I warned you about those slaughterhouses...
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Just when you might've thought it was safe to go back into the supermarket meat department comes this report from Taiwan: "Thousands of Taiwanese took to the streets of Taipei (November 14) to protest the government's decision to lift a six-year ban on imports of some kinds of beef from the United States. Activists demanded a trade pact with the United States be renegotiated to prohibit some cuts of beef believed to cause mad cow disease."
Forgotten, but not gone, bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) earned the nickname "mad cow disease" thanks to the invidious symptoms presented in affected cattle, e.g. staggering, tremors, involuntary muscle spasms, bewilderment, hypersensitivity to auditory and tactile stimuli, and other examples of seemingly "mad" behavior. It is but one of several forms of transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE).
BSE is the stuff of pulp science fiction novels or doomsday sermons. An invariably fatal disease wrought by man's own hubris, disseminated by an infectious agent impervious to all forms of neutralization. No treatment, no cure, not even a test that can be conducted on the living. The opportunistic pathogens find a home in farm animals, ripping sponge-like holes in their brains until they go "mad." Can they jump species to be silently spread among humans via their own dinner tables? Could it be that the most lethal weapon in the twenty-first century human arsenal is the fork?
Keep reading to learn 8 Reasons Why We Should Still be Concerned About Mad Cow Disease.
