Two All Beef Patties
July 2nd 2009 19:05
A week ago, the news agency Reuters reported in an article, “Risk of mad cow disease from farmed fish?,” that farmed fish fed the unwanted remains from slaughtered cattle may be able to pass on mad cow disease to humans. Scientists believe that Creutzfeldt Jakob disease is the human form of the disease.
After reading the article, I was bothered, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on what was bothering me. Was it the fact that farmed tilapia, catfish, shrimp and salmon would develop their pallets for Big Macs®? Was it the fact that feeding cow leftovers to animals used for human consumption (including other cows) in the US is banned, yet it’s OK to feed it to fish grown outside the US? Was it the fact that some of the fish feed is consumed by wild fish, and those fish could eventually pass through the food chain and be consumed by some unfortunate human, who, decades later, might find him/herself without a brain? Or, was it the statement, “The risk of transmission of mad cow disease to humans who eat farmed fish "would appear to be low," the scientists emphasize, because of perceived barriers between the species, but that's no guarantee that it can't happen.”
Of course transmission between species can happen. The last time I looked, cows did not look like any women I’ve ever seen. They’re a different species. They get mad cow disease and we get Creutzfeldt Jakob disease, and we both get these brain wasting diseases from the same thing, a protein called a prion. Although prions may only be able to infect and cause death in mammals, no one knows if other non-mammal species can carry the protein to a mammalian host. The same thing happens with heavy metals. Small aquatic creatures concentrate heavy metals like lead, mercury and cadmium in their bodies; these substances are highly toxic to humans. The creatures are eaten by larger creatures, which are in turn eaten by larger fish, which are eaten by the fish we, mammals, a different species, eat. Along the way to our mouths, the metals are increasingly concentrated until they reach toxic concentrations to us if we consume too much sea food (remember the warnings to pregnant women about tuna and mercury?). Who’s to say that the same thing can’t happen with prions?
The article states that “the incubation period of these diseases may last for decades.” Therefore, it might be impossible to tie any future cases of Creutzfeldt Jakob disease to farm raised seafood fed cow parts. I would like to suggest that we have to weigh the benefits of the “omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids on the heart and brain” against the prions on the brain. We would get an immediate benefit from the omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids on the heart and brain, possibly enabling us to live longer, maybe even break the mystical 79 year average life span barrier. On the other hand, depending on when you started eating farmed salmon, you might not know you’ve broken the 79 year barrier if you don’t have a brain left.
The USDA solution to preventing mad cow disease from passing into the human population is to slaughter all cattle young, before they have a chance to develop the disease, and ban the sale of spinal and central nervous tissues for human consumption. Now, that doesn’t mean young cattle don’t carry the disease; it just means that they are too young to have developed enough prions to show any symptoms. So, what about all of us who have consumed all of the old cattle before they were banned, and who are still consuming young cattle and farmed seafood? Well, you can stop consuming farmed seafood because, 1) even if they stop feeding the farmed fish cow parts, they will find some other cheap, disgusting thing to feed them that will eventually prove disastrous to humans, 2) uneaten fish food pollutes the oceans, 3) they feed farmed fish antibiotics and hormones to make them grow faster and ward off diseases caused by factory farming (which causes humans to become infected with antibiotic resistant diseases and wildlife to suffer mutations when antibiotics and hormones pollute the natural ecosystems), and 4) farm fish escape in huge numbers, decimating the natural populations by mating with them.
As for me, I’ll continue to consume wild caught salmon and Whoppers®; at my age, I’m interested in knowing if I’ll know which will win out: omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids on the heart and brain against the prions on the brain. If it’s prions, how will I know?
After reading the article, I was bothered, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on what was bothering me. Was it the fact that farmed tilapia, catfish, shrimp and salmon would develop their pallets for Big Macs®? Was it the fact that feeding cow leftovers to animals used for human consumption (including other cows) in the US is banned, yet it’s OK to feed it to fish grown outside the US? Was it the fact that some of the fish feed is consumed by wild fish, and those fish could eventually pass through the food chain and be consumed by some unfortunate human, who, decades later, might find him/herself without a brain? Or, was it the statement, “The risk of transmission of mad cow disease to humans who eat farmed fish "would appear to be low," the scientists emphasize, because of perceived barriers between the species, but that's no guarantee that it can't happen.”
Of course transmission between species can happen. The last time I looked, cows did not look like any women I’ve ever seen. They’re a different species. They get mad cow disease and we get Creutzfeldt Jakob disease, and we both get these brain wasting diseases from the same thing, a protein called a prion. Although prions may only be able to infect and cause death in mammals, no one knows if other non-mammal species can carry the protein to a mammalian host. The same thing happens with heavy metals. Small aquatic creatures concentrate heavy metals like lead, mercury and cadmium in their bodies; these substances are highly toxic to humans. The creatures are eaten by larger creatures, which are in turn eaten by larger fish, which are eaten by the fish we, mammals, a different species, eat. Along the way to our mouths, the metals are increasingly concentrated until they reach toxic concentrations to us if we consume too much sea food (remember the warnings to pregnant women about tuna and mercury?). Who’s to say that the same thing can’t happen with prions?
The article states that “the incubation period of these diseases may last for decades.” Therefore, it might be impossible to tie any future cases of Creutzfeldt Jakob disease to farm raised seafood fed cow parts. I would like to suggest that we have to weigh the benefits of the “omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids on the heart and brain” against the prions on the brain. We would get an immediate benefit from the omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids on the heart and brain, possibly enabling us to live longer, maybe even break the mystical 79 year average life span barrier. On the other hand, depending on when you started eating farmed salmon, you might not know you’ve broken the 79 year barrier if you don’t have a brain left.
The USDA solution to preventing mad cow disease from passing into the human population is to slaughter all cattle young, before they have a chance to develop the disease, and ban the sale of spinal and central nervous tissues for human consumption. Now, that doesn’t mean young cattle don’t carry the disease; it just means that they are too young to have developed enough prions to show any symptoms. So, what about all of us who have consumed all of the old cattle before they were banned, and who are still consuming young cattle and farmed seafood? Well, you can stop consuming farmed seafood because, 1) even if they stop feeding the farmed fish cow parts, they will find some other cheap, disgusting thing to feed them that will eventually prove disastrous to humans, 2) uneaten fish food pollutes the oceans, 3) they feed farmed fish antibiotics and hormones to make them grow faster and ward off diseases caused by factory farming (which causes humans to become infected with antibiotic resistant diseases and wildlife to suffer mutations when antibiotics and hormones pollute the natural ecosystems), and 4) farm fish escape in huge numbers, decimating the natural populations by mating with them.
As for me, I’ll continue to consume wild caught salmon and Whoppers®; at my age, I’m interested in knowing if I’ll know which will win out: omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids on the heart and brain against the prions on the brain. If it’s prions, how will I know?
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