>After the UK experience is it even the least bit believeable that "downers" have been allowed to enter the food chain because test results only arrive LONG after slaughter and butchering?!?!?! Gotta make that buck and we'll worry about the test results later. Love that logic.

What is a "downer" in this context?

>20,000 cows were tested last year in the U.S. out of 35,000,000 slaughtered. Downers ONLY. And they all got into the food chain too!
>That mad cow is a lot like Alzhiemer's disease in humans (slow degeneration of brain cells until trouble become obvious) seems to mean that any non-downer is free and clear for entry into the food chain! How comforting is that!?!?!?

So a lot of animals can go undetected, right? Do you have an idea how long the incubation period is? Or perhaps I should ask, how long the disease can go undetected?

>Who the hell ever came up with the idea of serving meat to herbivores in the first place???? And why do we continue to tempt fate by permitting ANY use of rendered ANYTHING to domesticated herbivores????

That I find extremely strange. It seems that this caused the problem in G.B., or at least made it worse. Anybody would expect the practice to be discontinued after this experience!

>Recent reports suggest that the two mad cow animals in North America (so far) had feed that came from a common feed/rendering plant in Alberta. I heard some talking head (maybe the plant manager) say something to the effect of 'well if it is the plant it still doesn't answer where the actual source of the bad animal that was processed came from'. Don't these people realize that mad cow doesn't come from another mad cow but that it is the simple act of feeding ruminant to ruminants that causes the problem???? Apparently the same kind of disease is found in other species that eat their own kind, including humans!

I would say that the feeding of cows to cows can make the situation worse - but the disease must have been arround for quite a while. After all, it IS a contagious disease, caused by pathogens. While the prions are quite different to viruses or bacteria (no DNA, only protein!), they are still contagious, and would pressumably not appear overnight out of nowhere.

I do agree that feeding meat to herbivores is a weird idea, and that it should be outlawed.