Mad Cow Disease

Statement of problem The mad cow disease, also called bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), is a transmissible disease in cattle and other species. It attacks the brain and causes a change in behavior, gradual loss of coordination and eventually death (WebMD, n.d.) There are two types of mad cow disease: Classical BSE and atypical BSE. It is assumed that the classical variant can infect transferred in concentrates. The incubation period from infection applied to disease develops can be several years. Mad cow disease is mainly found in animals aged three to eight years. With confirmed mad cow disease, it is necessary to destroy (burn) all animals that may have been near the infection. The theory is that sick animals have been used in the

However, the first discovery of mad cow disease was in the United Kingdom in the 1980´s, the British government and scientific experts were unsure (adamant) that meat and the other products from cattle infected with BSE were no risk to humans (Powell & Leiss, 1997, p. 6). However, in 1995 three British citizens was diagnosed with the first human cases of the disease called Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), which is a rare, degenerative, invariable fatal brain disorder (Ropeik & Gray, 2002, p. 117). Even though new cases of CJD emerged, the British government refused to announce the possible link between the human disease and BSE. The government assistant chief veterinary Kevin Taylor, went publicly and dismissed the notion of a link between the mad cow disease and CJD (Walters, 2003). Even though the government denied this connection, other doctors and scientific expert were researching and writing reports regarding the link between consumption of infected bovine material and CJD (Walters,

Uniroyal Inc., which was the producer of a chemical called daminozide, which was a chemical that was sprayed on red apples to keep the apples on the trees longer, which increased their size and color and also improve storage life. There were laboratory studies that had shown that this chemical potent carcinogen was actually absorbed into the apples and therefore could not be washed off by canners, bottlers, or consumers. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was totally aware of that daminozide produced cancer in laboratory test animals, however they were unwilling to recall the chemical because it was already on the market and was widely used by apple growers, who also claimed that forbidding daminozide would damage them financially (Soley, 2002, p. 111). So in conclusion, it seemed more important to the EPA to protect the financial status of apple growers than the health of apple consumers in the United