Mad Cow Disease Hits Home

August/September 2005
Nancy Smith 
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Feedlot production of beef relies on many practices that grass-fed beef producers reject.
BRIAN PRECHTEL/COURTESY USDA ARS
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The first U.S. case of mad cow, also called BSE or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, was confirmed in December 2004 in Washington state, 15 years after Great Britain began destroying 3.7 million cattle because of an epidemic of the disease.

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Scientists think animals develop the always-fatal mad cow, which causes them to stagger, hence the name, by eating feed containing brains, spinal cords or central nervous system tissues of other infected animals.

According to the USDA, the risk of humans contracting the disease by eating U.S. beef is extremely low, but consumer groups say the agency is not doing enough to protect the public.

To read more about this ongoing issue, go to the Organic Consumers Association, the Center for Science in the Public Interest or Global Resource Action Center for the Environment (GRACE).
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