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RAISING CATTLE AND EATING MEAT: Rinderpest, Measles, and Mad Cow Disease

Jaap Goudsmit

in Viral Fitness: The Next SARS and West Nile in the Making

This chapter discusses diseases affecting livestock and their consequences. Topics covered include rinderpest, a deadly form of plague that can occur among domesticated cows, sheep, and goats; ... More

This chapter discusses diseases affecting livestock and their consequences. Topics covered include rinderpest, a deadly form of plague that can occur among domesticated cows, sheep, and goats; measles virus, and “mad cow disease” (bovine spongiform encephalitis (BSE)).Less

Mad Cow Disease and Englishmen: Dementia of Humans—Prions: Folding Protein Transmissible Diseases

Michael B. A. Oldstone

in Viruses, Plagues, and History: Past, Present, and Future

This chapter studies mad cow disease. In 1985–1986, bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or mad cow disease, was first identified in cattle of southern England, and within two years, over 1,000 ... More

This chapter studies mad cow disease. In 1985–1986, bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or mad cow disease, was first identified in cattle of southern England, and within two years, over 1,000 instances of infected cattle surfaced in more than 200 herds. Epidemiologic investigations indicated that the addition of meat and bone meal as a protein supplement to cattle feeds was the likely source of that infection. By 1993, cases of mad cow disease peaked at over 1,000 per week. In addition to controlling the BSE epidemic in cattle, procedures were established to gauge whether this disease was a human health problem and to safeguard the population from the potential risk of BSE transmission. As a defense measure, in 1990, a national Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) surveillance unit was established in the United Kingdom to monitor changes in the disease pattern of CJD that might indicate transmission of BSE to humans. Although CJD is the most common form of transmissible spongiform encephalopathies in humans, it is a rare disease with a uniform world incidence of about 1 case in 1 to 2 million persons per year.Less

Mismanaging Risk: The Madness of Cows

Keith Grint

in Fuzzy Management: Contemporary Ideas and Practices at Work

The previous chapter talked about two essential elements of leadership that were significantly dependent on the theoretical approach. The first was the extent of the elimination of uncertainty from ... More

The previous chapter talked about two essential elements of leadership that were significantly dependent on the theoretical approach. The first was the extent of the elimination of uncertainty from the appraisal system through considering objective approaches while the second involved the extent to which the theoretical perspective on organizational autonomy modifies the role given to leadership. While the uncertainty problem is conventionally viewed to be the concern of individual leaders, this chapter attempts to look into how the uncertainty problem may be taken on in terms of the utility of scientific knowledge. Since science may enable us to veer away from the Aristotelian binary of error and truth, this chapter explores the specific case of mad cow disease. Particularly, science may be utilized in dealing with ignorance and in establishing the foundation for managers to arrive at rational decisions.Less

What Lies Beyond a Confederal Europe?

Christopher Ansell and Rebecca Chen

in The State of the European Union Vol. 7: With US or Against US? European Trends in American Perspective

The institutional frictions between the Parliament and the Commission during the ‘mad cow’ crisis are emblematic of the dynamic, unfinished nature of the federal project for Europe. The EU still ... More

The institutional frictions between the Parliament and the Commission during the ‘mad cow’ crisis are emblematic of the dynamic, unfinished nature of the federal project for Europe. The EU still retains many of the qualities of an international organization, but has also developed a government-like institutional structure. This government is conventionally described as confederal because it is dominated by its member states, but in some respects, the EU is more federal than confederal. As the complexity of EU food safety regulation illustrates, this amalgam of intergovernmental, confederal, and federal features gives the EU its distinctive character.Less

Internet Activism Transforming Street Politics: The 2008 “Mad Cow” Candlelight Festivals and New Democratic Sensibilities

Jiyeon Kang

in Igniting the Internet: Youth and Activism in Postauthoritarian South Korea

In 2008 when President Lee Myung-bak proposed that South Korea resume the importation of U.S. beef – halted five years earlier over concerns about mad cow disease – candlelight protests again emerged ... More

In 2008 when President Lee Myung-bak proposed that South Korea resume the importation of U.S. beef – halted five years earlier over concerns about mad cow disease – candlelight protests again emerged at city centers. The significant presence of teenage girls at these protests soon established the “candle girl” as an iconic figure. Candle girls – literally teenagers carrying candles – became symbols marking the rise of a new generation of activists whose candlelight festivals incorporated irreverent parodies and performances, transferring the sensibility of the Internet to the streets. This convergence of the Internet and street protests exemplifies the distinct repertoire of the candlelight protest.Less

Risk Beliefs and Individual Rationality

W. Kip Viscusi

in Rational Risk Policy: The 1996 Arne Ryde Memorial Lectures

Risk beliefs often reflect systematic biases, such as the overestimation of small risks and underestimation of large risks. The prospective reference theory model explains these and other anomalies ... More

Risk beliefs often reflect systematic biases, such as the overestimation of small risks and underestimation of large risks. The prospective reference theory model explains these and other anomalies and in many instances predicts these patterns of behaviour. Precautionary behaviour is subject to a paradox since people will tend to undervalue marginal decreases in risk but will overvalue improvements that completely eliminate the risk. Risk ambiguity aversion, as reflected in the Ellsberg Paradox, affects public responses to dimly understood risks such as Mad Cow disease and many carcinogens. Many other biases in risk beliefs are evident, such as overreaction to risk increases, overestimation of risk decreases that eliminate the risk, and overestimation of highly publicized risks.Less

Success Turned Sour: From Maastricht to Mad Cow Disease

Stephen Wall

in A Stranger in Europe: Britain and the EU from Thatcher to Blair

The deal agreed in Maastricht was a great success for Britain and a personal success for Prime Minister John Major. However, this success was clouded by the bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or ... More

The deal agreed in Maastricht was a great success for Britain and a personal success for Prime Minister John Major. However, this success was clouded by the bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or mad cow disease, crisis in 1996. It was one of the unhappiest chapters in Britain's relationship with her partners. It led to a feeling among Britain's partners, subsequently reinforced by the government's approach to the Amsterdam Treaty, that perhaps even its commitment to European Union membership was in doubt. The BSE crisis had been slow to build up but sudden to break. The risk to cattle from feed made up of mashed-up sheep parts had been recognised and measures to ban the use of such feed put in place. But the enforcement of the ban had been very patchy and the extent of the disease among the British herd came to light belatedly and with devastating speed. The measures that the government took to tackle the crisis were an uneasy compromise between the scientifically necessary and the politically deliverable.Less

A Lesson in Wisdom from Mad Cows

Claude Lévi-Strauss

in We Are All Cannibals: And Other Essays

mad cow disease and the future of carnivorism

CJD: Risk Communication in a Healthcare Setting

David Pryer and Patricia Hewitt

in Risk Communication and Public Health

Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) is an incurable and ultimately fatal degenerative neurological disease. Sporadic (or ‘classical’) CJD appears across the globe, though fortunately it is very rare. In ... More

Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) is an incurable and ultimately fatal degenerative neurological disease. Sporadic (or ‘classical’) CJD appears across the globe, though fortunately it is very rare. In March 1996, researchers in the UK first reported a variant of the disease, vCJD. Unlike sporadic CJD, younger people were affected, and the research suggested that infection had resulted from exposure to bovine spongiform encephalopathy — BSE, or ‘mad cow disease’ — in cattle. This discovery followed repeated and fervent denials by government that BSE posed any conceivable risk to human health. Not surprisingly, vCJD has created a new theatre of interest in risk communication. This chapter presents a short historical summary to understand why this is so. It then considers the role of the CJD Incidents Panel in helping to manage the consequences of vCJD, and in communicating both to individuals and to wider audiences.Less

We Are All Cannibals

Claude Lévi-Strauss

in We Are All Cannibals: And Other Essays

cannibalism in traditional and modern societies

The Ordinariness of Barbarity

Élisabeth de Fontenay

in Without Offending Humans: A Critique of Animal Rights

Chapter 7 (The Ordinariness of Barbarity) portrays the vast extent of cruelty towards animals, from the slaughter of cows under the threat of mad cow disease to industrial methods of animal breeding ... More

Chapter 7 (The Ordinariness of Barbarity) portrays the vast extent of cruelty towards animals, from the slaughter of cows under the threat of mad cow disease to industrial methods of animal breeding and slaughter. It provides a coda to the book by reframing the need for rights to be attributed to animals.Less

Small Newspapers

Ron Seely

in A Field Guide for Science Writers

Some days, now that I have crested 50, I find myself surprised to be, of all things, a science reporter on a daily newspaper in a small but sophisticated city and immersed every day in a world of ... More

Some days, now that I have crested 50, I find myself surprised to be, of all things, a science reporter on a daily newspaper in a small but sophisticated city and immersed every day in a world of stem cells, radio-collared bald eagles, flakes of Martian meteorites, and strange deer diseases. I can't imagine a place I'd rather be at this point in my life, though sometimes the haphazard way I got here, the serendipitous nature of it all, makes my head spin—not to mention the fearful task of trying to make something called “proteomics” understandable for an audience that has maybe a minute and a half to read what I've written. After all, I made a terrible mess of the frog I was supposed to dissect in high school all those years ago. And trying to figure out exactly what Mendel was doing with all of those pea plants drove me nuts. Math? Well, suffice it to say that my problems with algebra and equations are what drove me to a career in journalism. Still, here I am, settled in Madison, Wisconsin, in the upper Midwest of America, carrying around business cards that identify me as science and environment reporter for the Wisconsin State Journal. In a recent, typical week, I researched and wrote a column about robotics, pounded out a quick news feature about why the human body gets cold in winter, made pesky phone calls to state officials about why they aren't enforcing the state's new pollution law, and churned out news briefs on everything from clouds of ionized hydrogen in the solar system to a pollution permit hearing for a local manufacturing plant. Between assignments, I had time to give a talk about science writing to a local high school biology class and to win one of the ongoing games of Scrabble in the cubicle at the newspaper where I make my workday home. Not a day goes by that I don't worry about losing this good job. That's because full-time science reporters on small to mid-sized daily newspapers in this country are an endangered species. Less

Infectious Diseases

Marilyn Chase

in A Field Guide for Science Writers

Every story of an infectious disease outbreak contains many stories, each illuminating a different aspect of this powerful intersection between people and medical science. There is the patient's ... More

Every story of an infectious disease outbreak contains many stories, each illuminating a different aspect of this powerful intersection between people and medical science. There is the patient's story, of a body under assault by microscopic invaders, and a struggle to recover and live. There is the germ's story, of how a bacterium or a virus spreads from its refuge in nature to invade the bodies of animals or people, traveling through the blood, settling in organs, and wreaking cellular havoc. There are the laboratory dramas, of masked or space-suited researchers growing and analyzing germs to identify, to characterize their habits, and finally to find the Achilles heel that enables an effective counterattack. There are the doctors' stories of grasping all available tools to diagnose and treat. When tools are lacking, it's a story about inventing new tools, at first crude and full of side effects, then later more sophisticated tools including targeted drugs and vaccines. There are tales of clinical trials, of researchers who partner with volunteers balancing hope of cure with risk of harm, which also contain undercurrents of ego and altruism. There are the company stories, of corporate officers who take these discoveries and gear up to test, manufacture, distribute, and—of course—profit from drugs or vaccines. There are the regulators' stories, of the Food and Drug Administration's attempts to balance the urgency of a green light for needed treatments with the mandate to uphold safety and meet the Hippocratic requirement to “First, do no harm.” And there are stories of political and financial motives here, as well. These perspectives—personal and political, social and financial—often clash. Some of the most compelling stories involve such conflicts. The global fight against AIDS is rife with clashes between scientific and social goals. One recent conflict is centered on the study of an AIDS treatment that might be used to prevent infection. The drug, called tenofovir, is being tested among people who are unable to or who choose not to avoid exposure to the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) by means of condom use, sexual abstinence, or fidelity to one partner who is uninfected. Less

One Foot In and One Foot Out, 1990–1997

Stephen Wall

in Reluctant European: Britain and the European Union from 1945 to Brexit

John Major had none of Thatcher’s reservations about German reunification and wanted to put Britain at the heart of Europe. But he faced growing Euroscepticism inside the Conservative Party. At ... More

John Major had none of Thatcher’s reservations about German reunification and wanted to put Britain at the heart of Europe. But he faced growing Euroscepticism inside the Conservative Party. At Maastricht, Major secured for the UK the right to opt out or, later to opt in, to the proposed European single currency. The significance of this opt out for the longer term British sense of detachment from the rest of the EU was not then obvious. The ratification of the Maastricht Treaty in the UK, and the Major government, both nearly foundered, when the UK was forced out of the Exchange Rate Mechanism in 1991. Europe became a toxic issue in the Conservative Party. Mad Cow Disease triggered a policy of non-cooperation by the UK with the rest of the EU. Major championed the enlargement of the EU to include the newly freed countries of eastern and central Europe.Less

Rhetorics of Dehumanization

Élisabeth de Fontenay

in Without Offending Humans: A Critique of Animal Rights

Chapter 4 (Rhetorics of Dehumanization) places the writing of Alphonse Toussenel, a 19th century Fourrierist whose most notable contributions were an anti-Semitic treatise on the “history of ... More

Chapter 4 (Rhetorics of Dehumanization) places the writing of Alphonse Toussenel, a 19th century Fourrierist whose most notable contributions were an anti-Semitic treatise on the “history of financial feudalism” and a book on “the spirit of the beasts,” in the context of the pseudo-science of physiognomy.Less

The Pathetic Pranks of Bio-Art

Élisabeth de Fontenay

in Without Offending Humans: A Critique of Animal Rights

Chapter 6 (The Pathetic Pranks of Bio-Art) is, as its title suggests, a scathing critique of Bio-Art. In Fontenay’s reading, Bio-Art abusively appropriates the legitimate concern for animal rights ... More

Chapter 6 (The Pathetic Pranks of Bio-Art) is, as its title suggests, a scathing critique of Bio-Art. In Fontenay’s reading, Bio-Art abusively appropriates the legitimate concern for animal rights and carelessly avoids the true ethical and political questions posed by genetic engineering.Less

Their Secret Elect

Élisabeth de Fontenay

in Without Offending Humans: A Critique of Animal Rights

Chapter 1 (Their Secret Elect) is an investigation of the moments when animals appear as a group or in more singular instances in the work of Jacques Derrida. Fontenay carefully suggests that in some ... More

Chapter 1 (Their Secret Elect) is an investigation of the moments when animals appear as a group or in more singular instances in the work of Jacques Derrida. Fontenay carefully suggests that in some of these instances, Derrida may over-generalize and thus elide certain anthropological specificities but praises his continued engagement with the animal question.Less

The Improper

Élisabeth de Fontenay

in Without Offending Humans: A Critique of Animal Rights

Chapter 2 (The Improper) is a wide-ranging critique of the ways the human exception has prevented the question of the philosophical status of animals from being addressed but ultimately argues for ... More

Chapter 2 (The Improper) is a wide-ranging critique of the ways the human exception has prevented the question of the philosophical status of animals from being addressed but ultimately argues for the necessity of maintaining its exceptionality.Less