What is Bovine spongiform encephalopathy, BSE, so
called mad cow syndrome?
It is a brain disease that affects bovines,
individuated for the first time in England in 1986.
Such disease is not provoked by either a virus or a bacterium. The
hypothesis focuses on a protein particle: prion, which accumulates in the
shape of brain plaques, and transforms normal proteins into multiple
infective copies thus leading to the disease.
How the infection began its course, and what has
been unleashed.
The hypothesis supposes that it all started with the
recycling of contaminated ovine tissues, transformed into flour for cattle
fodder.
How Bse affected man.
By eating infected meat. No therapies exist for a
disease which has an incubation period up to 15 years long.
Links:
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Parts to be avoided
Absolutely:
- Brain, gelatine, marrow, stuffing
and hamburgers
High risk:
- Intestine (used to sack sausages and
salamis), giblets such as glands and spleen.
Better renounce:
- Sausages (can contain bovine giblets),
liver, tripe and kidneys.
No problem:
- Each muscle-cut; loins
and steaks.
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Rules to follow
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On
meat labels today it is compulsory to express certain indications,
besides price and expiry date, about the place where the animal has
been slaughtered and sectioned. Then about the category (A for calf,
B for bull...), quality, fat rate. The origin (I for Italy, F for
France...) is compulsory since 2002, considering that calves
imported from abroad after three months are classified as Italian
meat. |
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We
can trust in the origins expressed only in the cases of biologic
farms or doc meat (Coalvi, Asprocarne, Cinque Erre, Bovinmarche). |
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The
selling prices represent for the consumers no security guarantee
whatsoever. |
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What's at stake with different meat.
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The
existence of scrapie in sheep is long known: a similar disease to
the mad cow which has never been transmitted to man. As it is not
possible to distinguish scrapie from Bse, it is advised not to eat
ovines coming from Great Britain, where scrapie is widely spread. |
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Even though fish and poultry are fed with animal flour, they're
meant to be safe, since Bse regards only mammals. In theory they
could host the prion; European Union sponsored researches in order
to figure it out. |
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Pigs do not get affected. How come? It could all be a simple
question of time, that is the incubation period might be longer than
life. Pigs, in fact, have a brief reproductive life, short enough
not to develop the disease. The experiments up to date, allegedly,
show no danger in eating pork. |
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Under accusation is mechanically boned meat (such procedure is
forbidden in Italy). The latter is used for fast restoration or
stuffing (hamburger or sausages). |
Some anti-stress answers
Let's have a laugh!! |
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