Will Mad Cow Disease affect dog food? ...

[momPaws]

Hate to bring this up, cause it doesn't bother me that much as far as eating beef myself. But since the parts of the cow that can spread the disease could be used in dog food (I have read that all by-products are used)- am wondering if we should avoid beef dog food. Anyone know if it could be spread to our pets this way?

[Traci]

My opinion- unlikely...since the suspect/source is usually detected at the point of farm or slaughterhouse or meat plant origin before the remaining 'by-products' are sent to a rendering plant.

[jdf]

agree with Traci, the FDA is on top of these incidents very quickly...here's a UPI article on mad cow disease and pet food...

http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=200 ... 4422-9844r

[Doglady]

agree with Traci, the FDA is on top of these incidents very quickly...here's a UPI article on mad cow disease and pet food...

http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=200 ... 4422-9844r

Actually, I think the media has contracted "Mad Cow" with their non-stop coverage about this on Christmas Eve. That coupled with the same thing over and over about the heightened terrorist alert, etc., and lest we forget Al Quaida saying we should have our "coffins ready." Had to love it after all this blathering they then say "Merry Christmas." ROTFL!

[k9Karen]

One cow from one herd is not an epidemic, and I'm not concerned. I believe the same thing happened in Canada a couple of years ago -one or two cows, and nothing since. Except, tonight's news indicated the diseased cow found in Washington came from Canada.

I agree with doglady - the media has gone mad with this one. I didn't read the link jdf posted yet, but if I remember correctly, there are not any canines that have contracted 'mad cow' (the human form is variant CJD) or scrapie, or CJD, or kuru, or deer/elk wasting disease. (That's all the prion diseases I can think of at the moment). [FYI: CJD = Creutzfeldt-Jacob Disease - not sure I spelled Creutzfeldt correctly though].

Would somebody please explain to me why we feed stict vegetarian animals (i.e. cows) feed made from by-products (expecially the brain and nerve tissue implicated here) of other animals that could be infected? I don't get it!

[jdf]

Would somebody please explain to me why we feed stict vegetarian animals (i.e. cows) feed made from by-products (expecially the brain and nerve tissue implicated here) of other animals that could be infected? I don't get it!

I've read that meat by-products are fed to cattle to fatten them up for the market - I thought corn did a good job of that. I think it's simply a way to turn by-products into a bigger and easier profit. It's kind of disgusting to think about vegetarian animals eating meat from other vegetarian animals - It just ain't the way it's supposed to be and obviously could cause some pretty serious problems that woudn't otherwise exist.

[k9Karen]

I know - it makes no sense at all! I know why they do it, I just don't understand WHY THEY DO IT!

This definitely comes under the 'penny-wise, pound foolish' column. Did they really think this problem would never get to us? (Don't answer that, I already know the answer).

[momPaws]

Greed, greed, greed...and self-interest. Hopefully now these practices may change.

[lmd]

Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy (TSE): A family of progressive, incurable, fatal diseases caused by prions. Characterized by dementia, and holes in the brain on autopsy. Can be transmitted between mammals when one mammal eats parts of the nervous system (e.g., brain, spinal cord) of another mammal.
Prion: Prion: (pronounced pree-on) Novel infectious agent common to these diseases. Not a virus or bacterium, but an infectious protein which can set off a chain reaction which destroys nerve cells. They cannot be inactivated by most sterilization methods.
Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE): The technical name for Mad Cow Disease - the TSE found in cattle. The form of BSE found in European cattle is probably not the same as that in US cattle.
Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD): A human TSE. The classic form of CJD appears to arise spontaneously, but the so-called "new variant" of CJD (nvCJD) is now known to be the human equivalent of mad cow disease thought to be contracted by eating contaminated beef.
Kuru: Another human TSE, found in Pacific Islanders who ate human brains.
Scrapie: The TSE found in sheep. The probable source of all other animal TSEs.
Downer cow: US industry term for an animal who falls down and dies without an apparent disease. Some people speculate that some US downer cows have a form of BSE with different symptoms from the British form of BSE.

[lmd]

Sorry, I forgot to add this link to the article which has all kinds of links for BSE info.

http://www.newscientist.com/hottopics/b ... ns99991422