Snippets from the Italian Scene Mad Cow Disease (Again)
It's soon going to be Thanksgiving in the US as of this writing, and I
trust that those who celebrate it will do so the traditional way, with turkey,
or perhaps shift off into the realms of veganism. Not beef. Why? As anyone who
has followed the travails of European meat consumption knows, there was a great
scare over Mad Cow Disease in England in the mid-90s; the disease, whose
technical name is the singularly sinister Bovine Spongiform Encephalophy, is
carried by a tiny subviral particle of genetic material known as a prion, whose
workings are not well understood. However, we do know that it can be
transmitted to humans, among whom, after a period of latency that can last as
long as 40 years, it causes a rapidly progressing fatal dementia known as
Creutzfedt-Jakob disease. Quoting from the CDC website, "As of September 1997,
more than 168,000 cases of BSE were confirmed in Great Britain in more than
34,000 herds. The epidemic peaked in January 1993 at almost 1,000 new cases per
week. The outbreak may have resulted from the feeding of scrapie-containing
sheep meat-and-bone meal to cattle. There is a strong evidence and general
agreement that the outbreak was amplified by feeding rendered bovine
meat-and-bone meal to young calves;" the feed was infectious because prions are
so hardy that one would need to roast the feed to cinders to do them in (and
even then some might remain infectious). As a result of all this English beef
was banned in the rest of Europe, and one might have thought that the
ministries of agriculture on the Continent would have taken steps to ban the
use of animal-based livestock feeds.
They didn't, however, most likely because a ban would have made life
much more difficult for those who raise cattle in northern areas where the
animals have to survive on fodder indoors for several months of the year, and
because animals fed with protein-rich animal-based feed fatten faster. The
decision not to ban turns out to have been tremendously shortsighted, because
the French, faced with a number of cases of Mad Cow Disease and a few of cases
of its human variant, recently began sampling the general cow population. About
0.3 % of the apparently healthy animals checked turned out to be infected, and
though this might seem like a small number, the fact that the human variant of
the disease has no cure and is transmitted by tainted meats sent a tremendous
shock through European meat consumption.
The French President went on the air calling for a total ban on
animal-based animal feeds, while the French Government banned serving any meat
with the bone (prions concentrate in the nervous system, including the spine)
in public mess halls, for example those of schools and hospitals. Italy
followed with a decision to ban the import of French meats with bones attached
(this includes steak, among other things), and when the French protested,
pointed out that they are only prohibiting what the French government has
already suggested its citizens avoid.
In the midst of all this, the EEU lost a golden opportunity to show
leadership by choosing not to act on calls for prohibiting the use of
animal-based feeds for cattle and other ruminants; as a result Germany, which
already bans English beef and sheep, has decided to extend the ban to French
beef. And consumers, as usually happens when the word on something nasty gets
out, are taking matters into their own hands by avoiding beef. Consumption in
Italy (and the rest of Europe too) is down by as much as 70% and there are
amazing sales on the stuff in markets. Not that many are taking advantage; spot
interviews reveal that people are turning to poultry, pork, and fish, and going
with organically raised animals if they can.
So, we have a potentially severe health crisis on our hands, and the sad
thing is that it could have been avoided, or at least mitigated, had the EEU
health people shown some courage and banned animal-based feeds sooner. Equally
sad is the fact that the fear of consumers is indiscriminate; there's no demand
for pasture-raised beef either despite its safety (animals who graze, according
to an Italian ministry of agriculture spokesperson, don't like animal-based
feeds), and this means that organic farmers will be hit too, as will herders in
southern European countries who have their animals graze year round. This
morning's paper had a nostalgic article about "Grandma's sugo alla Bolognese,"
the thrust being that it will be some time before consumers care to enjoy
Bologna's classic meat sauce over pasta again…
The outlook in the US? According to the CDC, the FDA "instituted a
mammalian-to-ruminant feed ban in June 1997 that became fully effective as of
October 1997." Therefore, the beef should be safe, though buying organically
raised could be a good idea just the same, as it won't have the growth hormones
used by some American commercial outfits.
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