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Mad cow disease found in California

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© 2012 AFP

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good news for japanese beef business including tohoku region.

-3 ( +3 / -6 )

We should have listened to our mothers, and ate our veggies when we were younger. We should have listened to our parents, and doubled up on our peas and carrots. Even though, I eat meat, I appreciate the irony...now that the cows are going madddddddd! SNFU

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

Ahem - this justifies a total ban of import in Japan. I not playing Russian Roulette only to fatten USA producers. Test everything or we should not allow it sold here.

1 ( +4 / -3 )

Only 0.04% of the cows are tested, and 4 cases have been found over the years. Well if you don't look, you're not gonna find anything! I suspect many more cases would have been detected if all cows were tested

6 ( +6 / -0 )

Import food is always rigorously tested, unlike locally grown stuff. That's why import is the only confirmed safe food source. Excluding American beef, that is... Imports have much less dioxin also, that is always confirmed with Japanese tax yens.

Well, we still have meaty mates down undah!

-2 ( +2 / -4 )

Great for those types who like to whip up some anti-U.S. frenzy. It's coming. . .

0 ( +4 / -4 )

Mocheake - it is not anti USA, but anti unscrupulous American beef business, ready to make a quick buck at the expense of the health of people eating their products. At least the Japanese beef is 100% tested and safe.

2 ( +4 / -2 )

Watch Japan ban US beef over this while they wont even ban radioactive vegetables from Japan

-2 ( +4 / -6 )

No more US beef for me..or at least no more mass raised beef....i only eat grass fed beef if possible or Aussie/NZ/Japanese beef as i believe there is less crap in their cattle feed than American beef.

American beef raised on private farms that are grass fed and are ethically raising their cattle is the only way I will buy it from now on.

3 ( +5 / -2 )

I hope we're going to stop importing this tainted beef. The US was given "one more chance" last time and here we are again.

-3 ( +2 / -5 )

ebisen is right on. Just watch Fast Food Nation or any similar movies.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

I want to move somewhere nuke free like New Zealand, get myself on an agriculture/animal husbandry course and buy myself a smallholding and subsistence farm. Its the only way to make as sure as possible that you are not being poisoned by food contaminated due to the financial greed of others, whether it be dodgy feeding practices in the USA, or radioactive veg in Japan.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Well this just confirms that Aussie beef is, and always has been, the best damn beef on the planet.

Eat Aussie beef today.

-2 ( +2 / -5 )

Crazy state is California.

-3 ( +1 / -4 )

To tell the truth I am glad they found it and doubly glad they had the guts to report it.

This means that something is working and those who have their heads buried in the sand will have to sit up and take notice. Better to be awake and aware and actively searching for it. Well done California!

1 ( +1 / -0 )

This is terrible news. First we have to worry about radioactive cesium tainted wagyu, and now USDA with Mad Cow? So sad. Glad we can still get Aussie Beef... though it's much leaner and tougher IMHO. Wonder where they sell Argentinian beef here in Japan...

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Given that they don't bother to test some 99.96% of cows, you can imagine how many cases must go unfound if they found even one. Foreign nations should ban US beef altogether until they start testing ALL cattle.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

At least the Japanese beef is 100% tested and safe.

Yeah, whatever would we do if there weren't anybody chanting "It is tested, it is safe. It is tested, it is safe..." all the time? Probably would have more news like this: http://tinyurl.com/7pwq3wt

At least Americans reacted to the find. I'm sure the school children in Gifu had no immediate health risks either.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

gaijinTechie - exactly such news convince me it is safe - in Japan they found it, and removed from the market... Eating it once or twice will not increase your chances of getting sick (same with BSE), and nowadays the controls and the limits are simply draconic in Japan (by far the lowest radiation limit worldwide 100 Becquerel/kg in Japan vs. 1000 in Europe).

You wanna bet how many tons of BSA tainted beef is sold in USA every year? Oh, wait, we only test one in few thousands, if at all, so there is not way to know...

1 ( +1 / -0 )

The infected dairy cow from central California was uncovered on Monday but “at no time presented a risk to the food supply or human health,” officials insisted.

Would you U.S. haters at least read the article? It was found in a DAIRY cow, not a beef one. There was no chance it could have ever gotten into any beef products bound for Japan or anywhere else. Just very glad I don't have to deal with that kind of thinking and knee-jerk over-reaction anymore.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

ebisen

ready to make a quick buck at the expense of the health of people eating their products.

MMM sounds familiar radioactive food anyone!!!! And not just beef, we have also had seafood, veges and the list goes on

At least the Japanese beef is 100% tested and safe.

Well tested maybe on the Japanese sliding scale, it depends on the contamination then they adjust the safety specs right? Please this is the funniest comment of the week

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

ebisen

gaijinTechie - exactly such news convince me it is safe - in Japan they found it, and removed from the market...

By removing it from the market you do mean fed it to school kids dont you. Because in the case of the beef thats exactly what they did.

Eating it once or twice will not increase your chances of getting sick (same with BSE), and nowadays the controls and the limits are simply draconic in Japan (by far the lowest radiation limit worldwide 100 Becquerel/kg in Japan vs. 1000 in Europe).

Love to know where you get the figure of 1000 from because most sources l found say "Permissible limits today in the EU stand between 200 and 600 becquerels of cesium per kilogram of food." thats a lot different to your claim

0 ( +3 / -3 )

@herefornow, why in the world are they feeding dead pigeons/crows/cats/cows to dairy cows in Cali? cuz that is the only way you can get mad cow disease.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Only 0.04% of the cows are tested, and 4 cases have been found over the years. Well if you don't look, you're not gonna find anything! I suspect many more cases would have been detected if all cows were tested

Are you an epidemiologist?

why in the world are they feeding dead pigeons/crows/cats/cows to dairy cows in Cali? cuz that is the only way you can get mad cow disease.

This is false. The protein can spontaneously misfold into a pathogenic prion. It is possible to develop the disease if you have never so much as looked at a cow.

http://www.acsh.org/healthissues/newsID.1161/healthissue_detail.asp

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

If this was Japan and they found some kind of contamniation in the food, those in charge would try to cover it up and deny, deny, deny...

1 ( +4 / -3 )

Ebisen, I would have agreed with you while back in Europe. But this is Japan.

I never received gifts of rice sacks from Fukushima until some of it was deemed illegal to sell. Now why would a foreigner start receiving tens of kilos of rice from complete strangers all of a sudden AFTER the sales ban?

The reason for the sales ban was that it was no longer deemed fit for human consumption, period. But there are so many bureaucrats and other in Japan who think "sale banned, but we're not selling it, we're giving it as a gift!". They simply don't get it. They would go any lengths to ram it down people's throats, no matter how contaminated it is, if there's something in it for them. JA Hyogo even falsified labels for profit.

Same integrity is seen in getting rid of used cars that were contaminated: "I was only able to get it down to 30 microsieverts. So I sold it at an auction in Japan. What do you expect me to do? Take a loss on it?”

-DuH! Yeah!

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Well said Cletus! I actually laughed out loud on the train when I read that comment. Yes, Japanese food is oh so safe... Unless, well, someone does an independent test and finds out it isn't. Wonder how long it will take the public backlash for this? "American food is dangerous" all the while forgetting about the amount of crap that has happened in just the past few years with regards to food safety here - let alone a few years!

This all being said, of course American beef is crap - and unsafe. This is what happens when you feed "downed" animals to other cows/animals. The diseases just keeps giving. Cows shouldn't be eating other cows. They are vegetarian!

0 ( +2 / -2 )

they just started to open Burger kings again :(

0 ( +0 / -0 )

In America a cattle farmer wanted to test every cow he raised, to assure that it was healthy. The Bush administration would not allow him to do it; he could have labelled his meat as safely tested. The Obama administration did not advise this farmer that he could do this, either. Both administrations are corrupt, and no friend of the average American. They test very few cows before calling a big herd "safe". It's a joke on consumers.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

This is serious in other ways people think. This cow was never in the production line to be meat eaten by people, so it was never going in the food supply. It could though end up as feed for farm animals, but brains and spinal cords where BSE resides are now routinely discarded off, so chances of spreading there is low too.

What's more serious is that this is an atypical rare version of BSE. They don't think this cow got it from the feed (as mentioned, the feed is now monitored too) or infected from a previously-infected cow from years past since this cow is young. In effect, they haven't figured out how this cow got it. What if this atypical form of BSE is transmitted in ways that haven't been seen before, and thus cannot be monitored currently? How do we prevent its spread if we don't know how it is spread?

Anyways, just a reminder to calm down, over these years despite everything, there's still has not been a confirmed case of BSE on humans that originated in the US**, despite millions more Americans eating beef. So that's still a perfect record. However, BSE can have a latency period of up to about a decade, so we can't be sure yet for several more years.

[** There was actually 1 BSE patient in America, but she got infected when she lived in the UK till 14 years old before moving to America, and manifested it a decade later.]

0 ( +1 / -1 )

This cow was never in the production line to be meat eaten by people, so it was never going in the food supply. So what was it for??

0 ( +1 / -1 )

prompting a scramble to reassure consumers at home and abroad.

That should read 'a scramble to start testing other cows in California'.....

0 ( +0 / -0 )

tmarie, it was a dairy cow, for producing milk.

They grow old producing milk. Dairy cows do not provide good meat for regular steaks, etc. as lostrune2 says above.

They end up being rendered into feed for other animals, such as mink.

Oh, and 'shapeless' meat for humans, such as sausages, frankfurters, hamburgers etc.

This is where we must be careful

2 ( +2 / -0 )

This cow was never in the production line to be meat eaten by people

Dairy cattle might not produce very good steaks, but they still end up eaten.

And if your image of cattle farming is Daisy the cow contentedly chewing the cud in green pastures, take a look at the photo. They're nothing but meat machines.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

@Nessie, I will bet that this spontaneous mad cow disease you linked to happens in a very small percentage of all cases.

To each his/her own. If you guys want to eat cheap US beef and risk eating the indirect remains of ground up dead animal parts (when cows should only be eating grass), go ahead. And no, cows arent supposed to be eating grains either.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

The article says BSE cannot be transmitted through milk.

On the other hand, Yahoo's fact box says: There is no scientific evidence to suggest that milk and dairy products carry the agent that causes BSE, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

To my mind these two statements are not the same.

What I want to hear is that there is evidence that the BSE/CJD prion cannot be transmitted through milk or milk products.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

**tmarie, it was a dairy cow, for producing milk.

They grow old producing milk. Dairy cows do not provide good meat for regular steaks, etc. as lostrune2 says above.

They end up being rendered into feed for other animals, such as mink.

Oh, and 'shapeless' meat for humans, such as sausages, frankfurters, hamburgers etc.

This is where we must be careful**

That is my point. They will indirectly be eaten. This is how mad cow gets spread. Sick cow, downed cow, old cow gets feed to other cows. The diseases continue to fester and spread. Cheaper to grind up old, sick and dead animals than it is to buy feed. It is sick and wrong. Cows aren't meat eaters and it isn't good for them. Most crappy hormones and illnesses get passed to one another. In cases like mad cow, the farmers can blame themselves. Foot and mouth is different and I feel for the farmers. Mad cow? A sign that cow cannibalism is happening.

-3 ( +0 / -3 )

More pointless panic. BSE only ever killed a small number in the UK where it was endemic through the farming industry and human food chain. A handful of cows out of millions is probably even less of a risk than the radiation nonsense.

If you want to get worked up about something, how about the millions killed by smoking, or even the thousands killed on the roads.

-3 ( +0 / -3 )

Rumors that an Australian Beef representative with a syringe in-hand was seen in the corral with the cow shortly after its birth have not been corroborated.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Eat organic, grow organic, don't eat monsanto poison corn and their GMO food, don't eat US beef cause they feed the brains of slaughtered cow to other cows, this is the cause of MAD Cow desease! Don't buy toys from China and don't buy food from China!!

3 ( +3 / -0 )

@Nessie, I will bet that this spontaneous mad cow disease you linked to happens in a very small percentage of all cases.

Well then prove your bet. I'm listening.

If you're England in the middle of a mad cow epidemic, then the spontaneous form will account for a very small percentage of all cases. If you're Japan or the US where mad cow is vanishingly rare, the spontaneous form will account for a high percentage. In fact, a high ratio of spontaneous mad cow to non-spontaneus mad cow would be proof that your feed and monitoring system is working well.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

You know right now in Canada, there was some prion disease (cause of mad cow, but affects other species) found in sheep in a farm not too far from here, but the media is saying that it's safe for human consumption. Same disease, but it's safe because it's in SHEEP not COWS. Does that make any sense? My mother called the Agriculture Department of the US government to get them to put pressure on us to stop spreading falsehoods.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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