According to the headlines in this mornings Saskatoon Star Pheonix a man died earlier this year in Saskatoon from Mad Cow Disease. It would seem that he hospital is afraid of possible negligence law suits over the use a potentially contaminated endoscope that was used on seventy other patients...

This follows a story several weeks ago about problems facing Elk ranchers in Saskatchewan who are unable to afford feed for their elk due to the drought, and cannot sell their elk because of the impact of fears of Mad Cow disease in the elk herds. The ranchers were proposing to let the elk run free in the wild, rather than letting them starve to death, but the risk of the elk spreading 'Mad Elk disease' in the wild was causing controversy (it is also possible that the elk ranchers were using the threat of releasing the elk into the wild as a way of leveraging some cash bail out payments for elk feed).

The prions that are the cause of Mad Cow disease can only be destroyed by high temperature burning (they survive the cooking process for beef, for example). They are resistant to disinfectants, and therefore, since the same endoscope was used on the infected patient and then on seventy other patients, the possibility exists that the prions survived on the instrument, and the hence the fear of lawsuits.

In the hospitals favor is the fact that mad cow disease can only be diagosed in a post mortem autopsy, since there is currently no way to examine the brain tissue of a living person for evidence of the prions. Similarly, Alzheimers can only be diagnosed by emperical observations of a patients behavior, and can only be confirmed after death, by examining the brain. Therefore, although this has become the first reported death of Mad Cow disease in Canada, it might not be the first death. It is possible that cases of Alzheimers where there was no post mortem autopsy could actually be unreported (unconfirmed) cases of CJD, in particular in the cases of what is known as 'Early onset Alzheimers' that affects young people.

For the past couple of years I have been going on about Mad Cow disease and posting Mad Cow stories on my own website, and so to me there is something particularly ironic that the first 'reported' death of Mad Cow disease in Canada happened in my hometown (earlier this spring) just 30 blocks away from where I live.

Some links to previous Mad Cow stories...Mad Deer Disease - South West Wisconsin plans to 'kill every deer'

Mad Cow U.S.A.?

Canadian Health minister reassures Canadians over Mad Cow Fears

The story of the Canadian death of CJD was picked up by the CBC, and the health minister has responded by assuring Canadians that 'the man did not get the disease in Canada.' When one considers all the mad Elk, the recent story of the killing of Mad Bison who were leaving parks because of the drought, and of course the Mad Deer in states across the west, and the fact the CJD is not a reportable disease in the States and that there is no Mad Cow testing regime in place, the reassurance seems more like a 'he said, she said' thing than something that can be definately proven by facts...

According to the CBC report, " SASKATOON - A man from Saskatchewan is the first to die in Canada from "new variant" Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.

Dr. Stephen Whitehead with the Regional Health Authority said the man made several long trips to the United Kingdom about a decade ago and it appeared he acquired the disease while he was there.

At a news conference in Saskatoon designed to quell any fears about a Canadian outbreak, Dr. Antonio Giulivi with Health Canada said "we can reassure the Canadian public that this person did not acquire the disease in Canada."

"New variant" Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease is the human form of mad cow disease."

http://cbc.ca/stories/2002/08/08/cjd_victim020808

This story raises a few questions. First according to the CBC story the man died earlier this summer, and the diagnosis was made on August 6th, so apparently my suspicions about long delays in reporting Mad Cow disease were unfounded, at least in this particular case..

However I am disturbed by parts of the story as its coming out. First, I find myself wondering just what substance there is to the denials of the Canadian Health minister that Mad Cow disease is a North American problem. We know, for example, that we have mad deer, mad elk, and last month I heard a story about the slaughter of a bison herd carrying 'Mad Bison disease' because, apparently they were wandering from the confines of a park, and thus were considered a threat to ranching. The question is, are cows in North America somehow above it all? We know that, in the United States, for example, tens of thousands of road kill deer in Wisconsin alone are ground up and fed to cows as protein supplements. When we are then reassured that there is no Mad Cow problem here (only mad wild life) is there really any substance to the claims, and in the case of the United States in particular, where there is no required reporting and no testing regime, can we feel reassured that the lack of reports of Mad Cow disease indicate that cows have been eating those road killed deer with impunity?

The regime is stricter in Canada, where feeding cows ground up animals is banned (or so I believe. The regulations in the states allow calves to be weaned on cows blood from the slaughter houses, and obviously feeding deer to cows is no problem, and deer are also fed cows in return, and elk as well, in the hopes of growing larger antlers and promote the elk hunt.

According to today's story on the CBC site "Sandra Stephens with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency says the practice of feeding farm animal parts to other farm animals has been blamed for the outbreak of the disease in the U.K. In Canada that practice has been banned.

Stephens says there has never been a case of mad cow disease in Canadian cattle."

http://cbc.ca/stories/2002/08/08/cjd020808

The report states that there has never been a report in cattle. There has never been a report in American cattle either, although deer, elk, and bison are infected. The Canadian regulations ban the feeding of 'farm animal parts' to Canadian livestock. This leaves one to wonder if the feeding of 'non farm animals' to livestock is banned. IN America the regulations ban the feeding of cattle to cattle, but an exemption is made for cows blood, and cows blood from the slaughter houses is used to wean calves. As well road killed deer are fed to cattle, and cattle are fed to road killed deer, so the regulations allow the feeding of cattle to cattle provided that the cow passes through at least one other animal before being fed back to cattle.

In Japan, where it is reported that they have some of the strictest mad cow policies in the world, three cases of Mad Cow disease have been found in the last year. Apparently Japan tests for Mad Cow (the brain must be examined after death) and consequently these discoveries have been made. The United States does not test for Mad Cow disease. As well the disease is not one that must be reported, and in this case then reports that there 'has never been an American Mad Cow reported' is not reassuring since no one is looking for the disease and reports are not required. If we assume that Japanese Mad Cow policy is even stricter than those in the States, and yet somehow three mad cows were still detected in the testing program, then if a nation with strict policies can still be struggling to control Mad Cow disease, it makes one wonder what the actual state of affairs could be in the United States. It has also been demonstrated in experiments in the past that Mad Cow disease can be transmitted through the enviroment. So, for example, when an animal with the disease is in an enviroment, and the enviroment is sterilized, and then even several years later another animal is introduced into the enviroment, they can contract the prions. In Wisconsin, where there is an eradication program designed to kill every deer in the South Western part of the state, there is controversy over disposing of the animals in landfills since the prions persist in the enviroment, and can only be destroyed by high temperature burning. For this reason, since Mad Cow disease is known to exist in the enviroment, and has infected deer, elk and bison around the continent, the possibility that the prions could pass to cattle through the enviroment is an alternate route for the infectious agent to spread. this is the reason that a bison kill was reported this summer, when a bison herd, carrying the prions, began to wonder outside the boundaries of their park, and thus were considered a risk to cattle herds. A program I watched on PBS (Nature) several years ago documented that among the problems with wild animals faced by ranchers were other grazing animals like deer and elk which were inclined to poach cattle feed. This seems a probable source for the original infection of the herds, and also a possible source for enviromental transmission of the prion to cattle herds.

The point of the above discussion is that a thorough testing and regular monitoring regime must be in place, and there is no reason, given the wide spread presence of the prion on the continent, to not test and to continue to feed vegetarian animals meat products, and yet to continue to say that 'there has never been a mad cow reported' (only deer, elk and bison, since cattle are bulked up for the slaughter house by feeding them animal products, and then promptly slaughtered, while deer, elk, and bison live a more natural lifespan, making it more likely that these animals will shows symptoms. The cattle most likely to become infected are those being bulked up for the slaughter house, and thus fed these meat products as protein supplements. The cow is the fast food of choice on the continent (although the chicken has grown in popularity as a fast food choice) and the fast food business is a nickel and dime business, and thus the pressure to feed cows meat products to speed up the time from calving to slaughter house.) If a country like Japan, which reputedly has the strictest mad cow policies in the world, can find three mad cows nevertheless (probably through persistence of the prion in the enviroment as the transmission route) then it seems reasonable to ask whether or not a strict testing regime is in place, before accepting at face value the report that 'there has never been a mad cow reported.' IN America, the fact that 'there has never been one mad cow reported' is meaningless, since there is no testing regime, and the disease is not required to be reported. I am unsure about the implementation of a testing regime in Canada, and how throrough and ongoing it is if it exists, and lacking this information the simple fact that feeding 'farm animals' to cattle is banned is not sufficient reassurance. Are other animals banned as feed? The prion also persists in the enviroment and can be transmitted through the enviroment, so simply banning 'farm animals' as cattle feed is not sufficient as a safe guard, as the Japanese experience demonstrates. As well, does Japan import American cattle? As described above, the American cow is currently the most dangerous in the world, or we can assume that it is (without testing it is impossible to confirm, but the situation above describes an extremely risky situation, and the fact that Mad Cow can masquerade as Alzheimers and cattle don't live long in the fast food chain, make it possible for the disease to be visible in wild life and remain hidden in cattle, thus justifying the suggestion that American beef is dangerous).

So I have questions about the mad cow testing policy in Canada (does it exist, and how throrough and ongoing is it?) and I also have questions about NAFTA, for while one can ban the feeding of 'farm animals' to cattle (are deer, elk and bison also banned) if one then imports American beef cattle under the NAFTA regulations it seems that here is an obvious loophole, which when combined with the fact the prions transmit through the enviroment as well, makes the lack of testing unacceptably dangerous and the simple banning of farm animals as cattle feed an inadequate regime of regulation.

Certain states compete for the elk hunting dollar by feeding elk cattle protein, or the protein from these road kill deer or other dead elk and animal buy products, in order to build up large elk horns, which apparently are a great status symbol for hunters. Similarly deer are baited with food laced with livestock buy products and road kill, as well as salt blocks loaded with cattle protein to speed up their growth process and make them more huntable. It could be argued that baiting these herbivores with meat products has done much to facilitate the spread of the prions responsble for outbreaks of Mad Deer, Mad Elk and Mad Bison disease which are now present all over the continent (where the above mentioned animals are present, the prions are present). These prions persist in the enviroment, so shooting all the deer in one corner of Wisconsin is not a long term solution, since the experiemental results indicate that in years to come, when the deer return the prions will be waiting for them. What this indicates is how questionable it to continue the practice of subverting nature by treating herbivores like carnivores which has no doubt greatly facilitated the spread of the prions around the continent, where they will now become a permanent part of the enviroment, persistent, and always with us. Rather deer should be allowed to grow at their natural rate, and Elk should be left alone and allowed to grow elk horns in the natural way as Elk always have, and cattle and other farm animals should go back to being strict vegetarians, which they would be if it were not for human interventions. Even this will not be enough, as the prions are not persistent in the enviroment, and will no doubt continue their spread, as they obviously have been doing for decades, the rate of spread faciliated by direct ingestion of these prions in feed supplements as various local governments compete for the hunting dollar. Strict testing is the wave of the future, and will become a permanent part of the regulatory frame work of the nation, if anyone has any sense in this place, and it will remain so for as long as people want to eat cows and not die ten or twenty years later for having done so (CJD has a long incubation period, sort of like AIDS, which does suggest a reason why we see Mad Deer, Elk, and Bison, but 'no mad cow is ever reported' - since as I mentioned above, these cows don't live a long time...)

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