Returning to Cosa Bolle, the BSE (Mad Cow) mess I discussed
last time is snowballing more quickly than might
have been expected; after banning French meats and announcing restrictions on
blood donation for people who have lived in England (a decision whose
implications are not good, which has also been adopted in Italy), the Germans
have found infected cattle among their herds too. The animals probably
contracted the disease the same way as the French and British animals did, by
eating feed made from infected animal carcasses, which remained infectious
despite being cooked because the prions that cause the disease are tremendously
hardy. Meat consumption in Europe is down even more, and now Italian herders
are blockading the Austrian frontier too to keep out German animals.
With regards to the problem, I got a note from Isabel, who says,
"I feel I should correct you on a couple of things you wrote about
BSE, for the sake of clarity. I am aware that the media has done its best to
confuse the issue ! As you, know I lived in UK at the time of the scare, so I
feel I am somewhat better informed.
"First of all, we are talking of three diseases, all of them
encephalopathies:
1. Traditional CJD. This disease has been known to scientists for a
very long time (perhaps 100 years), strikes people who are over 60 in the
percentage of one person per million per year, and has an incubation period of
20-30 years, perhaps more. The cause is not known, but most scientists suggest
it may be genetic.
2. BSE. This disease affects cows and was first discovered in Britain
in 1986. The British government denied it could cross species and therefore
infect humans who ate infected meat for a very long time.
3. New variant CJD. This is the most recent of the three. The British
government finally admitted as late as 1996/97 that people get it from eating
BSE infected meat.
"Scientists realized it was a new disease when they noticed that the
commonly held facts about traditional CJD were no longer valid (onset at 60+
years, incidence of 1 per million, long incubation period...). The latency
period of nvCJD (the one you acquire from eating BSE infected meat) is actually
rather short, from a few months to, say, a couple of years. This was one of the
facts that alerted the British scientists. People who died were, in fact, so
young that their whole life was shorter than the average incubation period of
traditional CJD.
"A worrying development is the case of the British woman who died of
nvCJD leaving behind an infant who is showing signs of the disease (he is only
about 1 year old). This of course would suggest, if the diagnosis is confirmed,
that the disease is transmitted from mother to child, and if this was so, then,
why should it not be transmitted from cow to calf ??"
Worrisome indeed. Also got a note from Judy, of East Hampton (CT, USA),
who says that Plum Island (selected by Albert Einstein to be the US
Government's repository for infectious diseases) has sheep carcasses from three
Vermont herds with Belgian animals, which suffered outbreaks of something that
may well have been BSE. Apparently the authorities are being vague about the
diagnosis, but the mutterings point in that direction.
Avoiding It
In light of all this, what's one to do? Eating free-range animals that
graze would be one answer, though one must still be quite careful -- there have
been recent mentions of poultry problems in Italy, and the tightening of checks
due to the BSE scare brought to light a scheme to funnel cattle infected with
tuberculosis and brucellosis (among other things) from Eastern Europe through
Sicily and on up to Piemonte. Perhaps turn to beans, which have long been referred to as
the meat of the poor man, as Artusi observed in 1891: "If, in feeling around in
his pocket, a worker unhappily realizes he doesn’t have enough to buy a
piece of meat sufficient to make a soup for his family, he will find in beans a
healthy, nutritious, and inexpensive alternative." Healthier than Artusi
probably knew, because the proteins are high quality and there's none of the
fat or cholesterol that comes with meat, assuming meat isn't added during the
cooking.
The Net is an interactive medium, and I've gotten a couple more
questions regarding Mad Cow disease and its human variant; one person wanted to
know about risks associated with rabbits and poultry, while another asked about
milk. Assuming that the rabbits or chickens eat what they're supposed to --
greens, seeds and whatnot, they'll be fine. Problems can only arise if they're
given contaminated animal-based feed, and this means that if you go with
organically raised or free-range animals there shouldn't be any risks. Milk is
something nobody has mentioned, and I sincerely hope that someone has tested it
to make sure it's safe. In terms of the scandal in general, despite the
protests of Germany and a couple of other northern countries with large dairy
industries the EEU has banned the use of all animal-based feeds for the next
six months. After which, despite Italian protests, they'll be allowed again.
This is, frankly, loony -- the scare is crippling the Continent's cattle
industry because consumers have stopped buying beef for fear of getting
contaminated meat (if butchers don't sell, slaughter houses cut back and the
animals stay in their barns, thus squeezing the farmers too); readmitting
animal-based feeds will do nothing to restore consumer confidence and people
simply will continue to avoid beef.
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