"Mad Cow Disease"

[2boxerdogs]

Just out of curiousity and in case this gets worse (more than 1 cow) does anyone here know anything about this disease? I know it can be spread to humans if you eat certain parts of a cow that has this condition. They said on the news that steaks and roasts are safe to eat from a cow that has this, but is hamburger okay to eat? I don't know if I would want to eat any part of a cow that has this disease. I guess I am just wondering how safe it would be and what about feeding beef to the doggies? Can they get it too like humans can? Paula

 

[Cindy Creel]

There is an extensive article in our paper. I will read it and report back to you.

Cindy

 

[Draymia]

I don't know if dogs can catch it, but they no longer use the parts of the beef that is supposed to carry the disease, in human foods. In this case, the brain and spinal column were sent to a rendering plant. That means it will end up in dog food???

Not a happy thought. This dairy is only about 50-60 miles from me. They are trying to track down the birth place of this cow. She was butchered because she had calved and had some kind of injury from the calving. It is not uncommon and the cows are butchered if this happens.

:(

Scary.

 

[SammynDqtz]

Draymia, my thoughts exactly... the parts they don't want (brain and such) for humans food... was probably sent to some dog food plant. Not sure if dogs can get it or not but I don't really want to feed them any more beef products. Because of those parts being used in some pet foods.

 

[Krikkit]

If you go to Google UK = http://www.google.co.uk and search for "bovine spongiform encephalopathy", you should find good information. Some of the sites are really scientific but others are written in laymans terms. Searching pages from the UK only gave me the best results.

Sharon

 

[BrazilBoxer]

From what I understand, red meat is safe and the spine/brain are what we should be concerned about ingesting. However, those kinds of bits and pieces are sometimes included in things like sausage, where they are ground up finely (not much, but a little gets in there.) They also rarely get into hamburger. The bovine spongiform encephalopathy is the cow form (bovine) and the human form is called Jakob-Creutzfeldt's Disease, which leads to a gradual wasting away of the brain, which causes the body to lose function accordingly and eventual death.

Personally, I would not be very very worried about my dogs eating any beef products, although I certainly wouldn't actively feed them questionable food (of any type let alone this). The incubation period for this disease is 10 years, which means for most dogs by the time the dog showed any symptoms, they would be advanced in years anyway.

Furthermore, I haven't heard of any dog foods that include beef, but I'm no expert. Aren't the main ingredients either chicken or lamb or fish?

Mariah

 

[myrocky]

Originally posted by BrazilBoxer


Furthermore, I haven't heard of any dog foods that include beef, but I'm no expert. Aren't the main ingredients either chicken or lamb or fish?

Mariah

Not here in the states. Chicken and beef are the main staple of dog food here. Depending on the quality of dog food depends on the quality of the above meats in the food. I'm not saying that lamb/fish are not available, certainly they are. However chicken/beef are most common.


Andie

 

[catneon]

Well all of this is really sad. I hope the cattle industry does not suffer as much as ours did. I have already felt the effect of this. Canada has imposed restrictions on importing meat and the shipment of Gazou's food (it does NOT contain beef) was stopped at the border and sent back because they didn't allow it to cross:( Hopefully this gets resolved soon and the restriction get lifted.

 

[2boxerdogs]

Thanks everyone for replying on this. I have been offline for almost a week due to vacation. Talked with my brother some about this disease. He said that it could get into hamburger, t-bone steaks and of course the brain, etc. I probably won't stop feeding my dogs beef, but I will be careful about the kind of hamburger that I buy at least for awhile. Thankfully, we will be getting half a cow from Iowa in June, so I will have to worry even less this summer, hopefully. Paula

 

[Scrapper's Mom]

Originally posted by 2boxerdogs
Thanks everyone for replying on this. I have been offline for almost a week due to vacation. Talked with my brother some about this disease. He said that it could get into hamburger, t-bone steaks and of course the brain, etc. ...

It was my understanding that muscle meat - steaks and roasts - were the least likely to have any risk because they were far from any nerve tissue and this particular infectious agent resides in the nervous system. What I read is that with hamburger the machines that strip the meat off the carcass are sometimes not so selective and can take some nerve tissue into the meat they get during the stripping process. And ground meat is likely to come from multiple animals making the tracking process that much more complicated. Brains, obviously, you don't want to consume those. Hopefully the new restrictions imposed by the USDA will help alleviate the risk to us consumers. And Scrapper's food is lamb based with no beef. My hubby and son though both LOVE steaks - it's their all-time favorite, so they would be heart-broken if for some reason they couldn't eat those anymore.