Natural Grass-Fed Beef Consumption Prevents Mad-Cow Disease

How much do we really know about the food that we eat? And how often do we take for granted that our legislators and law makers will take upon themselves the responsibility of looking after the people's health safety in our food system. The day that we stop becoming aware of the reality on how our food is being managed by our so-called leaders is the day that we placed our population in extreme health danger, a catastrophic proportion of endless possibilities of what could go wrong.

Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) or "Mad Cow Disease" has its origin dating back to mid-1980s but a similar fatal disease called "kuru", means "to shake", has been recorded dating back in the early 1950s by an Australian explorer in Papua New Guinea. BSE, kuru, and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease all belong to a family of diseases known as the transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs). Forms of TSEs such as Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), variant-CJD, Gerstmann-Sträussler-Scheinker syndrome (GSS), fatal familial insomnia (FFI), and Kuru are known to affect humans. And other forms such as scrapie, chronic waste, transmissible mink encephalopathy (mink), and feline spongiform encephalopathy are known to affect deer, elk, sheep and goats.

BSE are known to affect the central nervous system occurring mainly in the brain, trigeminal ganglia, tonsils, spinal cord, and distal ileum of the small intestine of cattle. The progressive degeneration of the nervous system is displayed on some clinical signs such as nervousness, temperament, aggression, abnormal posture, difficulty in rising, decreased milk production, or loss of body weight.

The cause of BSE or "Mad Cow Disease" has been linked to animal bi-products (normally from another cow) being fed to cows which are ruminants, meaning their digestive system is meant to process only grass or related plant form, not animal bi-products. BSE is neither transmissible by contact nor contagious but only by consumption of meat products that are infected by BSE. Is has been determined that the presence of abnormal prion protein in the animal carcasses is a clear indication of BSE or TSE.

One known case in United States was a young woman who supposedly had contracted the Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) while living in United Kingdom, where it is more prevalent. But the most recent reported case was in December 23, 2003, after a detection of presumptive positive BSE found in a Holstein dairy cow slaughtered at an establishment in Moses Lake, Washington, which resulted in a recall of more than 10,000 pounds of beef.

Although FSIS has since implemented measures to further safeguards public health, feeding of animal bi-product is still being reported by independent investigators and whistleblowers as a common practice seen in a lot of big beef producing feedlots.

Small family owned ranchers are known to raise and pasture their cattle using natural methods such as grass feeding producing natural grass fed beef. Also, natural pasturing involves raising cows in a free range or open air environment where cows are free to move around as supposed to a confined and crowded areas where cows become prone to all types of diseases.

To ensure health safety on meat consumption, it is recommended to purchase natural grass fed beef products from a reputable small family owned ranch. These ranchers, who value integrity and tradition, will continue to produce only the best and safest natural grass fed beef products available, so long as consumers remain knowledgably aware of these diseases that could potentially derive from inhumane production of beef products.