mad cow disease

[mrpopenfresh]

Sometihng that has been getting front page in every canadian newspaper yesterday was the discovery of BSE (Bovine Spongiform Encephelitis), or mad cow disease in laymans terms in a cow that was slaughtered in Alberta.

This has almost completely halted the exportation of canadian beef. Americans have already banned the importaion of canadian beef. 4 of this 5 billion dollar industry comes from exporting this product to the United States.

So what do you think is going to happen with this? Do you think that this is going to completely kill all the cattle farmers of canada? Do you think it will have any repercussions on our economy? Do you think americans are goingto start buying canadian beef again?

I sure hope this whole thing is going to blow over

[Alejandro1]

At 5/22/03 05:03 PM, mrpopenfresh wrote: So what do you think is going to happen with this? Do you think that this is going to completely kill all the cattle farmers of canada? Do you think it will have any repercussions on our economy? Do you think americans are goingto start buying canadian beef again?

I'm sure it will blow over eventually but I think it will fuck up the economy for a week or two. Anyway, I guess it sucks, hope this disease doesn't start spreading again.

[Facethatisyours]

At 5/22/03 05:03 PM, mrpopenfresh wrote: So what do you think is going to happen with this? Do you think that this is going to completely kill all the cattle farmers of canada? Do you think it will have any repercussions on our economy? Do you think americans are goingto start buying canadian beef again?

Ya, that certainly does suck. It will probably blow over in a month or so, unless it is an epidemic. That would blow hardcore.

[TheShrike]

Well, I hadn't heard about it.

Sorry to hear it, though. I just hope none or at least not too many Canadians and Americans are affected.

The industry will recover, though. The main people that will feel this will be the little farmers, and that's a shame.
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[mrpopenfresh]

mad cow seems like a real bad disease to have, it affects your brain and kills you slowly.

[Shih]

At 5/22/03 06:21 PM, mrpopenfresh wrote: mad cow seems like a real bad disease to have, it affects your brain and kills you slowly.

Yeah, but on the plus side you get to fall over a lot and moo for no reason.

[D2Kvirus]

At 5/22/03 05:14 PM, alejandro1 wrote:
I'm sure it will blow over eventually but I think it will fuck up the economy for a week or two. Anyway, I guess it sucks, hope this disease doesn't start spreading again.

Greetings from England, home of BSE (thank you very much Maggie Thatcher).

The sad fact is that it won't "fuck up the economy for a week or two", because things like this won't just blow over - it took the best part of a decade before we realised it would be a smart idea to take the French to the EU court over their banning of British Beef, just to prove a point (in the same style as jimsween).

The cause of the disease, in case you didn't know, was Thatcherite economics. Apparently, buying proper cattle feed was costing too much, and affecting the profit margins, so why not come up with an alternative? The best idea was to grind up some cows, and feed them to the herds, without pausing to think of any problems (didn't the Agriculture Minister at the time ever hear of kuru, the lethal disease that affects people when they eat other human's brains?), and soon enough, British Beef was well and truly fucked, and it killed the exports, which is where most of the cash came from to begin with, and for years supermarkets were going to great lengths to avoid putting a sticker pointing to the origins of the steaks in the freezers, in case their profits dwindeled. Meanwhile, South African Beef became profitable, as did Argentinian, since their exports suddenly doubled or trebled in quota.

But we have a history of agricultural fuck ups - just two years ago, it was Foot & Mouth decimating herds of cows, sheep, pigs, and the recovery hasn't quite got the numbers back up again.

It's not a problem that will go away, as pockets will always open up time and again, and there is little that can be done apart from widespread slaughter, followed by beefing up the herds (no pun intended), which will take some time. But, at the end of the day, it isn't the fault of the cows that they have this, it's the farmers or, in the case of our outbreak, the Government.

And to be pedantic, human's can't contract BSE: they get the human strain of it, CJD.

[lapslf]

We've got the same sort of thing in the Netherlands right now, with our chickens. All the chickens that even seem to have the slightest chance of being infected are getting killed. It are sad.

[mrpopenfresh]

At 5/23/03 03:51 PM, Veggiemeal wrote: All the chickens that even seem to have the slightest chance of being infected are getting killed. It are sad.

Yeah, those chicken had it coming, yknow being a source of food and all.

[TheShrike]

Yes, blame the disease on the politicians!!!

Brilliant!!!

[bumcheekcity]

At 5/23/03 03:51 PM, Veggiemeal wrote: We've got the same sort of thing in the Netherlands right now, with our chickens. All the chickens that even seem to have the slightest chance of being infected are getting killed. It are sad.

Its the way its got to be, to prevent the spread of disease. They'd die anyway, and the important question is "Is it humane?" If it is, there's shouldn't be a problem.

[mrpopenfresh]

Bad news, this mornings newspaper indicates that the canadian dollars 1.3 cent one day downfall,is attributed to mad cow. Thats the steepest one day lost sice 1976!

[mrpopenfresh]

At 5/23/03 09:42 AM, D2KVirus wrote:

At 5/22/03 05:14 PM, alejandro1 wrote:

The cause of the disease, in case you didn't know, was Thatcherite economics. Apparently, buying proper cattle feed was costing too much, and affecting the profit margins, so why not come up with an alternative? The best idea was to grind up some cows, and feed them to the herds, without pausing to think of any problems.

Getting on the cheap feed subject, that cow with BSE was grinded up to feed the heard of a poor cattle farmer. Unfortunately, the goverment had to kill all of his heard, without having the option of selling the beef for profit.

[D2Kvirus]

At 5/23/03 11:39 PM, TheShrike wrote: Yes, blame the disease on the politicians!!!

To quote James Hetfield: "You know it's sad but true..."

[D2Kvirus]

At 5/27/03 02:05 PM, FireBall-X wrote: can mad cow desiese go to humans?

Yes and no. No, you don't get BSE, yes, you get CJD, the human variant.

[Jonas]

The worse part of this is that MCD is already killing people in the US, and has been for years. It's a vast conspiracy, that and because I'm in Michigan, I'm close to Canada, and also have to deal with deer with TB. Ugh, trust no wild life.

[D2Kvirus]

Then there's IFD - a disease that leads those who contract it to lose all sense of reality, and mercilessly annoy message board users with their inane, poorly judged, viewpoints.

I'm coming down from a 3500 word essay trip, OK?!?

[Jonas]

Inane Forum Distractors?

[PreacherJ]

CSE, ISE, CJD, P.O.P.-

Ugh.

Hey, foka, why don't we get some MGD and the go to Mickey D's for a BLT?

[D2Kvirus]

At 5/27/03 02:46 PM, el_foka wrote: Inane Forum Distractors?

I was thinking Irritating Flamer Disease, but that works too...

[cylon]

Does anyone know if they found out where the cow contracted the disease?

I know that they killed & tested the other 192 cows in the same herd and found no trace of the disease.

Last I heard the government of Canada (or something with the authority to say-so) was saying they needed to expand testing as well. And then there's the deal with looking over the ownership records of the cow over the past 8 years to see where it may have contracted the disease. But I don't know what came of it yet.

This is just another example of media herd [no pun intended] mentality. there has been one case of mad cow disease in Canada.

o n e c a s e

ONE

But surely many people have died at the mercy of this horrendous disease. Let's imagine how many people died from this disease.
2500?
10 000?
a million?
nope
DOZENS
The USA is blocking 100% of all beef imports from Canada because of ONE contaminated cow that might result in the death of DOZENS of people over a period of TWENTY years.

Don't worry though, summer is approaching and so is the West Nile Virus. DOZENS OF ELDERLY WILL DIE! BEG FOR MERCY ON YOUR KNEES! THE APOCALYPSE IS UPON YOU!

At 5/28/03 10:05 PM, benu wrote: Does anyone know if they found out where the cow contracted the disease?

Cows, like humans, have been known to develop a number of hereditary diseases and mutations such as Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (mad cow disease).

In other words, shit happens. The cow got infected with BSE like someone would get a brain tumor, out of nowhere.