In the new book The Family That Couldn't Sleep, journalist D.T. Max investigates Fatal Familial Insomnia - a strange prion disease that has been linked to Variant Creutzfeld-Jakobs Disease (the human form of mad cow disease).
posted by grapefruitmoon on Jan 5, 2007 - 34 comments

US Meat Supply at Risk of Mad Cow Disease is one of the headlnes I missed last week week. Auditors can’t say whether meat plants followed mad-cow rules is another. Plus 'Downer Cows' Entering Meat Supply, USDA Inspector General Says | USDA slammed for letting high-risk downer cattle reach consumers | USDA Didn't Follow Procedures In '04 BSE Test | Agency Fought Retesting of Infected Cow | USDA feared beef test and, um... Confidence in U.S. called key to exports. [more inside]
posted by soyjoy on Feb 10, 2006 - 39 comments

By the way...Americans may have eaten mad cow.
posted by soyjoy on Nov 4, 2005 - 65 comments

"I... Forgot."

Upon the death of a possible BSE cow, "the unidentified doctor preserved the brain stem sample in formalin... but then 'simply forgot' about it until mid-July." That's the reason why we're only hearing about it now. Any questions?
posted by soyjoy on Jul 27, 2005 - 50 comments

Mark Fiore's hilarious take on the recent Mad Cow mess. (Warning Flash) You can find more or Mark's work here. Eric Schlosser, author of Fast Food Nation, recently chimes in on Mad Cow.
posted by skallas on Jan 6, 2004 - 31 comments

After reading that beef has been recalled from my local grocery store, I spent some time reading Mad Cow USA a book written back in 1997 but not widely published because of fears of repercussions under the Texas food disparagement act. AlterNet has an article written by one of the book's authors summarizing some of the key points of the book. Some claim that only ground beef is infected, while others claim that's bull. mad-cow.org has a lot of good information on the topic, and it seems the powers that be are going to blame Canada.
posted by woil on Dec 30, 2003 - 14 comments

It’s A Mad Mad Mad Mad World. Alton Brown analyzes the current Mad Cow scare. If you watch FoodTV, you may have seen his show "Good Eats" or at least read a previous thread. His rant reminds us that there are consequences to our lust of more for less.
posted by cowboy on Dec 28, 2003 - 27 comments

The USDA has announced the first 'presumptive positive' result of a test of a cow for Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy, in Washington state. CNN hasn't caught up yet, but USDA themselves have a page on the issue, as do the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the EU, and the World Health Organization. My advice? Buy Chik-fil-A; sell Burger King. :-)
posted by baylink on Dec 23, 2003 - 73 comments

Beef industry stunned by mad cow disease
posted by synecdoche on May 20, 2003 - 17 comments

Did wild game feasts lead to fatal brain disorders?
BSE/CJD comes to Middle America. How much of a threat is this to the rural, huntin', shootin', fishin' lifestyle?
Or is it just as much a threat to your average carnivore? More inside >>>
posted by dash_slot- on Jul 21, 2002 - 23 comments

Death toll from nCJD passes 100. Is it me, or were we expecting a lot more than that? SEAC called for more post mortem examinations to be conducted on elderly people who die with suspected dementia, in case vCJD is being misdiagnosed as Alzheimer's or senility. Seems unlikely that a diagnosis of Alzheimer's or dementia could be made *without* a postmortem, but there ya go.
posted by methylsalicylate on May 25, 2001 - 2 comments

Mad cow disease (possibly) strikes "diary sheep" Read the first paragraph carefully...
posted by tippiedog on Mar 21, 2001 - 28 comments

Rethinking Mad Cow Disease So ususually when I see a story about an "amateur scientist" who has an "alternative theory" to some issue, I get all gooshy inside waiting to see what insane theory it is this time, but this guy has what seems to be a very credible alternative explanation for BSE/CJD occurrences and some credible science to back him up.
posted by briank on Feb 1, 2001 - 6 comments

Like the rest of Europe, Germany is going through a histrionic BSE scare. So Germans switched to sausage and pork. And then they were told pork contains anabolic steroids. So they switched to venison. And then they were told it might have BSE too. So the Germans, who hate veggies, are starting to "starve." And raid zoos for meat. Hey, where'd all this paté come from?
posted by aaron on Jan 27, 2001 - 5 comments

In a long essay-review of the report of the official inquiry into mad cow disease, the London Review of Books also points (but without helpful html coding) to the government site where the full text of the BSE Inquiry and the supporting evidence can be found. You can download it as a PDF file if you like, for light reading with your next carrot juice and stir-fried tofu.
posted by jhiggy on Dec 21, 2000 - 0 comments

Mad Cow disease spreads through Europe. Now as I understand it, cattle get it by eating food which contains parts of other cattle or sheep who had the disease.

The solution seems straightforward enough: stop using animal-derived ingredients in the food fed to cattle. SO WHY THE HELL ARE THEY STILL DOING IT? Why is this so complicated? Is there something I'm missing here?
posted by Steven Den Beste on Nov 24, 2000 - 18 comments

BSE Inquiry report Took me the better part of two weeks of fishing around to find the online version of the £300 million U.K. report on BSE/mad-cow disease/nvCJD. BSEInquiry.gov.uk didn't work. Got this one from the redoubtable Mad-Cow.org.
posted by joeclark on Oct 29, 2000 - 1 comment