A friend of mine who raises cattle forwarded the below e-mail to me concerning Mad Cow disease and I thought I would share it in case anyone out there is concerned about the recent events.

Cheers!
Bill R-4581
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Here is an open letter from an OSU vet concerning the MAD COW DISEASE found in Washington state. Like many rural people our economy in Northcentral Kansas depends on the cattle industry. Here is the statement:

Most of you know that I am a large animal veterinarian in a rural community. I found out early this evening that the United States has just discovered it's very first case of Mad Cow disease. After checking with authorities to confirm the situation, I have spent most of the evening on the phone with clients.

I have several friends who are veterinarians in Canada. I have spoke with them often. This problem just devastated the rural areas of Canada. Feed stores, trucking firms, order buyers, veterinarians, even local banks and car dealerships were greatly affected. Much of Oklahoma is rural plus a high percentage of OSU graduates are involeved with the cattle industry in some way. This is a serious problem.

I guess what I want to do most with this post is to alleviate fears and most importantly, rumors. My statement to you, fellow OSU fans, is please do not panic or fall into media hype on this subject. The chance for human infection in this country is so small I don't even have enough zeros to put behind a decimal to quantitate it. Whole muscle cuts like steaks, roasts, and briskets from young fed beef animals is 100% SAFE. PEOPLE ONLY GET INFECTED FROM EATING BRAIN OR NEURAL TISSUE FROM AN INFECTED ANIMAL. Fortunately, this is not a staple item in American diets. Effective barriers will be put in place to make our beef even safer.

I can tell you that this event will not make myself or any of my family members change their eating habits. We will still eat American beef. Unfortunately, great damage will be done. Beef prices will drop 30 tp 40 %. Now to you as consumers, that will be a benefit. But to my clients, that will be below the cost of production and will force many of them to go out of business. It will be a GREAT albatross to the economy of a predominately rural state like Oklahoma.

I am already working with several groups to help negate the severe losses that we expect to see. I am afraid it will be like cleaning up after an earthquake or a tornado. For right now, I would just like for all of you to do your best to support the beef industry and keep eating meat. The only possible source of infection might be from brain or neural tissue or ground beef from and ELDERLY animal. This disease has NEVER been seen in animals under 20 months of age which is where the majority of ALL steaks and whole muscle cuts come from in this country.

I will answer any questions as honestly and forthrightly as I can. I don't feel like this will be as big a problem here in Oklahoma as it will be on the east and west coast or in the larger cities. Those people are far removed from our type of culture and tend to be affected by trendy news stories. Please help me educate them when possible.

I really do not know how to end this post other than to restate how saddened I am by these events and to encourage you to ask questions and get better educated on this extremely rare disease. Fell free to ask any question you might have.