Mad Cow's Revenge?

Stardate 4148.5

When a Canadian born cow was found to contain BSE (Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathry) several years ago, the US all but barred any imports of Canadian beef despite the fact that Canadians test a much higher percent of cows than they themselves do (probably 10 or 20 times the amount actually). In fact, Japan tests 100% of their cattle.

Now, it would seem that there is a new case of Mad Cow Disease in the States, and this time, it's looking to be one of their own. Not sure what to say about it now. Except that maybe we could sell them some cows for double the price. The US closing the borders to Canadian beef all but destroyed the Albertan Cattle and Beef industry. I won't bother trying to quote numbers about how much the industry lost, but apparently, we Albertans just don't eat enough steaks and burgers with all of our beer to keep the farmers afloat.

Well now maybe we can get some back. I daresay, we had better not import ANY beef from the US at all... which we probably do. Taiwan has renewed it's ban on US beef imposed in 2003 when the Canadian born US cow was found to be mad. Japan has yet to lift it's ban, and most likely will not.

Mad cow disease -- medically known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE -- kills brain cells and leaves spongy holes behind. A form of the disease in people is variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. It has been linked to the consumption of contaminated meat. The disease has killed about 150 people worldwide, mostly in Britain.