Mad Cow Disease In OK

I don't mind saying how shocked I was to learn that there have been more than one reported case of CJD in OK then to find out that it is happening in other places around the country! Pathologists are refusing to test for it out of fear!! WTH?! Are they trying to hide this in the US?

TULSA, Okla.) May 19 - Tulsa's medical community is asking questions after some concerns a Green Country man may have died of mad cow disease, medically known as Variant CJD.

FOX23 first told you last month that a man was admitted to Saint John Medical Center with a mysterious illness. He died one week later.

After the story first aired, the man’s son called FOX23. It turns out his father was from Kellyville. He says his dad did die of CJD, which is often referred to as the human form of mad cow disease. And he may not be the only victim in that Creek County town.

Even though Dwight Davidson and Randy King both grew up in Kellyville, they didn’t know each other until now. They believe both their fathers contracted the same rare and devastating illness.

~snip~

The U.S. Department of Agriculture randomly tests cattle for mad cow disease but less than one percent of all cows that are slaughtered.

But inspectors do visually monitor every animal for symptoms. U.S. inspectors found three cases of mad cow within the past five years in Washington State, Texas and Alabama.

Some experts believe CJD may also come from eating meat from diseased animals like deer and elk. Randy and Dwight say their fathers both ate wild game.

~snip~

Randy and Dwight will never know if contaminated meat killed their fathers. The only way to know is with an autopsy, and they didn't get one.

Doctors say that happens because a lot of pathologists are afraid to perform the autopsies.

Doctor Myers says he ran into that problem. “I had arranged for a biopsy to be sent to Oklahoma City and the neuro-pathologist there refused to accept the specimen.”

Why? Because he was afraid it was CJD and didn't want to get infected.

http://www.fox23.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=4cdf1003-4989-40a2-b019-0d764c078fac&page=2

There is much more on this story at the link including a possible case in VT.

How can you get infected with CJD when doing an autopsy? That would be scary, I guess, but isn't there a way to do it without getting infected?

The Surveillance Center in Ohio specializes in researching diseases like CJD. The center sends out a letter every year asking doctors to perform autopsies if they suspect CJD.

The center will pay for the autopsy and will even send a pathologist to perform it. But the CJD Foundation says the message is not getting through, even though the tissue samples are critical in the hopes of finding a cure.

Doctors at the Surveillance Center say if there is a proven case of Variant CJD, they’ll be the first to know about it.

Right now researchers are testing a suspicious tissue sample. It's an autopsy from a Virginia woman who died from CJD in April.

They believe hers could be the first confirmed case of Variant CJD in the U.S. It could take a couple months to complete the testing.

http://www.fox23.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=4cdf1003-4989-40a2-b019-0d764c078fac&page=3 (Bolded by me)

They are willing to send one out to perform the autopsies, but no one is willing to take them up on the offer! At least, someone is trying to track it.

They need to get over the fear or get out of the profession. You take risks when you are in the medical field. Its just part of the job that you choose to accept when you go into that field. Health care professionals are exposed to all sorts of things you cant plan on. My friends Obgyn got squirted in the face with amniotic fluid when she was doing a check and my friends water popped.It wasnt pleasant and gross but its one of those things that happens sometimes.

My family stopped eating wild game since there was just too much deer tb.

How are they going to catch it in time to prevent its spreading if they are afraid to test and do autopsy's ?????

:waitasec::waitasec::waitasec:

So like just bury your head in the sand and ignore it??

Rather frightening, isn't it?! Yes! Only I would say they are burying OUR heads in the sand literally, Am! If they ignore it...it can't be happening in the US...only in the UK!

So sad. i sympathise greatly.

Britain suffered terribly and their beef export industry shut down immediately.

this is what authorities are trying to hide/avoid. the enormous financial disaster.

it all comes down to money.

but they must think of human health.

i don't believe there is not CJD in the states. and i don't believe every other country in the western world hasn't been infected either.

call me a cynic or whatever.

horrifying disease, which if not acknowledged and controlled will be truly devastating.

Bovine spongiform encephalopathy

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bovine_spongiform_encephalopathy

Doesn't this take years to show up? If no one is investigating, the public in the U.S. will never know until it's too late. I wonder if people in a person's family can catch it from them or if it's just through cutting through bone during autopsy and a dr. nicking themself.

Autumn2004 said:

They need to get over the fear or get out of the profession. You take risks when you are in the medical field. Its just part of the job that you choose to accept when you go into that field. Health care professionals are exposed to all sorts of things you cant plan on. My friends Obgyn got squirted in the face with amniotic fluid when she was doing a check and my friends water popped.It wasnt pleasant and gross but its one of those things that happens sometimes.
My family stopped eating wild game since there was just too much deer tb.

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I agree. However, I smell something fishy with this story of refusal to accept tissue for fear of infection from it. We send our CJD tissue to the National Prion Disease Pathology Surveillance Center at Case Western. link here
They don't seem particularly scared of the tissue, and neither are the neurosurgeons and pathologists who have to acquire the specimen. Since there is no approved sterilization technique, the whole case set from a biopsy of a living patient has to be disposed of. We keep one-use kits for this after a few times of having to ditch 10K worth of instruments.

C6

It might be something else, many things are hidden to prevent panic.

txsvicki said:

Doesn't this take years to show up? If no one is investigating, the public in the U.S. will never know until it's too late. I wonder if people in a person's family can catch it from them or if it's just through cutting through bone during autopsy and a dr. nicking themself.

Click to expand...

Try this link to PubMed and type in "prion transmission"
to see how little we really know about transmission of these diseases.

oooooooh, scary scary. this is why i stopped eating ground meat years ago.. who knows what's in that stuff. some actual meat, and a whole lot of other stuff. and after the last mad cow scare a while back, our beloved govt tells us,, 'everyone calm down, it's perfectly safe!' YEAH right. and fast food?? ...no freaking way.
the only red meat i consume is what i can SEE and inspect for myself,, that is raised on a small (preferably local) farm, where they treat their animals with respect and don't force them to cannibalize each other and whatnot. you mess with mother nature too much, she's gonna come back to bite you...!

reb said:

oooooooh, scary scary. this is why i stopped eating ground meat years ago.. who knows what's in that stuff. some actual meat, and a whole lot of other stuff. and after the last mad cow scare a while back, our beloved govt tells us,, 'everyone calm down, it's perfectly safe!' YEAH right. and fast food?? ...no freaking way.
the only red meat i consume is what i can SEE and inspect for myself,, that is raised on a small (preferably local) farm, where they treat their animals with respect and don't force them to cannibalize each other and whatnot. you mess with mother nature too much, she's gonna come back to bite you...!

Click to expand...

Us too! It's rare for us to eat beef anymore, and I certainly won't buy ground beef at the market! This is why.

exactly. as i said, i wouldn't touch the ground up stuff with a 10-foot pole. (except for bison meat from small local farms). i want to SEE that it is muscle, and not nerve tissue (brain and spinal cord)....!! yuck! also small farms are usually more conscientious and not making the cows eat cattle feed containing OTHER COWS.... which truly an unholy and sick practice. cows do not want to be cannibals..! but the giant corporate slaughterhouses force them to be! that's evil!!!! plus the fact that it sometimes takes many years to incubate and develop.... creepy. just not worth it. i don't want to die from a brain full of spongy holes.

from http://www.cigna.com/healthinfo/tu6533.html
What is mad cow disease?

Mad cow disease is a fatal neurological disease that slowly destroys the brain and spinal cord (central nervous system) of cattle. It also is known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE.
Can people get mad cow disease?

People cannot get mad cow disease. But in rare cases they may get a human form of mad cow disease called variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) if they eat nerve tissue (the brain and spinal cord) of cattle that were infected with mad cow disease. Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease is a fatal condition that destroys the brain and spinal cord.
There is no evidence that people can get mad cow disease from eating muscle meat—which is used for ground beef, roasts, and steaks—or from consuming milk or milk products. People who develop vCJD cannot spread the disease to other people through casual contact.

Amraann said:

How are they going to catch it in time to prevent its spreading if they are afraid to test and do autopsy's ?????

:waitasec::waitasec::waitasec:

So like just bury your head in the sand and ignore it??

Click to expand...

I don't blame the docs who don't want to do the autopsies...They're not set up with the necessary biohazard equipment or training to contain it.

Follow up in the media:
(TULSA, Okla.) June 17 - An Oklahoma family is dealing with a mysterious and deadly disease. This is a follow up to a story we first told you about last month.

One type of a disease known as CJD is the human form of Mad Cow disease. It's considered rare, but since our story aired we’ve gotten dozens of e-mails and phone calls and one of our viewers who has a brother diagnosed with some form of CJD.

~Snip~

There are two forms of CJD, classic and variant. Both have similar symptoms and the same fatal outcome.

The difference is how they’re contracted. With classic CJD, most of the time doctors don’t know how it’s contracted, but a small percentage is genetic or from medical equipment.

Variant CJD comes from eating tainted meat. Although it’s killed 200 people worldwide since 1996, in the U.S. there’s never been a proven case of variant CJD.

If Donnie has variant CJD, his would be the first case in America. But the only way to know for sure is through an autopsy.

http://www.fox23.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=a687aebe-bf26-4ec6-baf2-407b42e7fad2&rss=77

SeriouslySearching said:

Follow up in the media:
(TULSA, Okla.) June 17 - An Oklahoma family is dealing with a mysterious and deadly disease. This is a follow up to a story we first told you about last month.

One type of a disease known as CJD is the human form of Mad Cow disease. It's considered rare, but since our story aired we’ve gotten dozens of e-mails and phone calls and one of our viewers who has a brother diagnosed with some form of CJD.

~Snip~

There are two forms of CJD, classic and variant. Both have similar symptoms and the same fatal outcome.

The difference is how they’re contracted. With classic CJD, most of the time doctors don’t know how it’s contracted, but a small percentage is genetic or from medical equipment.

Variant CJD comes from eating tainted meat. Although it’s killed 200 people worldwide since 1996, in the U.S. there’s never been a proven case of variant CJD.

If Donnie has variant CJD, his would be the first case in America. But the only way to know for sure is through an autopsy.

http://www.fox23.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=a687aebe-bf26-4ec6-baf2-407b42e7fad2&rss=77

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There is much the public really don't know.

and it is all down to profit, IMO.

I do know a bit about the testing. A friend retired from having a domestic elk and buffalo business. He sold some of his herd at the exclusive wild animal auction. His prize bull, he purchased for $10,000. His herd was carefully innoculated. I know as we helped him take the calves through the multitude of gates and chutes to do it. He allowed hunters to shoot from the truck only one. He always informed them they could not take the head. It must stay there. They could have the rack, but the head was sent immediately to CSU to have the brain autopsied and tested for the disease, by Colorado law.

The US needs to implement the ID system that follows cattle from cradle to grave. I believe it's implemented in Canada. I know that cattle coming into here are shipped with in a "sealed" trailer. We were eating with a friend one day and he got the call to come back to his feed lot as the shipment arrived and the vet was on the way as well as the brand inspector. The seal could only be broken and the cattle removed under this condition. Massive paperwork always followed.

The beef industry has major influence in the USA. It is right up there with the oil companies in some states. Implementing procedures to protect us are costly and deemed unneccessary. Poppycock!!

I am not feeling safer hearing stories of how people are being told not to tell the public. This is only our state which I might add has a huge cattle industry. What is going on across the country involving this disease?

BarnGoddess said:

I do know a bit about the testing. A friend retired from having a domestic elk and buffalo business. He sold some of his herd at the exclusive wild animal auction. His prize bull, he purchased for $10,000. His herd was carefully innoculated. I know as we helped him take the calves through the multitude of gates and chutes to do it. He allowed hunters to shoot from the truck only one. He always informed them they could not take the head. It must stay there. They could have the rack, but the head was sent immediately to CSU to have the brain autopsied and tested for the disease, by Colorado law.

The US needs to implement the ID system that follows cattle from cradle to grave. I believe it's implemented in Canada. I know that cattle coming into here are shipped with in a "sealed" trailer. We were eating with a friend one day and he got the call to come back to his feed lot as the shipment arrived and the vet was on the way as well as the brand inspector. The seal could only be broken and the cattle removed under this condition. Massive paperwork always followed.

Click to expand...

This is reassuring, BG.