"Foot And Mouth Disease" and "Mad Cow Disease"
Are Creating Havoc for a Houston-Based Company Specializing in Castle
Tours.
Castles of the World, a Texas based European touring company specializing
in castle tours, is closely watching the situation.
Jaime Fernandez Jr., President of Castles of the World, said, "We
have an employee whose first job every morning is to monitor the situation.
Castles of the World has a web page with continuously updated information
on castles and other historical sites closures.
For more information see: www.castles.org/news The page contains up-to-date
information regarding the epidemic, as well as a comprehensive list of
castles and historical site closures.
Pickelsimer
BSE has since been found to be incurable, untreatable, and
fatal to both cattle and humans.
Great Britain's and the rest of the European Union's beef industries have
been devastated by BSE and consumer confidence in the safety of their
beef supply, and food system in general, has been greatly diminished.
In addition to this legislation, Britain began enacting slaughter policies
for infected cattle.
By January 2002, the labeling system will expand to specify the country
of birth, fattening and slaughter of the animal (Hommez).
The EU also enacted plans to slaughter over 1.2 million cattle in efforts
to eradicate BSE and eventually stabilize EU beef markets (Dong).
PRI-1-Madcows
http://ies.berkeley.edu/pubs/workingpapers/PRI-1-Madcows.pdf This paper compares approaches towards food safety regulation
in Europe and the United States.
It focuses on mad cow disease and examines how the British Government
and the European Union handled the first big crisis in the nineties, juxtaposed
to the American response.
Government set out to prevent the European Union from taking over.
And British businesses could bypass the ban thanks to the flaws of the
Common European Market.
At the European level, however, business associations have frequently
called on officials to set up a strong European agency to regain confidence
of consumers and markets.
Besides, the American experience has made clear that even science-oriented
agencies do not eliminate passionate politics (Vogel 1986).
36-005-0702
The following information will help you to become familiar
with food safety issues pertaining to "Mad Cow Disease" or Bovine
Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE).
It is important to know that the US has banned the import of European
beef and US military dining facilities, commissaries, exchange facilities
(BX/PX/NEX) and MWR worldwide have been directed to sell only beef and
beef products purchased from US approved sources.
1. U.S. Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine Website.
WHAT IS MY RISK OF EXPOSURE TO BSE?
Public health control measures have been recommended by the World Health
Organization to prevent BSE-infected meat from entering the human food
chain.
d02183
http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d02183.pdf Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), commonly known as mad
cow¬ disease, is an always fatal, neuro-degenerative disease that
has been found¬ in cattle in 23 countries around the world.
The economic impacts of a BSE outbreak in the United States could be severe,
according to federal economists.
Many of these products may pose at least a theoretical risk for BSE infection.
The rendering industry in the United States and elsewhere recycles animals
and animal tissues considered unfit for human consumption into, among
other things, animal feed; diseased animals are routinely part of such
recycling.
Customs often finds discrepancies with the accuracy of importer-provided
information during its annual reviews of trade compliance and, as a result,
BSE-risk products may not be flagged for further inspection.
makingmeatsafe_mail-in
http://www.cspinet.org/nah/06_01/makingmeatsafe_mail-in.pdf You can help urge the government to strengthen the firewall
against mad cow disease by sending this coupon or a letter or e-mail in
your own words.
As a member of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, I urge you
to help protect the public from mad cow disease by requiring companies
to remove the neck bones and spinal columns (including the spinal cords)
from cattle carcasses before processing them through mechanically separated
meat (MSM) or advanced meat recovery (AMR) systems.
10-19(Lect. 21+Prions)
http://www.bio.indiana.edu/courses/M200-Kao/Kao,
Oct. 2002 lectures/10-19(Lect. 21+Prions).pdf More common with soil-borne Gram+ bacteria such as Bacillus
and Clostridium.
They are highly resistant to temperature, lack of water, other environmental
stresses, including irradiation.
Sheep disease, Scrapies Oct. 18, 2002 Human disease, Kuru, Creutzfeldt-Jakod
Disease, several famililal inherited diseases.
Mad Cow Disease is a variant of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, or vJCD.
Questions that should arise: Where did the prion protein come from?
Treat with protease: break the protein to shorter stretches of amino acids.
Much of the first two decade of work was done with Scrapies.
When Scrapies was irradiated at 254 nM, a wavelength that would destroy
nucleic acids, the resultant preparation did not lose infectivity in mice.
cows
http://www.santacruzgreenparty.org/tools/cows.pdf The use of the genetically engineered hormone rBGH not only
increases the risk of cancer and other illnesses, but it intensifies the
already unhealthy confinement of animals in industrial-scale dairy production.
Increasingly, cows are viewed as "units of production" instead
of sentient beings.
Just a short time after this practice became widespread, health officials
began to notice a dramatic increase in the rate of bovine spongiform encephalopathy
(BSE) --- "mad cow" disease --- which is believed to be caused
by "prions" found in diseased and waste animal body parts, offal
and blood.
A prion is a form of protein having the normal chemical composition but
which is folded differently.
04-01-regulatory
It is a fatal brain disease in cattle that may develop spontaneously
or originate from feeding by-products of beef and other ruminants.
These regulatory bodies issued several voluntary guidelines to food and
supplement manufacturers to further reduce the risk of mad cow disease
in the U.S. Yet, FDA suggested earlier this year that only 28% of feed
manufacturers are compliant with these guidelines.
An infective prion usually found in brain tissue of infected animals results
in an abnormal protein folding of the normal prion.
A variant form of CJD (vCJD) is associated with BSE and is thought to
be caused by dietary exposure to contaminated beef products.
Armed_Forces_Blood_Program
Today's Armed Services Blood Program (ASBP) operates at 151
worldwide locations.
The program was developed to provide blood products and services to our
military community worldwide in peacetime and war.
Individuals can donate blood every 56 days (eight weeks) Entire process
takes approximately one hour Each unit donated will be tested for infectious
disease and then separated into red blood cells, platelets, and plasma
One donation can help up to three people!
In October 2001, policies went into effect that dramatically decreased
the possibility of transmitting the human form of Mad Cow Disease through
blood products.
To find out more about how you can support the Armed Forces Blood Program
contact the Donor Recruiter at your local Blood Donor Center.
BovineSpongiformEncephalopathy
Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), sometimes called mad
cow disease, is a slowly progressing, degenerative disease affecting the
central nervous system of cattle.
The disease belongs to a group of diseases know as transmissible spongiform
encephalopathies (TSE) that most experts believe are caused by an infectious
protein called a prion.
Some evidence indicates maternal transmission but, if possible, the rate
is not believed to be great enough to maintain the disease.
It is believed eating meat contaminated with brain or spinal cord tissue
from cows infected with BSE may cause variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease
(vCJD) in humans.
Cattle affected by BSE may exhibit some of the signs of a progressive
degeneration of the nervous system such as nervousness, changes in temperment,
head-shyness (easily frightened), abnormal posture, incoordination, difficulty
in rising, and eventual death.
cwd_bro2
has launched a statewide surveillance program to monitor Tennessee's
deer and elk populations for the presence of Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD).
Each year, when monitoring takes place, successful deer hunters will be
asked to volunteer their deer's head for testing at selected deer checking
stations.
Additionally, TWRA will conduct targeted surveillance of deer and elk
that display unusual behavior or appear to be in poor health.
Presently, there is no evidence that CWD has entered Tennessee.
Upon examination under a microscope, nervous tissues from infected animals
appear to have a sponge-like appearance, thus the name "Spongiform".
Deer and elk that are infected with CWD may not show any symptoms in the
early stages of infection.
cjd-form-p
By recruiting people to donate in your place, you can help
prevent the blood shortages that may occur when FDA regulations on travel
and residency defer many donors.
If you have been deferred, or think you might be deferred because of vCJD
restrictions, check with a Stanford Blood Center staff member.
Since 1996, the U.K. implemented measures designed to keep BSE out of
the human food chain.
About 5% of beef consumed in France is estimated to have come from the
U.K. Substantial amounts of British beef also were exported to other countries
in Europe, although in smaller amounts than to France.
LTRTalk3a
This March, caring people in a thousand communities in all
50 states and several other countries will welcome spring by asking their
friends and neighbors to "kick the meat habit on March 20th and explore
a wholesome, nonviolent plant-based diet."
The occasion is the 19th observance of the Great American Meatout, world's
largest annual grassroots diet education campaign.
Ë American children are getting fatter faster, raising their risk
of heart disease.
Ë U.S. feed plants may be spreading 'Mad Cow' disease, as USDA is
failing to test.
Ë The world's largest meat packer has been indicted for smuggling
in alien workers.
Ë The vegetarian food market is growing at 100 - 125% per year.
briefings
http://www.army.mil/soldiers/apr2001/pdfs/briefings.pdf Soldiers should direct SGLI questions to their unit personnel
offices.
The Army is beginning the third phase of a program to review records of
officers affected by an oversight it made when implementing the Reserve
Officer Personnel Management Act, or ROPMA.
The date-of-rank review stems from an oversight that occurred when the
Army implemented revised promotion policies under ROPMA, officials said.
Fifth Army is looking for NCOs and officers to serve as observer controller/trainers
in each of its training-support divisions.
majors, captains, sergeants first class or staff sergeants.
"In this job, the Army has given me time to become a better soldier,
then go out and apply it to other soldiers."
