Mad Cow U.S.A. Could the Nightmare Happen Here?

Examines the reasons the United States is not taking measures to avoid mad cow disease

The epidemic of "mad cow disease" in Britain caused great economic damage, a political crisis, and general panic when it was discovered that humans were apparently acquiring a fatal neurological malady called Creutzfeld-Jacob syndrome from eating the meat of cattle infected by feed containing protein from carcasses of sheep suffering from a disease called scrapie. Richard Rhodes's Deadly Feasts (LJ 3/15/97) provided a lively, sometimes lurid account of how an eccentric scientist named Carleton Gajdusek and others investigating kuru, a disease of New Guinea cannibals, discovered this whole new family of strange, deadly diseases, called transmissible spongiform enchephelopathies, or TSEs. Rampton and Stauber (Toxic Sludge Is Good for You, Common Courage, 1995) cover some of the same ground and more, also in a gripping but better documented way. But the real emphasis here is the conflict between the economic interests of meat industry associations and concerns about potential threats to public health. The authors detail how industry associations and sometimes government agencies have worked to discredit those concerned about public health issues. While the FDA has recently banned the feeding of mammalian tissues to ruminant animals, this is still an important book for its detailed revelations about the dangers of the TSEs and the complex but important issues of balancing economic and political interests and protecting public health. Highly recommended for most collections.?Marit MacArthur, Auraria Lib., Denver
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.