MADCOW
Brains
as feed
Mad cow disease is thought to have originally come from sheep infected
with scrapie, and contracted by cows who ate feed made from -- among
other things -- sheep's brains or spinal tissue. A standard practice
in the feed industry, carcasses from sheep, cows, chickens and pigs
are boiled, ground and mixed into feed for those animals. Sheep brains
and spinal tissue infected with scrapie were fed in this way to cows,
and when they died their infected brain or spinal tissue was spread
to other cows. Humans were infected through eating cow brain or spinal
tissue via hamburgers, hot dogs, and sausages.
In the U.S., feed
containing brains and spinal tissue has been banned since 1979 from
being fed to cattle or sheep (but not to pigs or chickens). Despite
the ban, food mills have not always been careful to adhere. McDonald's,
wanting to avoid revisiting its European losses, is apparently demanding
stricter procedures in this area.
