Hallmark/Westland and the Danger of BSE
When an undercover videographer from the Humane Society caught workers at the Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing Co. using forklifts and other inhumane practices to send cattle to slaughter, the attention of the American public was outraged and led to the largest recall of beef in United States history. The USDA recall was based on the inhumane practices of the company and the violation of the “Prohibition of the Use of Specified Risk Materials for Human Food and Requirements for the Disposition of Non-Ambulatory Disabled Cattle” rule.
The recall affected more than 140 million pounds of beef, a large portion of which was used in the National School Lunch program. To recall such a large number of products and to ensure the safety of the nation’s children must surely have been grounded due to some major risk factor. Although inhumane treatment of animals is an egregious act, no known diseases or risk factors are connected with it. However, the introduction of non-ambulatory cattle into the food supply poses a very significant health risk.
Non-ambulatory cattle, or “downer” cattle, are those which for some biological or other reason cannot stand. The USDA prohibits the slaughter of these cattle for use in the food supply due to their correlation with Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE), more commonly known as “mad cow disease.” It has been shown that most cattle that have BSE are non-ambulatory, so it is thought that by restricting the slaughter of non-ambulatory cattle, BSE will be prevented from entering the food supply.
The prevalence of BSE, however, is quite rare in the United States. The USDA test around 40,000 cattle a year for the disease, and so far only a handful have been detected. The USDA even tests more cattle than suggested by the World Animal Health Organization. Since BSE has been tracked, more than 95% cases have been in the United Kingdom. If the disease is so rare in America, why go to all the trouble of protecting the food supply? Why is BSE so dangerous?
BSE is a prion disease, in the same category as scrapie in goats, and Creutzfeld-Jacob disease in humans. BSE in humans is also thought as a variant version of Creutzfeld-Jacob disease. A prion is not a typical virus, in fact it is not a virus at all. A prion is an infectious protein in the brain that affects normal proteins in the brain. The normal version of the protein, PrPc, is found on the surface of neurons and is involved in synaptic functioning. The prion is a modified version of PrPc known as PrPsc. When PrPsc comes in contact with the normal PrPc protein, the prion refolds the normal protein, turning the normal protein into a prion.
Since prions are found in the brains of cattle, meat that has been separated from the head should not contain any prions. However, certain practices that vaporize brain matter may cause the spread of the infectious proteins. The only way for prions to spread to humans is through consuming the prions. The human version of mad cow disease is characterized by a loss of motor control, dementia, paralysis, and pneumonia, followed by death. There is no way to treat mad cow disease in either cattle or humans, and it is always fatal.
Therefore, preventing the spread of BSE is very important. The only way to detect BSE in cattle is through an autopsy, with no way to test live animals. However, with the correlation to non-ambulatory cattle, the USDA has set up measures to protect against BSE. By restricting the slaughter of non-ambulatory cattle and by prohibiting the contamination of meat with specific risk materials (such as brain matter), the USDA hopes to keep the prevalence of BSE in the United States low.
Much scientific research is being devoted to understanding BSE and other prion diseases. There is still much to know about how the infectious proteins change normal proteins and how to detect the disease in live animals. New technology is being developed to have a reliable blood test for live animals and humans alike. A new study by Harold G. Craighead describes a device called a nanomechanical resonator array. The device detects the binding of prions in the brain and could lead to a reliable test for detecting BSE.
The dangers of BSE and the inhumane practices of Hallmark/Westland have brought many issues to light in the world of food safety. The USDA has taken a strong stance against the company by announcing the largest recall to date, and hopefully will do nothing but strengthen their policies for preventing the transmission of BSE to humans. The recall has also sparked interest into the area of prion research, and only more research and development will help to prevent this dangerous disease in the future.
All information in this article was found from the following sites:
http://www.fsis.usda.gov/PDF/HallmarkWestland_QAs.pdf
http://www.fsis.usda.gov/PDF/Recall_005-2008_Release.pdf
http://www.microbiologybytes.com/virology/Prions.html
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/03/080303093549.htm