Mad Cow Disease Comes to North America

Yesterday (May 20th, 2003), Canadian health officials
admitted that Mad Cow Disease has infected their nation. A
new North American panic is about to begin. Millions of
Canadians may have consumed over one-billion quarts of
tainted milk during the past five years. Do you imagine that
the single mad cow lived on a farm and did not also infect
her sisters? Of course, her milk was pooled with milk from
the other cows. One cow produces ten thousand quarts per
year, or 50,000 per five years. If she lived with a herd of
100 animals, her milk was pooled with two hundred similar
herds once it got to the processor. Multiply 20,000 cows
times 50,000 quarts. My, oh my. That adds up to one billion.
This is cause for concern, isn't it?

http://money.cnn.com/2003/05/20/news/international/madcow.reut/index.htm

Upon hearing the news on Tuesday, May 20th, America
immediately barred Canadian beef imports. How about the ice
cream, cheese, and milk imports? Would you eat dairy
products from a diseased mad cow? Chances are, if you live
in Canada, you've been doing just that. You may even be
living with an irreversible ticking time bomb in your brain.

When I was a senior in high school (during the age of
Aquarius), a policeman gave an anti-drug talk to our health
class, explaining that marijuana use leads to heroin
addiction, because every heroin addict once smoked grass.

I remember raising my hand and commenting that drinking beer
leads to heroin addiction too, because every heroin user
probably drank beer before toking on pot. I got detention
for my comment that day, but that and subsequent punishments
have failed to modify my behavior. When I see something
wrong, I point fingers and ask questions.

When Mad Cow Disease bonked Britain in 1986, most scientists
blamed it on meat consumption.

Five years later, Americans were prohibited from donating
blood if they've lived in England for more than a month and
have eaten meat. Follow the logic here. A dairy cow filters
ten thousand liters of blood through her udder each day.
Milk is actually white blood. So, if a suspected individual
cannot donate blood, how can one continue to drink milk from
suspected diseased animals?

Did England miss something? Britain's defining moment should
have been an August 23, 1997 story published in the London
Times, written by Michael Hornsby. The following quote
should leave our Canadian neighbors to the North scratching
their heads:

"A 24-year-old vegetarian has been diagnosed with
Cruetzfeld-Jacob disease. Scientists fear that milk and
cheese may be the source of infection."

Many scientists theorize that Mad Cow Disease can take
decades to manifest deadly symptoms in infected humans. Does
meat or milk cause Mad Cow Disease? The British journal
Lancet reported in November of 1999 (Volume 354:9191):

"Routes of transmission of bovine spongiform encephalopathy
have not yet been determined."

Author Virgil Hulse recognized a possible milk link. In his
Mad Cows and Milkgate, Hulse wrote:

"The destruction of milk from suspected cows was recommended
in England to insure the public's safety...Experiments also
indicate that temperatures reached during pasteurization of
milk and household cooking does not kill the agent. In the
United Kingdom on December 1, 1988 the government announced
a ban on the sale of milk from infected cattle..."

Canadian officials have identified a cow with bovine
spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), and that means just one
thing: Mad Cow Disease is in our neighborhood! Get ready for
a 21st century plague that might make SARS seem like the
common cold in comparison.

Do you know of a friend or family member with one or more of these milk-related problems? Do them a huge favor and forward the URL or this entire file to them.