On Sun, 19 Nov 2000, Sam Sharma wrote:

>
> The logic escapes me.  If no cow in Canada / USA / Mexico has
> ever had this, why should we avoid brains?

Although I've posted on this topic recently, the seriousness of the subject
warrants repeating it. Due to the transport of live cattle around the world, it
is now thought likely that BSE is established in ALL western countries. Here in
the UK, the beef industry was nearly destroyed by this problem, so it is very
easy to understand the intense commercial and political pressure in other
countries to keep any hint of it from the public. Other European countries are
only just starting to admit the scale of the problem. The USA also has two
variants of it's own, affecting the wild deer and moose populations, called
respectively, Chronic Wasting Disease and Mad Elk Disease.

   http://www.mad-cow.org/~tom/99feb_cwd_special.html

So far, 80 people have died here from this terrible disease, and the latest
study suggests that the final toll could be 120,000.  I long ago stopped eating
any beef products.

Andy.