Mad Cow Disease is in the news again after authorities detected
it in one dairy cow in California. A recent article points out how the beef industry reacted quickly to calm any
possible panic. I described the
potential for this kind of panic in my discussion of Global Warming (April 27,
2012) and called for moderation in our response to such news. This article points out that the rapid
response to the mad cow “crisis” was motivated by lessons learned from the pink slime
commotion (April 2, 2012) resulting in a public outcry and loss of jobs because
the industry misjudged the impact of media reporting on consumer behavior.
Another interesting article appeared immediately following
the announcement. It was intended to
calm people – admirable but unusual for the news media – but it was in a
subscription-only format on the Internet so I can’t provide a link. The reporter asked for comments from experts
at a large university in the Midwest.
The director of the animal disease diagnostic lab said, “This was one
isolated cow in California… It was a dairy cow, but studies have shown that BSE
isn't transmitted in milk… [T]his case poses no risk to people or other cattle.” A professor of agricultural economics emphasized
that it was an isolated cow that did not move into the food supply, and added,
“I believe it will not have any lasting impact [on the market] unless they find
more cows or other animals, or there is enough media attention that somehow
motivates groups in the United States to say that U.S. beef is not safe.”
I call attention to the last part of the comment. Have we become a nation of cattle ourselves - or antelope peacefully grazing on the plain
until the least sound of a twig breaking or a rustle of trees sends us into a
stampede? It appears that the moderation
that comes from perspective is so lacking that honest people who run legitimate
businesses providing valued service to society must always be on guard lest a
fiery news headline or the ranting of a well-meaning, but misinformed celebrity shuts them down. This can only happen
when the public behaves with a knee-jerk reaction to every new
announcement. This is not behavior strong
in perspective, and it does not serve us well in the long term.
The so-termed ‘mad cow disease’ emerged as a serious issue in the UK in the 1990s. The disease in cattle was a probable consequence of feeding herbivores the mashed-up brains of sheep. Here an infectious disease of sheep called scrapie, the result of a microscopic protein called a prion, infected the brains of cows causing the disease Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) in some cattle. A probable link was established from cow to people through infected beef, which in turn posed a risk to blood donation.
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