Health of Live stock and it effect on the Envionment

Livestock Health

            Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) is a transmissible, neurodegenerative, fatal brain disease found in cattle. BSE first came to the attention of the scientific community in November 1986 in the United kingdom, when it first appeared in a cattle and thus became a newly-recognized form of neurological disease. Studies conducted in the UK suggest that the source of BSE was cattle feed prepared from bovine tissues, which is basically brain and spinal cord tissue. BSE affects the brain and spinal cord of cattle. The nature of the BSE agent is still a matter of debate. According to the prion theory, the agent is composed largely, if not entirely, of a self-replicating protein, referred to as a prion. Between November 1986 and November 2002, 181 376 cases of BSE were confirmed in the UK. Through the years UK has done a variety of things to prevent the BSE prion from showing up again. Their efforts include banning the use of ruminant proteins in the preparation of animal feed, introducing a total feed ban which includes sales, and banning products such as tallow and gelatin derived from bovine tissues. However, in 1999 the European Union lifted the ban for meat fulfilling specific requirements; for example, de-boned beef from animals from farms where there have been no cases of BSE. Cattle are continuously monitored for BSE and BSE is decreasing in the UK. The number of reports of BSE in the UK began to decline in 1992 and has continuously declined year by year since then. New monitoring programs using newly developed tests for the diagnosis of BSE in dead and slaughtered cattle have been introduced throughout the world.
               Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) is a rare and fatal human neurodegenerative condition. As with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, vCJD is classified as a Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy because of characteristic spongy degeneration of the brain and its ability to be transmitted. vCJD is a fairly new disease that was first described in March 1996. Before the identification of vCJD, CJD was recognized to exist in only three forms, sporadic cases, familial and iatrogenic. vCJD is strongly linked to exposure, through food, to a TSE of cattle called Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy. From October 1996 to November 2002, 129 cases of vCJD have been reported in the United Kingdom six in France and a few more in other countries. The first person to develop symptoms of what turned out to be vCJD became ill in January 1994. Most people who have developed vCJD have lived in the UK.  Early in the illness, patients usually experience psychiatric symptoms, which most commonly take the form of depression or, less often, a schizophrenia-like psychosis. Unusual sensory symptoms, such as "stickiness" of the skin, have been experienced by half of the cases early in the illness. Neurological signs, including unsteadiness, difficulty walking and involuntary movements, develop as the illness progresses and, by the time of death, patients become completely immobile and mute. vCJD is strongly linked with exposure to the BSE agent. BSE is a TSE affecting cattle and was first reported in the UK in 1986. Since that year, about 181 376 cases have been reported in the UK. The  route of exposure was through bovine-based food, although infectivity is mainly found in the brain and spinal cord of clinically ill animals. Due to the linkage between vCJD and BSE, the British government made BSE a notifiable disease in June 1988. Shortly afterwards, a statutory ban on the feeding of protein derived from ruminants (e.g. cattle, sheep and goats) to any ruminant was introduced. The use in the food chain of bovine offals considered to pose a potential risk to humans was also banned in the UK in 1989. 
                   As one researches the out break of the BCE prion, more commonly known as mad cow disease, they might wonder how industries thought that giving an herbivore animal meat products to consume would result in a good outcome. The thought may even evoke disgust. The reason why animal meat was given to cattle was to increase their weight and growth rate. Fortunately this practice is no longer popular but was replaced by hormones and antibiotics such as Oestradiol, Progesterone and Testosterone—and three synthetic—Zeranol, Trenbolone, and Melengestrolused are used to incease the growth rate of cattle cause many problems in humans and the environment. The Committee of scientist questioned whether hormone residues in the meat of "growth enhanced" animals and can disrupt human hormone balance, causing developmental problems, interfering with the reproductive system, and even leading to the development of breast, prostate or colon cancer Children, pregnant women and the unborn are thought to be most susceptible to these negative health effects. Hormone residues in beef have been implicated in the early onset of puberty in girls, which could put them at greater risk of developing breast and other forms of cancer. ^{Scientists are also concerned about the environmental impacts of hormone residues in cow manure. Growth promoting hormones not only remain in the meat we consume, but they also pass through the cattle and are excreted in their manure. When manure from factory farms enters the surrounding environment, these hormones can contaminate surface and groundwater. Aquatic ecosystems are particularly vulnerable to hormone residues. Recent studies have demonstrated that exposure to hormones has a substantial effect on the gender and reproductive capacity of fish, throwing off the natural cycle. All in all, the use of feeding cattle animal meat is no longer practiced but replaced by the highly popular hormones and antibiotic use. If one looks back they may see a trend. Altering the growth rate and diet of animals always leads to problems in the lives of humans and the environment.}

Work citied:

1.       WHO Media centre , . World Health Organization. Bowine Sponiform Encephalopathy . , 2002. Web. 23 Nov 2010. <http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs113/e

 2.            Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, . Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About vCJD. Atlanta: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2010. Web. 23 Nov 2010. <http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvrd/vcjd/>.

 3.         Mgbeoji, Ikechi. Global biopiracy: patents, plants, and indigenous knowledge. New York: Cornell Univ Pr, 2006. 311. Print.

 4.          McHughen, Alan. Pandora's picnic basket: the potential and hazards of genetically modified foods. New York: Oxford University Press, USA, 2000. 277. Print