DO YOU KNOW?

- As of November 2006 there were 200 individuals worldwide diagnosed with mad cow disease.

Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) itself is pretty rare each year, only one in 1 million people in the United States die of the disease.

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- In 1996, Oprah Winfrey broadcast a show about mad cow disease and told her viewers that new information about the disease “just stopped me cold from eating another burger.” In response, a Texas cattlemen’s association sued Winfrey, claiming her comments led to an 11-million-dollar loss for the beef industry. In the end, he jury ruled in favor of Oprah.


- In 1997, Dr. Stanley Prusiner won the Nobel Prize for his discovery of the prion proteins that cause transmissible spongiform encephalopathy diseases like BSE.


What have you learnt? Try this quiz!


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Thursday, March 6, 2008

me falling over.

:(

Okay, now my milk production has dropped tremendously. Sighs. And, i just banged into a pillar in the farmhouse today. Got a big bruise. I have difficulty stabling myself. My brain is deteoriating.

Farmer Moo is considering to put me to sleep. I overheard his conversation.
I know he has no choice and of course, to help me and stop my intolerable suffering.

Fellow moo moos, watch your diet and don't make the same mistake as i had.

I feel so guilty infecting those innocent people with my milk. It's only right Farmer Moo puts me to sleep, no?

My greatest worry now is my calves. They are so young and innocent. I have been through so much already and I have enjoyed those times with Cowwy, Moowy, Moomoo and Farmer Moo. But they have not. Poor calves. I shouldn't have fed them my milk. Mummy is sorry. Really.
I love yall.

Veron the mad cow

mad cow went moo at...
|11:26 PM|

Wednesday, March 5, 2008

I still remember the day when I stepped into the doctor’s office to collect my results from the tests I had done due to the problems I had with my memory, coordination and sight. I also suffered from insomnia and depression. My friends and family couldn’t stand my personality and behavioral changes and they advised me to seek medical help.

When the doctor told me I had contracted BSE or VCJD, I just broke down and cried. My heart broke even more when he said that no cure has been found so far. This means that I'll die:( Although the incubation may be years, but the doctor told me that my brain can deteriorate within a year.

Now its been 4 months since the symptoms have started showing. I have started to develop dementia and involuntary, irregular jerking movements. I am very scared now as in the final stage, i will lose all my mental and physical functions. I will then slip into a coma, and eventually die. The course of the disease usually takes one year.

I am really very scared and i do not want to die. All I can do now is to pray hard everyday that the researchers will find a cure soon.

Posted by: Joylynn Ng

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|10:58 PM|

Tuesday, March 4, 2008


This cartoon show the trouble and difficulties that a farmer that has cows that contracted the mad cow disease act like. They are frusrated and become mad as they not only make a loss, they are also in risk of having mad cow disease. The farmer either kills the cow or let it die eventually.

Either way, he will make a loss and it will greatly affect his business. The outbreak of mad cow disease brings about alot of trouble and this cartoon illustrates one of the consequences. Therefore, we should all be careful of what we eat and prevention is always good. We should all work together and never let the disease strike us and bring about bad consequences and inconviniences.

Posted by: Joylynn Ng

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|9:32 PM|

Monday, March 3, 2008

JUST FOR LAUGHSSSSS! :D


HAHAHAHAA!
One sunny day, cow A told cow B, "So d'ya hear about the mad cow disease?"
Cow B replies: "Yeah, kinda makes me glad im a sunflower."
VERON! :)

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|11:51 PM|

I happened to come across an article, titled "Video Reveals Violations of Laws, Abuse of Cows at Slaughterhouse."

To summarise, the whole article is talking about there is a video which shows how workers at California slaugherhouse conduct repeated tortorous and cruel actions such as delivering electric shocks or using forklifts to force the sick and weak cows to stand up on their own for inspection so that they are considered to be safe against Mad Cow Disease.

Quoted from the article, "They wanted to do whatever they could to get them into the kill box, including jabbing them in the eye, slamming into them with a forklift and simulating drowning or waterboarding the animals."

The video, Downer Cows UpdateLife of a Dairy Cow, can be found at http://video.hsus.org/

I think that the workers are really inhumane to carry out such acts. Not only are they themselves the pen manager and assistant and knew that such acts are illegal and banned on slaugherhouse, they actually carried the acts out right in the open!

They are very selfish because such acts not only show the inhumane part of them, but also brought harm to the consumers of beefs unknowingly. They tried many means and ways to keep the cows up on their legs so that they all can pass the inspection and allow to be slaughtered. This shows that they do not care for the consumers. All they had in their minds are just to sold as many cows out to earn as much as profits as possible.

I realised that men are really contracditing people. On one hand, they are trying their hardest to prevent the spread of Mad Cow Disease so that the number of people inflicted with Mad Cow Disease can be reduced, but others, on the other hand, are speeding up the rate of spread of Mad Cow Disease with inconsiderate and selfish actions.

( Jia Yan )

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|10:38 PM|

"Beef"let Act 3 Scene 3 - Poem

To eat beef, or not eat beef, that is the question,
Whether it is nobler to eat beef and turn into a vegetable,
Or not eat beef and only eat vegetables.

Be it nobler to enjoy the good-eating of a hamburger,
and then suffer the brain-eating destruction of BSE?
Or to live on vegetables, chicken, and food from the sea.

Do you dare to take the risk and eat tainted steak?
Do you eat any beef and raise the chances of becoming mad;or do you stick to your veggies, and just be sad?
Will BSE make "cow"ards of us all?
The answer you see depends on BSE.

When the craving becomes too great,
then let this verse help set you straight.

- Lynette

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|1:22 PM|

Sunday, March 2, 2008

I am now unable to walk properly. I am really losing my abilty to do normal things. What am i supposed to do now? :(

I have 'officially' contracted this awful 'Mad Cow' disease. The doctor came and gave me a full body check-up. I overheard the doctor telling Farmer Moo, that this 'prion' which i have eaten cannot be removed or destroyed no mater what. He doesn't know exactly when i contracted this disease because i had just shown the symptoms recently. Sighs. I think i am going to die soon. What a life. :(:(

It is all because of the stupid contaminated cow feed they fed to me and it totally changed my life. Though my friends know that this disease is unable to be transmitted by touch, they now shun me and my best friend, Cowwy, talks no me no more. :'( What am i supposed to do?

Wait to die? Probably?

Veron the sad, mad cow

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|7:18 PM|

Saturday, March 1, 2008

I read an article regarding a controversial topic on "Should human be tested for Mad Cow Disease?"

After reading, I am really shocked that the UK do not have any available test for Mad Cow Disease. To me, Mad Cow Disease is somehow similar to AIDS because both of them are incurable and fatal diseases. It will be really dangerous when a person who is in need of blood to save his life got blood that is carrying Mad Cow Disease. In this case, instead of surviving, he will, unfortunately, be tortured by the Mad Cow Disease.

A reader by the name of Almir, posted his comment on the page too. It looked kind of an irony to me. When I saw that he posted that he was rejected and permanetly banned from donating blood because "I was born in Bosnia and Hercegovina and lived there to 1994." ( F.Y.I - Bosnia and Hercegovina had suspected cases of Mad Cow Disease before in the countries. )

I should say, if the government of the institution of Health in UK is so concerned about whether the donor's blood has got Mad Cow Disease in him, why can't they just set up a test to allow the public to test for Mad Cow Disease? Even though noone has found any cure for Mad Cow Disease yet, that does not mean they should give up on those people who have contracted Mad Cow Disease.

Hence, for the well-being of the public, I personally think that man SHOULD be tested for Mad Cow Disease.

(Jia Yan)

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|8:09 PM|




Symptoms

Experts do not yet know exactly how long the incubation period is for VCJD. However, they do believe that it takes years, if not decades, from the time someone is exposed to the disease until the first signs appear. After the first signs appear, the brain can deteriorate within a year.

Infected Human
BSE affects the brain. Since Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease affects the brain, the symptoms it produces are neurological.

In the early stage, it may start out subtly with insomnia, depression, confusion, personality and behavioral changes, and problems with memory, coordination, and sight.

As it progresses, within 4 months of the disease onset, the person rapidly develops dementia and involuntary, irregular jerking movements called myoclonus.

In the final stage of the disease, the patient loses all mental and physical functions, lapses into a coma, and eventually dies. The course of the disease usually takes one year.

The disease affects all age groups and is very hard to diagnose until it has nearly run its course. As Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease is called "variant", it affects people at very young age, even teenagers. Hence the ages ranged from 18 to 53 years old.
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Infected Cattle
Infected adult cattle may develop signs of the disease slowly. It may take from 2 to 8 years from the time an animal becomes infected until it first shows signs of disease. Symptoms in the animal include a change in attitude and behavior, gradual uncoordinated movements, trouble standing and walking, weight loss despite having an appetite, and decreased milk production. Eventually the animal dies. From the onset of symptoms, the animal deteriorates until it either dies or is destroyed. This disease process may take from 2 weeks to 6 months.

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Preventions - How to avoid contracting mad cow disease?

Mad Cow Disease can be prevented by:

1. Eat poultry and fish, or choose a vegetarian diet.

2. Avoid beef products that may contain bits of spinal cord or brain tissue. These include ground beef, sausage, and hot dogs. Solid pieces of muscle meat are less likely to be contaminated. Bone-in cuts such as a T-bone steak and intestine are more risky.

3. When beef is processed or cooked removing the parts of the cow that are at highest risk of containing BSE-causing proteins — the brain and spinal cord — to reduce the chances of contaminating the meat people eat.

4. If travelling to countries where BSE has been detected, such as the United Kingdom, Europe, Portugal, and Spain, do not eat beef. Avoid having a blood transfusion overseas.
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PREVENTION IS BETTER THAN CURE!


Treatment - What are the solutions to mad cow disease?

Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease is a brain disorder which becomes deadly over time and has no cure. No treatment that can cure or prevent the progression of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease has yet been discovered, as the prions is not able to be destroyed by cooking, irradiation, or any other type of disinfection.

However, we all can manage the symptoms that develop as the disease progresses. People who are infected may be asked to stop taking any medications that could affect their memory or cause confusion and may be referred to specialists in neurology and infectious disease to provide medications to ease the symptoms. Laboratory testing is looking at a number of medications to prevent development of prion disease in animals.

Global impacts – How does Mad Cow disease affect the world?


The BSE outbreak in England was responsible for the death of nearly 200,000 cattle, and led to the pre-emptive slaughter of 4.5 million non-infected cows. This loss is clearly devastating to the English agricultural sector and it cost over $2m to handle the disease.
The impact of the mad cow epidemic on global markets has been huge. Several countries have closed their borders to European, British, American and Canadian beef imports for years. Japan, for example, was formerly the largest importer of U.S. beef, buying over one billion dollars worth in 2003. When the first American case of BSE was identified in December that year, Japan halted all imports from the U.S., diminishing exports by over 50 percent in this country.

Catch a mad cow in action here!
Useful Websites!

MADCOW 1 - Mad Cow Disease Overview
MADCOW 2 - Mad Cow Disease and Humans
MADCOW 3 - More about Mad Cow Disease!
MADCOW 4 - Neuroscience For Kids
MADCOW 5 - How Stuffs Works
MADCOW 6 - Wikipedia
4H - The Human Eye



Archives
February 2008
March 2008
What is Mad Cow Disease?

Mad cow disease is an incurable, fatal brain disease that affects cattle and possibly some other animals, such as goats and sheep. The medical name for mad cow disease is Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (pronounced: bo-vine spun-jih-form en-seh-fah-la-puh-thee), or BSE for short. It is called mad cow disease because it affects a cow's nervous system, causing a cow to act strangely and lose control of its ability to do normal things , such as walking.
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Origins - Where and When?

BSE was initially recognized in cattle in the UK in 1986. It is initially thought to have come from a similar disease in sheep called scrapie . In the 1980s, producers of cattle feed changed the way they processed feed. The change somehow allowed the scrapie disease agent to survive the cattle feed production process. Thus, contaminated food was fed to cattle, which then came down with BSE. At the time, neither scrapie nor BSE were thought to affect humans. So, meat from BSE-infected cows made it into the food supply. Humans who ate the infected meat contracted the BSE-causing agent and developed VCJD.

Causes

BSE is spread by contact with brain or other nervous-system tissue from an infected individual. Contact can be from eating food or food by-products that have been contaminated with nervous tissue, or from instruments that have contacted diseased nervous tissue. Once the infectious agent enters the brain, it can lie dormant for several years. When activated, the agent kills brain cells, leaving large areas of spongy holes. Also, large clumps of abnormal prion proteins (plaques) are found in brain cells. Once the agent is activated, the disease runs its course in less than one year, and ultimately results in death.

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Refer to "Symptoms" for more information.

We do not know the agent that causes BSE, but we do know the following:

• The agent must be small ,even as small or smaller than a virus!

• It cannot be killed it by cooking or freezing - Much higher temperatures than those used in cooking or sterilizing are required to kill it.

• Disinfectants do not work - Normal chemicals that are used to disinfect surfaces for bacteria and viruses (Lysol, Betadine) are not effective.

• It does not appear to have genetic information (nucleic acids)

How does Mad Cow Disease spread?

From Cow to Cow
BSE does not spread naturally from cow to cow; it is suspected to be transmitted by feeding cows animal meal that contain infected tissues . The type of protein, called prion , that causes mad cow disease cannot be removed or destroyed once contracted.

From Human or Cow to Human
Humans cannot get mad cow disease. But in rare cases they may get a human form of mad cow disease called Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (VCJD), if they eat the nerve tissue , such as the brain and spinal cord of cattle that were infected with mad cow disease or eat food contaminated with VCJD.

Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease is a fatal condition that destroys the brain and spinal cord. People who develop VCJD cannot spread the disease to other people through casual contact or through the air by a cough or a sneeze etc. About 10 to 15 percent of cases are inherited as a result of gene mutation and can also be transmitted through blood transfusions

by hazelnuts