Mad cow disease: the plague of the century

Introduction: Europe is plagued by the spread of BSE What lessons can other countries learn from it? Since the first case of BSE was found in England in 1986, 100 people have died of spongiform encephalopathy similar to BSE Some countries have unilaterally banned animal feed made of meat and bone meal and restricted the import of beef from France Fear of mad cow disease has brought consumer confidence to a near collapse across the continent In the UK, more than 177000 cattle have been confirmed to have mad cow disease, and the UK government has spent 140 million pounds to compensate farmers What's more worrying about mad cow disease is that it's still uncertain how it will be converted into the adult version of vCJD Although the outbreak of BSE has stabilized in the UK due to the ban on the use of animal feed, human related diseases have a long incubation period, which may be 20 years or longer This means that the number of human diseases is increasing To date, two vCJD patients have been confirmed in France and two in Germany are suspected of infection No one knows if vCJD will turn into a new plague David Byron of the European Health Commission cautioned that "mad cow disease should not be considered to have borders." Does this mean that BSE will spread to other parts of the world, or has it already? It's not impossible In July last year, the European Commission led a research project to classify the countries in the world according to the risk of being infected with BSE According to the report, the safest cattle in the world are those in Latin America, Australia, New Zealand and Norway; the number of cattle raised in the United States and Canada is the largest in the world, and it is believed that they are only affected by BSE At the edge of the border, in fact, the amount of beef imported from North America by the European Union is very small, not because of the fear of mad cow disease, but because the European Union refuses to use hormone fattening cattle Unfortunately, the European BSE crisis is largely due to bureaucracy Despite the clamour of some European countries to ban British beef, the European Commission's warning to avoid the spread of mad cow disease among their herds has been ignored A key recommendation is to stop using traditional beef and bone meal to feed cattle and other livestock, which is currently considered to be the main route of transmission of BSE France and Germany banned the use of the animal feed for cattle since 1990, but their request to ban it for other livestock was rejected by farmers As a result, it may cause cross infection and lead to new outbreaks Many European consumers are angry that it is too late to take strict measures A survey of BSE conducted by British authorities in October last year showed that the government did not pay enough attention to the risk of BSE when using scientific evidence to show that BSE might spread to humans When facing this kind of crisis, the government should be more honest with consumers to let them know the risk of mad cow disease It is believed that common food safety rules should also be established Recently, EU agriculture ministers agreed to use a common BSE quarantine mechanism, a step towards better cooperation The new European Food Authority, set up early last year, has also helped restore consumer confidence Food safety needs to break borders, because diseases have no borders (author:) share to feed Weibo share to: