow. Fresh cattle parts used for pet food are from animals that have passed USDA inspection for human consumption. But the Food and Drug Administration has far less power to control food supplements. To be careful, you might want to avoid supplements that say they contain glandular extracts or tissues from the central nervous system.
Are there other precautions we should take?
You can feel very comfortable making the choices you've always made. I started my study of the potential for mad cow disease in the U.S. as a meat eater and I'm still a meat eater.
Saved by the Bell Reunion
The hookups, the meltdowns, the memoires
The case reveals what was really going on what they think of each other now!
