Beef Causes Mad Cow Mania?

Submitted by Sharon Hopkins on July 6, 2007

Eating meat requires that the animal it comes from is healthy and clean. If not then an unhealthy animal will surely cause complications for all those who consume such contaminated meat.

The same goes for cattle affected with mad cow disease. This disease, created quite a stir in the years 2003 and 2006, this disease is said to affect cows. It was also rumored to affect human and animals that ate beef from affected cows. For this reason each cow suspected of being ill was tested in labs for mad cow disease and send to laboratories for testing.

Though the scare created by mad cow disease caused beef consumption to drop considerably, there have not been any reports that this disease causes any illness to humans.

Scientist who found out about this disease and felt that there might be a cause for an illness for all those who consume mad cows have not still been able to provide any scientific evidence for this purpose.

Mad cow disease is caused because of building of abnormal proteins called prions which build inside brain of the cow and cause damage to it. It was also claimed that these prions can cause illness in humans called the nvCJD or new variant in Creutdz-Feldt Jacob disease. This was the human form of mad cow disease.

There has been very low number of cases allegedly caused due to mad cow disease though people were constantly consuming beef from cows infected with this disease from Great Britain.

Therefore, scientists now claim that there is a very small possibility of people being affected with this disease though the possibility cannot be taken as a zero.

Though there have been studies, the prions do not seem to grow anywhere when isolated from the cow, when transferred from an infected cow to a healthy cow, the prions did not seem to have any infection. Therefore, not strong scientific evidence has been given regarding mad cow disease. Though people are skeptical about this disease, governments across the world have taken enough care to ensure that no unhealthy cow is butchered to be eaten by humans and animals.

For all those who fear eating beef because of this disease can continue their favorite food, since there is a lack of evidence regarding this disease as well as there is enough screening to avoid sick cows being slaughtered for eating.

Mad cow disease has not yet affected humans.