Mad Cow Disease Outbreak?

Question

What happens if an outbreak of mad cow disease occurs (in cows)?

What is the economic social cost?

Answer 1

Moolah. Big moolah.

Answer 2

Millions of cattle were destroyed in England and Europe because of mad cow disease. Devastating economic losses to the whole country occurred.  

This was all caused by big agribusiness that thought it was just FINE to make LOTS of money and feed cattle  'feed' ---made with ground up dead cattle and offal  included as a inexpensive protein source.

CHEAP protein.  Unwanted cow lips, ears, fat, spinal tissue, brain tissue, eyeballs, bones, etc.



Big mistake.   Humans can also catch that disease from the cattle or by consuming meat from those cattle.  The human variant is difficult to assess, treat,  VERY slow developing and results in death.

If a cow is discovered to have that disease,  it must immediately be destroyed, and all cattle in proximity must also be destroyed.

Answer 3

Just wanted to point out that Donnie Darko is NOT CORRECT.

They have now found the prions which cause "mad cow" in the flesh itself of the cattle.

Since I'm in the agriculture sector, and good friends with a Vetrinarian, I tend to keep very much abreast of the latest animal diseases.

By the way, Mad Cow is not spread cow to cow.  So while they may (in the U.S.A.) quarentine and kill all the farmers cows, they do not have to.  They just need to trace that cows family lines, since she might have been infected in utero by her mother, or by the feedstuff on her birth farm.

Economic & social cost....it really depends on how bad the outbreak is.  Unfortunatly, the U.K. is going to be a huge "experiment" as everyone there who ate the infected beef ages.  

They may have a much greater rate of dementia there.  That will be terribly tragic.  Of course if too many people are affected, the results will be simply horendous as it will overwhelm their medical system.

~Garnet

Homesteading/Farming over 20 years

Answer 4

just want to point out that the only way for a human to get the disease is by consuming the brain of a cow.  mad cow disease does not effect the whole cow, just the brain.

Answer 5

An outbreak of Mad Cow Disease is devastating.  If just one cow comes down with the disease, every cow that the farmer has will have to be destroyed.  Many of his neighbor's cows that might have come in contact with the cow or his farm will be destroyed as well.  It will almost eliminate any monies coming in from exports for the whole nation because no other country will want to buy the country's beef.  The market for beef for the whole nation will be cut down greatly because the consumers will be afraid to buy beef.  It will take years to restore the consumes faith in beef, and even longer to restore the export market. Farmers are resilient, they have overcome similar disease losses in the past and they can recover from an outbreak of Mad Cow Disease, but it would be a long hard road to get over.

Answer 6

There is another theory as to the cause of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy or mad cow disease. It may be caused by an imbalance in manganese levels inthe body.  The link below explains the theory.  It's interesting reading.