[gardeners] OT - Mad cow disease in cats

Margaret Lauterbach (gardeners@globalgarden.com)
Sun, 11 Mar 2001 08:44:29 -0700

The March 12 Newsweek magazine has a cover story on mad cow disease 
reporting that cats fed beef byproducts in cat food have developed symptoms 
of BSE.   Prions seem to reside primarily in the brain and nerve fibers, 
including the spinal cord. Should Americans stop eating beef?  The article 
certainly gave me more than pause. I still have some Wranglers in the 
refrig which I'll toss out, and I won't buy hamburger again.  They haven't 
found BSE in America, but critics say they would if they looked harder.  Of 
that British ground mad cow feed, it was shipped all over the world, to 
more than 80 countries. Indonesia imported some 600,000 metric tons, and 
Thailand 185,000 metric tons.  These countries are apparently not 
monitoring for disease in animals there.  Scares me. Margaret L