http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080628/wl_canada_nm/canada_madcow_canada_col;_ylt=AnLJcy5WgwLDnPkHrtwvFXJvaA8F


Latest mad cow born 5 years after ban

WINNIPEG, Manitoba (Reuters) - Canada's 13th case of mad cow disease, discovered earlier this week, was born more than five years after Canada banned feed practices thought to cause the disease, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency said on Friday.
 
The Holstein cow, which was tested for the disease after it died on a British Columbia farm, probably consumed a small amount of infected feed in the year after it was born in 2003, said George Luterbach, a senior veterinarian at the CFIA.

Another mystery, and who's going to tell

Doesn't it all make you want to get your hands on one of those WTF license plates?  It's better than any bumper sticker because it applies to just about everything.  WTF is going on!?  I would love to drive one around everywhere I go.  It's the universal question.

Having read the base article, while the science is compelling (they are still using a Hamster TSE, as opposed to BSE itself) - the authors are clear on this is STILL an HYPOTHESIS (I.E. not proven science yet, still needs study).

Good reading though.

You can find the article (sorry, closed the window) - by searching prions on wikipedia, and clicking on footnote 35 link.

Hard decision, acquire BSE through meat or produce.

Maybe that cow was on infected pasture, vs. contaminated feed.  Scrapie infection from sheep grazing on pasture that previously held infected sheep is a known problem, so we may start seeing that with cattle too.  I think it mentions something about that in the soil/BSE article.

Ah, the wisdom of Al Bundy! 

You know it's bad when this kind of advice starts to make sense to you!   

I'm not sure if this is listed somewhere else, so I will put it here.  Hopefully, this will address some of the problem as long as the rule is followed.  For those cattle not yet showing symptoms, ?:

http://www.meatpoultry.com/news/meatsafety.asp?ArticleID=94910

FSIS drafting rule to halt slaughtering 'downers'

(MEATPOULTRY.com, July 10, 2008)
by Bryan Salvage 

 The U.S. Dept. of Agriculture will begin working on a proposed rule to prohibit the slaughter of all disabled non-ambulatory cattle, also know as "downer cattle," according to Secretary of Agriculture Ed Schafer. "In other words, I am calling for the end of the exceptions in the so called ‘downer rule,’" he said. As a result, the Food Safety and Inspection Service will draft a proposed rule to remove the exception that allows certain injured cattle to proceed to slaughter. The proposed rule is expected to provide additional efficiencies to food-safety inspection by removing the step that requires inspection workforce to determine when non-ambulatory cattle are safe to slaughter. Schafer provided background that led to this decision. One day after being sworn in as Secretary of Agriculture, he was told of the alleged illegal acts of inhumane handling that took place at the Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing Company in Chino, Calif. He said he called upon the Office of the Inspector General and the FSIS to determine how it happened and what could be done in the future to ensure that animals are treated humanely.

The decision to ban all non-ambulatory cattle from slaughter will positively impact the humane handling of cattle by reducing the incentive to send marginally weakened cattle to market, he said. "Cattle producers, transporters and slaughter establishments alike will be encouraged to enhance humane-handling practices, as there will no longer be any market for cattle that are too weak to rise or walk on their own," Schafer concluded.