Mad cow disease has arrived in the United States. The US of A is the world's largest exporter of beef and with countries quickly moving to temporarily suspend imports of American beef, the US cattle industry could be in very very big trouble. Should we worry? I do only because I will feel bad for the people who lose their jobs. On the other hand...it will be very interesting to see how this happened in the first place.

    Mad cow disease doesn't just happen. It's caused by feeding cows other cows. If you missed your junior high biology class, cows are herbivores. That means they only eat plant. But the beef industry, in its never ending quest for higher profits, thought it would be just peachy to feed cows the remains of other cows to lower their costs. It gets worse, folks. They didn't just feed cows other cows, they were indiscriminate about it. Madcow disease resides mainly in the spinal chord of a cow. To be infected, part of the spinal cord has to be ingested. How does a cow eat the spine of another cow? Because the feeders would just mash the remnants of other cows into mush and feed that to cows.  How do humans get infected? Same way usually. Baloney and other beef that no longer looks remotely like the real thing has been mashed. There has been a gradual change away from just taking the cow carcass and mashing it into a pulp, but it still happens.

    Which means that if the American beef industry has a wide spread outbreak, they have no one to blame but themselves. And yet, we'll all suffer. That is why regulation of these industries is needed. When short term profit is the principle motivation in business and not the public health, things like Mad cow disease are the result.