Ahhh! Mad Cows! Mooooo!!

[Archangel2]

Is mad cow disease still a problem in Europe?? The local media has stopped reporting about it.

[Babz]

You are right there is not a lot of media coverage about mad cow now
thats because there have not been any notified cases for a while.

One way round the fear of this is to be vegetarian like me !!

[Archangel2]

Thanks Babz!

[suzy_homemaker]

I've seen someone on this discussion board talk about how good-tasting Scottish beef is (probably on the Cuisine board). But, I've wondered since then if Mad Cow Disease has been a problem in Scotland. Am living in the States, and it's been shared that Mad Cow originated over in Britain (but am not sure what part of Britain). So, even Scottish beef is a bit suspect to me, too, not to be offensive to Scots or anything.

Used to be an ovo-lacto vegetarian for about 20 years, but not any more. But, because of mad-cow disease, have a friend who keeps trying to convince me to become one again. This will never happen, but I do want to be careful. If I ever do make it over to Scotland, am just wondering if the beef or lamb (scrapie) is safe.

Linda

[Polwarth]

No Scottish herd was EVER reported as having carried Variant C-JD - aka MCD.

Scrapie is also a notifiable disease and would cause whole flocks to be put down. Haven't heard about a case of scrapie for many, many years.

If it wasn't safe, do you seriously believe our govt would allow the sale of beef and lamb?

[suzy_homemaker]

Actually, I'd never heard of scrapie until I went online and was trying to do research on mad cow disease. But, you know, I'm glad to read your post, Polwarth. The only way to get mad cow, anyway, is if anything connected to the brain or spinal cord is eaten, so really, not too awfully easy to get, I'd think, depending on what part of the meat is eaten.

As far as the government allowing it if it was tainted, that's hard to say. I don't really know much about Scotland's government (except that it ultimately goes back to the Queen), but here in the States there are enough special interest groups that put plenty of pressure on the government that, in my opinion, it caves in to their demands at times. And the beef association here is huge. A few years back, there were some cattle in Washington State (where I live) that were found to be infected with Mad Cow, the government did have that particular herd destroyed and tried its best to trace it back to its original owner.... however, it did continue to allow the sale of beef, ground beef included. So, it was kind of scary for a while; my family stopped eating beef for a time until enough time had elapsed that we felt safe to eat it again.

[Polwarth]

Believe me, I know exactly what part of the cow to avoid - I never buy anything but AberdeenAngus beef - and buy my own beef to mince, rather than the shop processed stuff.

I NEVER stopped eating beef as I did not ever buy the cheap cuts of meat where the infection lurked. My family has never been fed processed foods like pies etc - I've always made my own. We have been completely confident in the quality of meat that we can and have purchased in Scotland.

Our special interests groups are not as powerful as yours, otherwise the thousands of head of beef would not have been sacrificed - and whole villages lose their livelihoods. Obviously I think our way is better than yours!