Lynette J. Dumble
In 1985, a mystery
disease now known as Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy [BSE or mad cow
disease] first appeared in a dairy cow from Kent, England. Within the space
of three years, the annual number of BSE-infected cattle in Britain rose to
731. By 1989, 400 new cases appeared each week. By 1992, 100 new cases
appeared daily. BSE subsequently spread to 15 other mainland European
countries, leading to the slaughter of five million cattle over the past 16
years.
The agent of the invariably fatal spongiform encephalopathies incubates in
animals and humans for a prolonged period of time before outward signs of
the infection surface: in cattle, on average, after 5 years. Human
spongiform encephalopathy [Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease or CJD] has a sporadic
incidence of less than one per million, but when occurring as a consequence
of contaminated surgical instruments or corneal transplants, or human
pituitary hormone injections to overcome short-stature and infertility, has
an incubation period ranging from as few as two to as many as thirty years.
Once symptoms appear in cattle, the brain already bears microscopic
cavities, leaving the cattle confused, trembling, and deprived of their own
feet to stand on. CJD-symptomatic humans also have gait problems, and over
varying periods of time are progressively robbed of their ability to hear,
see, and speak. Gone too is their understanding of written and spoken native
language.
Despite evidence that BSE may be the result of cattle exposure to
organophosphate pesticides, authorities have concluded that BSE arose from a
post-World War II British strategy adopted to increase the milk yield of
dairy herds. With total disrespect for animal integrity, cattle were turned
into carnivores via protein-enriched feed manufactured from rendered animal
carcasses, including those of scrapie-infected sheep. Subsequently, between
the years of 1985 and 1988, cattle were turned into cannibals when the
remains of BSE-infected cattle made their way into rendered animal feed.
Britain’s first move to halt the spread of BSE came only in 1988 when the
feeding of rendered animal remains to cattle was banned. A year later, while
remaining adamant that BSE-infected beef was harmless for humans, UK
authorities gathered the world’s leading CJD researchers to seek advice.
One, Laura Manuelides, Yale University physician and neuroscientist,
proposed that future BSE outbreaks could be avoided by the immediate cull of
infected herds. Britain’s attitude to the Manuelides solution was, in her
words, penny-wise, pound-foolish, and her solution dismissed because due
compensation of the herd owners was deemed unaffordable.
BORDERLESS BSE
Placing market profits ahead of public and animal welfare, Britain instead
set about globalizing the already tragic BSE disaster. First, an estimated
700,000 BSE-suspect cattle were passed fit for human consumption in
Britain. Next, the British Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAFF)
issued secret orders to civil servants to skip the 1990 Brussels designed
computer vetting of calves aimed at excluding BSE-infected animals from the
European food chain. As a consequence of MAFF’s sabotage, between 1990 and
1995, two million unvetted calves brought an unknown quantity of BSE-contaminated
veal to mainland Europe.
As the European market for rendered animal feed fell to zero by 1992,
Prosper de Mulder, Britain’s largest rendering company, spent the next four
years exporting 20,000 tons annually to Indonesia, Israel, Japan, Kenya,
Lebanon, Malta, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Taiwan and
Thailand. Belgium, the Netherlands and France followed suit, concentrating
imported British animal feed, and exporting it on to the Middle East and
North Africa, where, before being fed to cows, it was diluted back down with
locally produced animal feed. It wasn’t until 1996, when then-Prime Minister
John Majors publicly admitted that BSE had jumped the species barrier to
cause a novel variant of CJD [vCJD] in humans, that Britain finally banned
the export of rendered animal feed. Several mainland European countries
waited until January 2000 to halt the exportation of their varieties of
rendered animal feed.
British authorities admit to debating the propriety of exporting rendered
animal meal considered unfit for sale in Britain. In the end, the decision
was left to importing countries, the excuse being that responsibility
stopped with providing information about the BSE risk. In keeping with the
current practice of rich countries and transnational corporations’ dumping
of dangerous products in poorer countries, the European Union lifted bans on
export of BSE-suspect bovine products to Third World countries in 1996.
Post-1990, Britain exported 3.2 million live cattle to 36 countries.
Supposedly BSE-free, these exports have in fact already introduced mad-cow
disease to a number of non-European countries, including Canada, Oman and
the Falkland Islands. Other European countries also exported millions of
live cattle all over the globe, and in December 2000, BSE was discovered in
a three-year-old dairy cow exported from mainland Europe to Kuwait.
Britain was not alone in the duplicity which effectively globalized mad cow
disease. In September, 1996, the French newspaper Liberation revealed that
French official Gilbert Castille suggested back in 1990 that Britain be
asked not to publish its research results, saying "it would be better to
minimize BSE by practicing misinformation." Moreover, Guy Legras, head of
the European Commission’s agricultural directorate, also cautioned MAFF in
1990 of the financial repercussions and kept news of the BSE situation
invisible for 5 years.
BOUNDLESS IMPLICATIONS
Following the initial ten cases of vCJD linked to BSE-infected beef in 1996,
a further 90 humans fell prey to the disease by February 2001, the vast
majority being permanent or temporary residents of Britain. In contrast to
victims of sporadic CJD who are generally older than 60, all but one of the
vCJD victims has been aged less than 40, most in their 20s, and several in
their teens. However, a BSE-infected food chain amounts to far more than
steak and hamburger. Bovine-based products such as dairy products, pet food,
medical vaccines, health supplements, certain cosmetics and gelatin-enriched
confectionery are part and parcel of everyday lives.
Equally, the public health implications of BSE extend further than the
consumption of infected bovine materials. Laboratory experiments since the
1970s have shown that, compared with the blood route, the oral pathway is a
relatively inefficient means of transmitting these types of diseases from
one animal to another. British neuropathologist Helen Grant suggests that,
“vCJD victims are hitherto so young because, being children at the time of
their exposure to BSE, they were shedding teeth and the raw areas in their
gums enabled the organism to enter the bloodstream directly which shortened
their incubation period." Based on similar reasoning, vCJD may ultimately
claim fewer men than women since global traditions place more women than men
in the kitchen to risk knife injuries with BSE-suspect meat.
Additionally, BSE-infected beef consumers are likely living incubators of
vCJD. Like asymptomatic carriers of other blood-borne infections, e.g.
hepatitis and syphilis, carriers of the vCJD agent have the potential to
transmit infection by way of recycled surgical instruments, and blood and
organ donation. Overall, in the context of BSE-infected edibles, surgical
instruments, blood transfusions and organ transplants, a pandemic looms
which may well put HIV/AIDS in the shade. For Third World countries, the
message that the agent of vCJD/BSE may survive standard sterilization
techniques is daunting (Brown et al, 1990). Barely able to afford surgical
instruments for repeated reuse, the world’s poorest countries are likely to
find it difficult, if not impossible, to afford disposable instruments,
translating into a death sentence for many perhaps millions over time.
The Blair
Administration has doubled the previous estimate of BSE-related mortality in
humans, warning that vCJD deaths could number 250,000 and serving notice
that UK authorities are working with the hypothesis that BSE will kill one
in every 250 Britons. Nonetheless, the bemoaned multibillion-dollar clean up
of Europe’s BSE-related crises, may be far outweighed by the social and
environmental costs of BSE dumped in developing countries. In fact, from any
angle, the borderless and boundless BSE pandemic, manmade in Britain, is a
shameful indictment of a world smitten with market profits.
Dr. Lynette J.
Dumble is a medical and environmental scientist and the International Co-ordinator
of the Global Sisterhood Network. Visit the website of the Global
Sisterhood Network at: http//home.vicnet.net.au/~globalsn. Between the
years 1970 and 1998, Dr. Dumble held senior research and teaching
positions in surgery, and history and philosophy of science, at the
University of Melbourne, the University of Illinois in Chicago, and the
University of Texas in Houston. She has a major interest in women’s
health, and is the author of "Medical Misogyny" to be released by Zed
Books London in December, 2001.
References:
Brown, Paul, Liberski, Pawel, P., Wolff, Axel and Gajdusek, D. Carleton.
Resistance of scrapie infectivity to steam autoclaving after formalsehyde
fixation and limited survival after ashing at 360°C: Practical and
theoretical implications. Journal of Infectious Diseases 1990; 161:
467-472.
