Is Mad Cow Disaease Spreading?

Mad cow dissease (aka Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy or BSE) spreads between cattle. It is caused by a kind of protein called a prion that causes brain damage to cattle and leads to dementia and later death. This has been more of a problem in UK because the practice of feeding beef products to cattle is more common there.

The human form of mad cow dissease is vCJD or varient Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease. After dozens of people in the UK died of this disease the US adopted stricter rules about using beef products in cattle feed to avoid outbreaks here. In our cattle industry calves are still given a formula that uses blood from slaughtered cattle because cow’s milk is considered too valuable to waste on calves. Many experts believe that mad cow disease can not be spread through blood and that it is only spread when the brains of infected cattle are fed to other cattle. Some others believe that the captive bolt used to slaughter cattle can cause brain tissue to get into the bloodstream.

In theory our beef supply should be safe which is one reason only a tiny percentage of all cattle slaughtered here are tested for mad cow dissease. Some other countries test every single cow and bull slaughtered and refuse to import American beef because most of it is untested.

The easiest way to stop the spread of mad cow dissease is to feed cattle their natural diet of grass. That is best for the cattle and safest for humans who eat them.

My wife who still eats meat orders grass fed organic beef from a specialty farm. It is expensive but no doubt it is healthier than the beef commonly sold in grocery stores. This would also be a way to avoid any risk of vCJD.