The Republic of T. Archives

Todays e-newsletter from Compassion Over Killing contains links to two editorials on Mad Cow Disease that are particularly informative in terms of how the disease is spread through factory farming and in slaughterhouses, as well as what our government is not doing about it.

Of course they editorials are written by vegans, so they will likely be disregarded anyway, but they’re worth checking out if only to learn about prions - the agents that spread the disease:

The pathogen thought responsible for this disease is not a virus, not a fungus, not a bacteria, but thought to be a prion — an infectious protein. Because of their unique structure, prions are practically invulnerable. They can remain infectious for years in the soil. They are not adequately destroyed by cooking, canning, freezing, usable doses of radiation, digestive enzymes or stomach acid. Even heat sterilization, household bleach and formaldehyde sterilization have little or no effect. One study raised the disturbing question of whether even incineration could guarantee the inactivation of prions.

That study was performed by Paul Brown, medical director for the U.S. Public Health Service, who found prions could remain infectious even after exposure to temperatures over 1000 degrees Fahrenheit. That’s hot enough to melt lead. Prions have been called the smallest, most lethal biological entities in the world.

And what happens in the slaughterhouse?

Little did I suspect, as I watched workers deftly carving up still warm cows with their long knives and band saws, that those same band saws were aerosolizing tiny fragments of spinal cord, contaminating the surrounding meat. Routinely used in slaughterhouses worldwide, a recent study found these same band saws contaminated 100 percent of the carcasses tested with potentially infectious nervous tissue.

Band saws are not the only potential spreaders of infectious prions. Captive bolt pistols are one of several excellent reasons why slaughterhouses do not conduct public tours. At speeds in excess of 200 miles per hour, these pistols slam four-inch bolts into cow brains, hopefully rendering their recipients unconscious prior to slaughter.

An unfortunate side effect, however, is that plugs of brain tissue are forced into blood vessels and circulated throughout the body. In one experiment, researchers applied a marker onto a stunner bolt, which was later detected within muscle meat. The violence of these stunners was revealed by others who found a 14-centimeter piece of brain in one cow’s lung. “It is likely that prion proteins are found throughout the bodies of animals stunned for slaughter,” they concluded.

Then there are the “downer” cow; the one’s unable to walk to their death at the slaughter house, and the one’s likely to have the disease. Testing them for the disease might be helpful, but how are we doing?

Europe and Japan follow World Health Organization guidelines and test every downer cow for mad cow disease. By contrast, the United States has tested less than 2 percent of downers over the last decade. In 2003, we increased that testing, but only to about 10 percent.

Regardless of whether downer cows were tested or not, most of these animals — cows too sick or injured to even walk — have ended up on our dinner plates.

and,

Of course, such a disaster could never occur in the United States, we are assured, because U.S. officials have learned from Britain’s mistakes and have sophisticated safeguards in place. Approximately 20,000 slaughtered cows were tested for mad cow disease in 2003! Impressive, it would seem, except that for each cow tested, over 1,700 were not.

It get’s better as blood, brain and spinal cord material from cows are fed to other animals, without testing the blood-sprayed feed or the animals consuming it.

The United States banned the feeding of the muscles and bones of most animals to cows and sheep back in 1997, but unlike Europe left gaping loopholes in the law. For example, blood is currently exempted from the U.S. feed regulations. You can still collect cow’s blood at the slaughterhouse and feed blood concentrates to calves. In modern agribusiness, calves may be removed from their mothers immediately after birth, so the calves are fed milk replacer, which is often supplemented with cow blood protein. Weaned calves and young pigs may also have cattle blood sprayed directly on their feed to save money on feed costs.

and,

Unlike the Europeans, who test every at-risk animal and burn the most dangerous tissues in high temperature incinerators, we Americans test only rarely and feed nervous tissue to chickens and pigs. The USDA can say what it likes, but I, for one, will be stocking up on veggie burgers.

Hmmm. A veggie burger sounds pretty good right about now.

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 8th, 2004 at 12:22 pm and is filed under Current Events, Food and Drink, Vegetarianism. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.