Mad Cow (BSE) In USA Again: A Threat?
Cow with BSE
The USA again is starting to reap see some negative results because of improper agricultural practices:
CBS News – 25 April 2012(CBS News) A cow’s positive test for mad cow disease has prompted health officials to alert a concerned public that humans are not at risk for contracting the deadly human variant of the disease. A dairy cow in California tested positive for mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), the first case since 2006, CBS News reported on Tuesday. If a human eats meat contaminated with BSE, they can contract a form of the degenerative brain disease called variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) that rapidly decreases a person’s mental health and movement ability….“The beef and dairy in the American food supply is safe and USDA remains confident in the health of U.S. cattle,” Secretary Tom Vilsack said in a statement.
Safe?
Only 40,000 cows per year are tested for this, which is a very low percentage of the cattle slaughtered in the USA. The fact that another BSE case was found disproves the notion that the food supply in the USA is safe. Instead of making misleading statements, the USA government should realize that the so-called “firewalls” it has put in place twice (first when BSE became a problem in the UK and the second time after the USA had its first case of BSE) as well as certain other policies and practices simply were not sufficient.
Here is some background information on BSE:
The disease may be most easily transmitted to human beings by eating food contaminated with the brain, spinal cord or digestive tract of infected carcasses. However, it should also be noted that the infectious agent, although most highly concentrated in nervous tissue, can be found in virtually all tissues throughout the body, including blood. In humans, it is known as new variant Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease (vCJD or nvCJD), and by October 2009, it had killed 166 people in the United Kingdom, and 44 elsewhere. Between 460,000 and 482,000 BSE-infected animals had entered the human food chain before controls on high-risk offal were introduced in 1989.
A British inquiry into BSE concluded that the epizootic was caused by cattle, who are normally herbivores, being fed the remains of other cattle in the form of meat and bone meal (MBM), which caused the infectious agent to spread. (Bovine spongiform encephalopathy. Wikipedia, viewed 04/25/12).
Notice one step the USDA took AFTER both the USA and UK had BSE:
Effective December 30, 2003, USDA will not allow any non-ambulatory disabled cattle to be slaughtered for human food. Non-ambulatory disabled cattle are animals that cannot rise from a recumbent position or that are disabled (e.g., have a broken appendage).
The above step should have happened right after, if not before, the UK had its first BSE case (around 1989). But no, greed (in my opinion) allowed improper and unsafe practices for 14 more years.
The first carnal thing that the USA should have done when the first case of BSE showed up in the UK was to ban giving sheep and cows any feed containing any meat. But due to political and lobbying pressures, the “experts” mainly only decided that as long as sick cows and sick sheep were not to be in the food supply and that cows and sheep could still be fed ground up animals such as pigs and chicken feathers, that this would stop the USA from getting “mad cow disease” (BSE). At the time this happened, I knew that it was inadequate and took certain steps related to my business in 1998 to greatly reduce the BSE risk as I was convinced that BSE would come to the USA–and, sadly, I was later proven correct.
BSE is dangerous in even very in small quantities and it seems unlikely that there is only one cow with it in the USA. Problems like BSE affect the food supply.
Jesus warned that the “signs” of the end of the age would be include pestilences and famine:
7…And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. 8 All these are the beginning of sorrows. (Matthew 24:6-8)
BSE is certainly a type of pestilence and can contribute to food shortages.
Between the widespread and growing use of genetically modified (GMO) “foods,” pesticides, herbicides,synthetic vitamins, environmental pollution, improper meat production practices, and synthesized sweeteners, countries like the USA are putting themselves at risk for the famines which are certain to come.
As Jesus said:
37 And what I say to you, I say to all: Watch! (Mark 13:36-37)
Three articles of related interest may include:
Anglo – America in Prophecy & the Lost Tribes of Israel Are the Americans, Canadians, British, Scottish, Welsh, Australians, Anglo-Southern Africans, and New Zealanders descendants of Joseph? Where are the lost ten-tribes of Israel? Who are the lost tribes of Israel? Will God punish the U.S.A., Canada, United Kingdom, and other Anglo nations? Why might God allow them to be punished first?
Can the Great Tribulation Begin in 2012, 2013, or 2014? Can the Great Tribulation begin today? When is the earliest that the Great Tribulation can begin? What happens in the “beginning of sorrows”? What is the Day of the Lord?
Fourth Horseman of the Apocalypse What is the pale horse of death and pestilence? What will it bring and when?
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