Comments on: Canada’s 17th BSE case discovered in six-year-old beef cow

By: Nancy

Nancy — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 18:09:22 +0000

Very glad to have found this article – thank you for continuing to pursue this type of story.

There’s something terribly wrong with our government’s priorities when strategies are implemented to bury information that might otherwise result in informed choice. Communication strategy my eye.

Sheri, likely you already know of Shiv Chopra. I bring to your attention this article by one of your colleagues on the east coast:
http://www.thecoast.ca/halifax/health-canadas-rendered-food-policies/Content?oid=1104725 .

May I suggest a collaboration between you for the good of all Canadians. Note: despite searches I found the latest report of BSE strangly missing from large national papers – at least those centered in my home province of Ontario. Thank goodness for regional reporting.

By: Paul

Paul — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 13:14:37 +0000

John:

My definition of spontaneous is: The prion disease occurred without the animal consuming feed contaminated by other damaged animal prions.

By: RKaiser

RKaiser — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 09:39:17 +0000

Could I suggest that “spontaneous” is the individual poisoning of animals due to heavy metal exposure and in the particular case of BSE, too much manganese and too little copper. As in the Mark Purdey theory.

I have to applaud you for your work as well Sheri and look forward to meeting up with you again in Red Deer on March 31st. Had a chat with Roy last night and asked him to pick you up on his way past Maple Crik. LOL

I’ve bin getting a few blast from fellow supporters of the Mark Purdey theory since I’ve jumped on the BSE Class Action band wagon myself and I would like to say that I still believe that Mark Purdey has things figured out.

However — proving Mark’s theory will take more time than I have left on this planet and I love my cows and my industry to much to wait. Thus we take the Feds (CFIA) to task on the theory that they support and the fact that they dropped the ball in their own little international sandbox. Should they bail and talk of spontaneous (their own definition of spontaneous) BSE; they are admitting ignorance either way.

The CFIA needs to be brought to task. These “button cops” not only allowed BSE to spread through Canada (if you believe the transmission theory) and have stuck their nose in trade issues by not allowing market access testing. I am personally proud to say that we have unprecedented health and safety standards in this country, but the collective ego that this has created in the CFIA is out of control.

Check into the “button cop” story Sheri. It’s gonna be a big one when we meet in Saskatoon in mid June for another BSE Class action rally….

All the best everyone
Randy Kaiser

By: John

John — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 15:48:51 +0000

Paul, it would be helpful to the discussion to learn the meaning of, or your understanding of, the term “spontaneous”.

By: Paul

Paul — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 08:14:45 +0000

Guidelines are different than policy or regulations. Guidelines are meant to be used with discretion of the regulators. They are not firm and are not law.

By: Sheri Monk

Sheri Monk — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 19:16:02 +0000

Retired now. And I just think maybe too closely adhered to OIE guidelines rather than independent thought and analysis.

By: Paul

Paul — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 04:05:25 +0000

The CFIA guy is a figure head then?

By: Sheri Monk

Sheri Monk — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 15:57:27 +0000

This latest probably wasn’t because of the age, but they will type the strain and know later. Our government treats both strains as the same because the OIE treats both strains the same, therefore, so do our trading partners. But to me, there is a massive difference, as there is to researchers. The LD50 is different, there is research happening to find out what the differences are in terms of transmission. Anyway, you have to ask the CFIA which strain it was, but spontaneous or Type H happens in older animals, as far as we know.

Canada has had one Type H (spontaneous) case and it was a Manitoban beef cow, charlais cross. She was born in 1989 or 1990 and died in 2006 – so a pretty old girl.

Reviewing my research, I wonder if there wasn’t another Type H case. There’s one I need to ask the CFIA id they typed it. When I talked to the CFIA BSE ramrod about the different types and the most recent research on them, he has no idea what I was talking about and just referred to what the OIE guidelines require.

By: Paul

Paul — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 14:58:17 +0000

Could not some of the cases have been spontaneous? Or does no one believe it happens spontaneously?

By: Sheri Monk

Sheri Monk — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 13:40:59 +0000

We won’t know for months. In fact, i don’t think they have the results yet of the suspected cause in the 16th case yet. But it’s been almost a year… I will look into that one.