What's in the Beef?

Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients,  Oct, 2001  by Rose Marie Williams

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Mad Cows and CJD

Howard Lyman indicates Mad Cow disease, similar to Cruetzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), appeared in cows following the cannibalistic procedure of adding animal protein to their diets. The first few cases of Mad Cow disease, bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), first appeared in Great Britain in 1989. It was suspected that feeding scrapie-infected sheep remains to the cows might have been a cause. Scrapie can be passed onto offspring (vertical transmission). In 1991 the first indications of BSE in vertical transmission was noted, a significant occurrence suggesting the infectious prion was blood borne, and could be passed from mother to calf. [22]

In 1992 BSE was successfully transmitted by injection to animals from seven mammalian species, including pigs and monkeys, which share a high percentage of biological traits with humans. Although the British government denied the obvious, the risk of CJD was a serious possibility to the public. In 1993 two British dairy farmers whose herds were infected with BSE died of CJD. The natural incidence of CJD is one in a million, and generally over age 63. In 1993 a fifteen year old was diagnosed with the disease, followed by two more teenagers in 1995. March 20, 1996 ten people under age 42 died from a new, particularly virulent strain of CJD. [23]

In 1989 the US rendering industry voluntarily decided to stop using sheep heads in an effort to avoid scrapie-infected feed. An FDA review three years later found 15 of 19 plants inspected were not following this ban. No action was taken.

Using the Freedom of Information Act, Howard Lyman, Executive Director of the Beyond Beef Campaign in 1992 requested from the USDA any information on chemical contamination of meat and animal illness entering the human food chain. Hours of reviewing dull inspection reports finally produced one document of particular interest, a hand scribbled report about a suspected case of Mad Cow disease. Mr. Lyman placed it in the middle of a stack of other papers to be copied. He was not permitted to carry any writing materials, and was instructed to use paper clips on documents he wished to have copied. Several weeks later he was summoned to pick up his copies. One document was missing.... [24]

In 1997 the FDA banned feeding of ruminant protein to ruminants. But cattle are still fed animal parts of many other species, including horses and pigs. Spongiform disease suggests that all mammalian species may be susceptible to them and these diseases transmit easily across species barriers. There is no ban against feeding scrapie infected sheep to pigs, which then can be fed to beef cattle. Worse'yet, claims Lyman, bovine bloodmeal has been excluded from the ban. Spray-dried blood products are increasingly used in the feed industry. "Until we stop the transformation of cattle into carnivores, until we can be 100% sure that they are no longer consuming the blood and fecal material of their own species and the meat and bonemeal of any other animal, the risks of Mad Cow disease and a consequent epidemic of CJD will be with us," claims Mad Cowboy Lyman. [25]