Mad cow disease found in California

Mad Cow Disease found in California

By Ashley Pun

Mad cow disease found in California. Will there be more cases?

During this last week, the fourth case of mad cow disease in the U.S. has been confirmed in California. While this may seem like a myth, mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), is not a fantasy, but a real life disease. It takes over a cow’s nervous system and makes their brain swell up. Some symptoms of BSE in cows are lack of coordination, falling over, stumbling, and constant urination. (Thanks to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)

 This virus is carried in the cow’s muscle tissue, and creates holes in the brain. The infected cow was randomly selected to be tested, and came back with results that were positive on Monday, the 23rd. So the question is, should people be concerned?

The USDA (U.S. Department of Agriculture) said “...[we] remain confident in the health of the national herd and the safety of beef and dairy products.” The USDA also stated that it was only a rare case of BSE not caught from contaminated feed. The odds, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that the chances of getting BSE even after ingesting contaminated meat, is less than one in 10 billion.

The USDA has made it clear that humans should not be worried. This incident, however, was an unwelcome reminder of the 1980s, when a large amount of mad cow disease was found in the U.K., and caused 171 people to die of the disease. So many people caught the disease, that it became an epidemic.

We interviewed a few people to see what they thought about the recent confirmation of mad cow disease. Mrs. Denio of the Beaverton School District said: "I would like to believe the USDA, but I buy organic meat or meat from my own cows or my neighbors because then I know what is in my meat. I don't have a lot of faith in many of the foods that are produced in this country where animals are concerned (chickens, beef, pigs, etc)."

             Many people have had this concern, and two major beef retailers stopped their exports overseas. Although it was just a mutation in the cow's system, these sort of things don’t happen usually, we should still be cautious about where we get our meat, to make sure that whatever caused BSE to spread in the United Kingdom, won't happen again.

Word count: 400 words
Photo courtesy of visualphotos.com 
Websites used: Cnn.com (used for quotes and articles, general information).
Media frame used: Equalize