mad cow disease (Page 8)

The United States imported more than 200,000 pounds of beef last year from countries that are not allowed to sell their meat products here because of their association with mad cow disease, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture figures. Dale Leuck, a member of the USDA?s Economic Research Service, says they can?t tell if the figures represent true imports or are simply due to miscoding by Customs officials. ?I think we?d prefer not to take them at face value,? he says. ?We don?t know for sure if it is really beef.?
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There is little risk of mad cow disease turning up in American cattle despite the spread of the illness in Europe and Japan, according to a Harvard University study. Harvard researchers briefed Congress about the chance of mad cow disease, formally known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), infecting U.S. livestock. The disease, for which there is no known cure, destroys an animal?s brain and may spread to humans who eat tainted meat. The study concluded that ?the risk of an introduction (of mad cow disease) was next to nothing.?
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Mad Cow Disease was probably spread to England by an infected antelope, according to Roger Morris, a professor of animal health at Massey University in New Zealand. The infected animal was probably imported in the mid-1970s by a safari park in southwest England.

It got into the food chain when it was ground up for bone meal that was fed to a herd of cattle that became infected and were later ground up for feed themselves.

Other researchers believe that BSE was spread through genetic mutation or from animal feed made from the remains of sheep infected with a similar disease called scrapie, but Morris said he was “almost certain” it was spread by wild game.
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Millions of honey bees in France are suffering from “Mad Bee Disease,” becoming too disoriented to find the way back to their hives. If they can’t get home again, they die within hours.

Environmentalists say the problem can be traced to the pesticide Gaucho, sprayed on sunflowers. The French government ordered a two-year extension of a ban on spraying the chemical on sunflower seeds, to allow more study of its impact on the nervous systems of bees.

The National Union of French Beekeepers says that the amount of honey produced has fallen drastically since the pesticide was introduced in 1994. Gaucho is also used on wheat, barley and sugar beets.
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