Book Description
When the cattle-borne sickness known as Mad Cow Disease first appeared in America in 2003, authorities were quick to assure the nation that the outbreak was isolated, quarantined, and posed absolutely no danger to the general public.
What we were not told was that the origins of the sickness may already have been here and suspected for a quarter of a century.
This illuminating exposé of the threat to our nation's health reveals for the first time how Mad Cow Disease (a.k.a. Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy) has jumped species, infecting humans in the form of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD), and may be hidden in the enormous increase in the number of Alzheimer's cases since 1979.
Detailing the history and biology of Mad Cow Disease, Brain Trust discloses how an investigation into the mysterious deaths in a group of cannibals in a remote part of the world evolved into a research program in the United States that may have had unforeseen and frightening consequences.
The shocking questions examined include:
• Have millions of Americans already been exposed to the prions known to cause Mad Cow Disease through years of eating tainted beef?
• Does the epidemic of prion disease spreading like wildfire through the nation's deer and elk pose a threat to hunters and venison eaters?
• Are the cattle mutilations discovered in the last 30 years part of a covert, illegal sampling program designed to learn how far the deadly prions have spread throughout the nation's livestock and beef products?
Exposing the devastating truth about Mad Cow Disease and a new theory of the possible consequences of a little-known government research program and the potential national health catastrophe that may be the result, Brain Trust inoculates Americans with an effective cure: the truth.
Download Description
"When the cattle-borne sickness known as Mad Cow Disease first appeared in America in 2003, authorities were quick to assure the nation that the outbreak was isolated, quarantined, and posed absolutely no danger to the general public. What we were not told was that the origins of the sickness may already have been here and suspected for a quarter of a century. This illuminating exposé of the threat to our nation's health reveals for the first time how Mad Cow Disease (a.k.a. Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy) has jumped species, infecting humans in the form of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD), and may be hidden in the enormous increase in the number of Alzheimer's cases since 1979. Detailing the history and biology of Mad Cow Disease, Brain Trust discloses how an investigation into the mysterious deaths in a group of cannibals in a remote part of the world evolved into a research program in the United States that may have had unforeseen and frightening consequences. The shocking questions examined include: . Have millions of Americans already been exposed to the prions known to cause Mad Cow Disease through years of eating tainted beef? . Does the epidemic of prion disease spreading like wildfire through the nation's deer and elk pose a threat to hunters and venison eaters? . Are the cattle mutilations discovered in the last 30 years part of a covert, illegal sampling program designed to learn how far the deadly prions have spread throughout the nation's livestock and beef products? Exposing the devastating truth about Mad Cow Disease and a new theory of the possible consequences of a little-known government research program and the potential national health catastrophe that may be the result, Brain Trust inoculates Americans with an effective cure: the truth. "
Customer Reviews:
Great insight into prion disease.......2007-08-25
This was a great story as well as being enlightening. The last few chapters were a little bit noisy and not as refined as the rest of the book.
The main criticism I have of this book is that it never proves or shows its thesis, which is the "hidden connection between mad cow and Alzheimer's". Never gives any real evidence of it, just hints at it here and there. However, it is very enlightening into the history of prion disease and I'd highly recommend this book since for the most part it stays completely away from pseudoscience and focuses on factual history. I thought this book would make me more paranoid, but actually having a little more understanding made me less paranoid. Although, I will be careful about the type of beef (or any other meat) that I eat and I would never for the life of me eat venison.
Not very original, not very well-written.......2007-07-23
The majority of what's in this book appears to be a rather poor retelling of things wriiten by other authors. For example, much of the discussion of the Fore people and their kuru epidemic seems to be based on Richard Rhodes book, "Deadly Feasts" -- run through a blender and reassembled. Unfortunately, Kelleher's retelling lacks the coherence of Rhodes' work.
The two original themes in "Brain Trust" are:
* The various forms of transmissable spongiform encephalopthy (TSE) in the USA and Canada began with deliberate attempts to infect various species with kuru at the Pautuxent River veterinary facility in Maryland. Kelleher maps out what he claims is the cross-species jump and spread of TSE resulting from improperly-contained and quarantined experimental animals at that facility.
* The cattle mutilations in the western United States are the result of a covert monitoring program (started in the 1970s) trying to track the spread of TSE in wild and domesticated animal populations. He fails to offer any explanation of who might be doing the monitoring, or how they plan to use the information once they've gathered it. Silent helicopters lifting cattle off the ground off the ground for autopsy in the dark of night, then dropping their mutilated carcasses back to the earth. It's all very "X-Files", but I'm not sure what purpose it serves.
There are better books dealing with specific aspects of the TSE story: the particulars of prion infections, the poor record-keeping related to CJD/BSE/Alzheimer's deaths, the Fore tribe and kuru -- all are covered more coherently and in greater detail elsewhere.
Great Research...Few Questions though.......2006-04-22
This is a very well researched and extremely convincing book showing how our nations food supply (and overall wildlife) may have been compromised with an Infectious Protien (Prion). He even convinced me that the cattle mutilations aren't mysterious at all, they are just straightforward monitoring of these Prions. I feel that this information is very important but do have some questions after reading the book such as "what can we do to protect ourselves"...i hope the answer isnt "nothing". The very scary thing that the book points out is that it takes a few years for infected cattle to show symptoms...so a cow with mad cow disease is rarely discovered to be sick before it enters our supermarkets. The other thing about this book is that it is written so well...it reads like a mystery...you just wanna keep turning the pages!
Please Pass the Kuru Burger.......2005-09-26
Whoa! This scientist has written a story that builds with suspense worthy of Hitchcock. If you dine on this planet you will want to know about this. Makes for easy, fun,(in a mad-scientist-horror-film sort of way), but disturbing reading. If this were a ride at Disneyland it would be an 'E' ticket; not for the faint of heart.
damned convincing........2005-04-08
I'm a pretty hard-core skeptic but this book flipped me out. I expected something wild but it appears to be well-documented and convincing -- lots of references and details.
I'd be very interested to see if anyone had good refutations for the material in this book. If not, it would appear that the government has been playing fast and loose with our health and the safety of our food supply... a scary thought!
Book Description
One in ten people older than sixty-five, and nearly half of those older than eighty-five, have Alzheimer's disease.
It's widely accepted nowadays that memory loss comes with age. Alzheimer's currently robs at least 15 million people of their identity worldwide. This book makes the controversial claim that eating meat may contribute to the development of the disease.
In Dying for a Hamburger, Dr. Murray Waldman and Marjorie Lamb draw upon documentary evidence, historical testimony, and inspired speculation to suggest that Alzheimer's:
- is a new disease--elderly people did not experience symptoms of dementia in such alarming numbers in the past
- began appearing after modern meat production techniques were introduced
- has soared in nations where these techniques are used
- hardly exists in cultures where meat consumption is low
- has been attributed to many deaths that are actually the human equivalent of mad cow disease.
They present startling evidence that Alzheimer's may be part of a family of diseases linked to malformed proteins known as prions. They hypothesize that the conditions that allow these brain disorders to be triggered are similar. They propose that mad cow, its human equivalent, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), other encephalitic diseases, and Alzheimer's may have a common antecedent.
We know that a form of CJD is transmitted to humans who eat contaminated beef. And we are becoming increasingly aware of the need to monitor the meat supply closely to avoid a repetition of the mad cow scare in Great Britain. But suppose that Alzheimer's also involves prions--the evidence that points in this direction is growing. And suppose that Alzheiemer's is also associated with tainted meat.
This conclusion seems far-fetched--at first. In this compelling book, the authors come to a frightening conclusion about our seemingly insatiable hunger for hamburgers. Destined to provoke heated argument, this book is definitely food for thought.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent book, well written--a must read!.......2007-07-11
I happened upon this book, and after reading the inside flap, I was drawn in. Being one who doesn't eat a lot of meat, I was curious as to the authors' hypotheses surrounding various prion diseases (Alzheimer's, CJD, BSE). At first, I prepared myself for reading this book over several weeks, but when I started reading, I couldn't put it down! That says a lot--this book is wonderfully written, for the medical expert and layperson alike, and easy to follow. The authors have done an excellent job of making their case for the link between the modern meat industry, forced cannibalism of cattle and prion diseases. If you're eating meat, read this book. Even if you're not eating meat, read this book--today!
Dying for a Hamburger Review.......2007-06-22
The main point of the book is the relationship between prion diseases such as Alzheimer's and the consumption of contaminated meat. But there are secondary points the book brings out that are also very important.
One is the lack of testing and other procedures within the meat and dairy industry to safeguard public health. Another is that this industry is dominated by a few, very large companies that control almost everything from slaughter to distribution. That this control is used to increase profits rather than help the public at large is a amply demonstrated.
While there is no need to stop eating meat and dairy products, to do so without being informed is likely to cause serious health problems for people due to the current state of the industry. This is one of a number of books on this subjsct that help give the information needed to avoid such problems.
Dairy cow puzzle.......2005-11-30
This book has a good argument to a point, but in my opinion drops the ball on dairy cattle. These aniimals are not slaughtered at a relatively young age, as with beef cattle, but are kept in the breeding and milk production cycle as long as possible. This seems to be an ample length of time for symptoms of mad cow disease or other prion-type maladies to surface, but there seems to be no report that this has ever happened. The author mentions that not only are (or were) dairy cows more likely to be fed the "cannibalistic" protein supplements, but are in fact more likely to be made into hamburger, which he says exacerbates the spread of prionic diseases. So the excuse for lack of evidence falls short with dairy cattle, and there seems to be little to support his conclusions. His statistics are also questionable in that only 50,000 or so deaths are attributed to Alzheimer's in the US for any given year; given the average 8-year progression from first syptoms until death, and the 35 million or so persons over 65 years old, the report of cases and nursing home residents seems exaggerated. Only 2.5 million deaths occur annually in this country, a very stable number since 1990, and it seems unlikely that 500,000 of them are individuals with Alzheimer's but only a tenth that many are attributed to it.
Read it!.......2005-11-25
I have to admit I didn't know what to expect from this book....what kind of arguments would the author's use to connect modern meat processing/consumption to alzheimer's? My conclusion?....I feel the authors make excellent arguments for the case. The authors use an impressive amount of data to back up their assertions. While reading the book, doubts I may have had on an idea they were presenting were shattered after they backed up their ideas again and again with hard facts. If you're a skeptic like me, I think this book at the very least will make you question a few things that you may never have thought about before on the subject. Highly Recommended!
Book Description
An authoritative account of the current public health dangers in the dairy and beef industries. This book not only provides a synopsis of the authors valuable work but also is a driving incentive for the reader to make personal health behavioral changes.
Customer Reviews:
An important and well documented book:.......2002-11-06
What are we doing in this hand basket and where are we going?
That is what comes to mind after reading a book such as this.
We cannot afford to keep our heads in the sand.
Read this book and make the choices that need to be made. An excellent book. The author has integrity and compassion.
Uh oh..I noticed I only gave it one star..oops..it should have five...
Disastrous food chain.......2000-10-26
Amazon.com is the only place where I could find "Mad Cows and Milk Gate" a year after the trials. At the time that Texas cattlemen, led by billionaire Paul Engler, owner of Cactus Feeders, Inc., filed suit against Lyman, Oprah, Harpo Productions last year, you could find this very informative book "Mad Cows and Milk Gate" written by Dr Hulse in all the major bookstores. Dr. Hulce, a former dairy inspector, reminds us about this inhumane injustice to our planet's herbivores. He informs us of the potential diseases laid out before our human race in our near future. Will an outbreak like Britain's have to open us to the truth--when it maybe too late. According to Dr. Hulce, our pets are also at risk because their food is also being tampered. Remember the movie "Soylent Green" staring Charlton Heston in 1973? New York City and planet Earth in the future is overpopulated. The human feed is Soylent Green, a soybean and lentil mixture with human bodies thrown in. Like the humans in the movie, the cattle don't know what they are eating. The book " Mad Cows and Milk Gate" is about America's cattle eating ground up sheep, (with a history of Scrapie a mad sheep disease for the last 40 years in the United States). Ground up cattle bones, cow's blood, dogs, cats, chicken, pigs, chicken and turkey feathers, and road kill are mixed in with their feed. These ingredients are unknown to farmers who just want their cows to produce more milk and to create "Super Cows." This process creates larger milk yields and super herds of cattle for America's super table. Bovine Leukemia, cancer, Crohn's disease and so many other diseases are the result of this mad feeding. Dr. Hulse took extreme care in the writing of this very informative book because it is his duty to expose how man's feeding practices make God's creatures unclean.
You are what you eat..........2000-10-21
Let me first say that I am not one of Dr. Hulse's peers and I had much difficulty plowing through his heavy medical terms and Latin words usage, however, I was able to grasp the argument that he put forward. Also, I want to be sure that you have the correct picture of Dr. Hulse in mind before going further. He is not an environmental wacko, in fact, I would say that he is fond of meat, milk and eggs. He is against what America's food industries have become and the result it had on our food chain. He tells us why America's meat, milk and eggs are no longer safe for human consumption, when that happened, what needs to be done to correct the problem, and why nothing seems to be getting done. Essentially, the problems are a result of feeding meat protein and manure, which is converted into feed pellets, to cattle, hogs and chickens. The dead animals include cattle, hogs and chickens that died from disease and therefore cannot be fed to humans. The rendering process for turning a cow carcass into food pellets for other cows to eat does not kill all the pathogens and the disease is then passed on to the next herd of cows. Cows with leukemia, cancer and other illnesses are milked until their milk production decreases to far, which then the cow is culled from the herd and rendered into feed for other cows. Pasteurization techniques that used to kill the virus and bacterium in milk have changed and now allow some of the pathogens into the food chain. Farmers are routinely using antibiotics as a preventive measure to get the most from their herds. These are the same antibiotics that people need. Overuse of the antibiotics is creating strains of bacteria that are not affected by the antibiotic. When a person is sick from one of these new strains their doctors will not have an antibiotic solution to cure them. Those antibiotics also make it to the dinner table in milk. Another drug that makes it to your table is the growth hormones given to cattle either to make them produce more milk or to make them leaner. A leaner cow will bring the farmer more money at slaughter than a fat cow. Our chicken industry has its share of problems too. Feeding dead chickens and chicken manure to chickens is causing salmonella to spread throughout the entire flock.
Dr. Hulse goes on to expose the drug industry's efforts to keep hormones and antibiotics in farming, how the American food industries are influencing congress and are trying to force their tainted products on other countries who don't want to eat our stuff. They have laws changed in their favor that block free speech against their product and have definitions of words like "organic" changed so organic food could include their tainted products. They influence the FDA and USDA to reduce food inspection quality at every turn. Dr. Hulse claims that the cost to the consumer through his or her own medical bills and reduced quality of life far exceeds the cost to the food industry if it were to clean up its act. Yet, the American people know little about what they eat and congress will not act until an epidemic sweeps across the nation. This was a hard book to read but well worth the effort. It gets five stars from me because Dr. Hulse's changed the way I think when I make decisions about what food I am about to eat. Also, I like to say that the meat and milk industry are apparently still owned and operated by the same people that Upton Sinclair exposed in his book, "The Jungle."
Customer Reviews:
A Must-Have for the Professional PR Library.......2000-07-01
Canadian authors Powell and Leiss provide a structured and interesting look at significant case studies, both Canadian and American, of issues and crisis management communications, or as they call it, "risk communications". The book provides an excellent background into risk communications. From dioxins among Canadian natives to silicone breast implants and cow's milk,excellent and recent case studies are deconstructed to identify the key successes and failures of the risk communications process. Finally, the book ends with 10 "lessons" for risk communicators--providing not so much the "how" answers, as the "why" and "what" answers. Easy to read, but scholarly in nature, an excellent addition to any public relations practitioners' library, and particularly Canadian practitioners, who have little to choose from in the way of good and recent Canadian case study analysis.
Book Description
Contemporary concerns about food such as those stemming from mad cow disease, salmonella, and other potential food-related dangers are hardly new-humans have long been wary of what they eat. Beyond the fundamental fear of hunger, societies have sought to protect themselves from rotten, impure, or unhealthy food. From the markets of medieval Europe to the slaughterhouses of twentieth-century Chicago, Madeleine Ferrières traces the origins of present-day behavior toward what we eat as she explores the panics, myths, and ever-shifting attitudes regarding food and its safety. She demonstrates that food fears have been inspired not only by safety concerns but also by cultural, political, and religious prejudices.
Flour from human bones and pâté from dead cats are just two of the more unappetizing recipes that have scared consumers away from certain foods. Ferrières considers the roots of these and other rumors, illuminating how societies have assessed and attempted to regulate the risks of eating. She documents the bizarre and commonsensical attempts by European towns to ensure the quality of beef and pork, ranging from tighter controls on butchers to prohibiting Jews and menstruating women from handling meat. Examining the spread of Hungarian cattle disease, which ravaged the livestock of seventeenth-century Europe, Ferrières recounts the development of safety methods that became the Western model for fighting animal diseases.
Ferrières discusses a wealth of crucial and curious food-related incidents, trends, and beliefs, including European explorers' shocked responses to the foodways of the New World; how some foods deemed unsafe for the rich were seen as perfectly suitable for the poor; the potato's negative reputation; the fierce legal battles between seventeenth-century French bread bakers and innkeepers; the role of the medical profession in food regulation; and how modern consumerism changed the way we eat. Drawing on history, folklore, agriculture, and anthropology, Ferrières tells us how our decisions about what not to eat reflect who we are.
Amazon.com
The key word here is personal. Physician Robert Klitzman tells us his life story and humanizes what could easily have been a tabloid-size horror story of Stone Age cannibals and rotten-brained cows. Vivid portraits of the men and women he helped and worked with lift this book above mere sensationalism, showing one people's tragedy in the hopes that others can be averted.
Kuru is a fatal disease formerly epidemic among the Fore people of New Guinea, with symptoms including involuntary laughing, dementia, and loss of motor control. Traced to their ritual cannibalism, it was found to be caused by nonliving crystal-like proteins in the brain. Klitzman traveled to New Guinea before attending medical school to work with these people and quickly learned how little Western medicine could do for the afflicted--he could only make their deaths as comfortable as possible. His despair is palpable.
Fortunately, most Fore have been convinced to give up the most dangerous of their ancestral practices, and the disease has largely abated. But mad cow disease (and others like it), caused by the same class of protein as kuru, remains a threat to Westerners--a threat Klitzman would rather we not face. His very personal story forces us as readers to examine our own lives and our own ancestral practices, perhaps to make some changes ourselves. --Rob Lightner
Customer Reviews:
Fascinating.......2002-04-15
This book tells the story of a young man who travels to Papua New Guinea to try his hand at medical research. The book jackets accurately describes it as "a gripping medical mystery, an exotic travelogue, and a stirring coming-of-age story." Just one year out of college, Klitzman sets off to Papua New Guinea alone to work on a project arranged by Carleton Gajdusek to survey the incubation time for kuru. Klitzman soon finds himself living in the Highlands, where he spends his time seeking out former cannibals who are dying of kuru so that he can interview them about when they last ate human flesh.
Klitzman's cultural insights are quite compelling- -instead of finding fault with all that frustrates him, he is able to put the difficulties in context and realize that people are much the same everywhere, underneath their material trappings. One of the fascinating facets of this book is that at the time when Klitzman was doing his research in PNG, kuru was dying out- -the project that he was working on was to find the incubation period for a disease without a future, or so it seemed at the time. When Mad Cow began popping up a few years after Klitzman finished his project, the results suddenly became extremely important for trying to estimate potential deaths due to tainted beef. The book serves as a good reminder that basic research may prove its worth long after the fact.
The book's main narrative takes place in Papua New Guinea in 1983-84, 7 years after independence. It provides interesting historical documentation of living conditions in PNG in the time immediately following independence. In 1997, Klitzman returns to the area where he did his research, and observes how many aspects of life in PNG had deteriorated in the intervening time, despite the quantity of wealth coming into the country. For this reason, area specialists may find much of interest in Klitzman's detailed descriptions of living conditions in the early 1980s in PNG.
Strange Title - Amazing Adventure.......2000-05-25
I had read Dr Klitzman's earlier book "Being Positive" and wanted to read more of his work, the title sounded very strange but bought the book after the life affirming experience of reading the first. Dr Klitzman is one hell of an explorer !, brave, adventurous and a great medical investigator and researcher. The Papua New Guinea Highlands might hold the answers to the questions that medical researchers have been asking for years and Dr Klitzman is a trail blazer to these answers. This story deserves to be read by anyone who is affected directly or indirectly by any disease from cancer to HIV, it will give you a better insight and hope.
An extraordinary story by a gifted writer.......2000-01-30
Written with the intensity of a thriller, THE TREMBLING MOUNTAIN is a brilliant examination of the cultures of the mind. Read it now.
A poorly written, poorly proofread book.......1999-05-31
The subject of cannibalism should grab the attention of the reader. Instead, on page after page, you are startled by grammatical inconsistencies. Nobody has bothered to proofread this book -- not the author, the reader, the editor. The author does not transport you in any way into an exotic world, but instead has you grinding your teeth as you read through such language as "I seen..." This reads like a hasty job, not one that has been put together with love and pride.
Kindred Spirit.......1998-11-09
I wonder if the author has knowledge of a similar book entitled "The Begining was the End" written by Oscar Kiss Maerth published by Sphere Books Ltd in 1974
Average customer rating:
- Well Written, Scary as heck
- The molecular biology is astounding
- Boring & Dry
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How the Cows Turned Mad
Maxime Schwartz
Manufacturer: University of California Press
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Mad Cow U.S.A.
ASIN: 0520235312 |
Book Description
Fear of mad cow disease, a lethal illness transmitted from infected beef to humans, has spread from Europe to the United States and around the world. Originally published to much acclaim in France, this scientific thriller, available in English for the first time and updated with a new chapter on developments in 2001, tells of the hunt for the cause of an enigmatic class of fatal brain infections, of which mad cow disease is the latest incarnation. In gripping, nontechnical prose, Maxime Schwartz details the deadly manifestations of these diseases throughout history, describes the major players and events that led to discoveries about their true nature, and outlines our current state of knowledge. The book concludes by addressing the question we all want answered: should we be afraid?
The story begins in the eighteenth century with the identification of a mysterious illness called scrapie that was killing British sheep. It was not until the 1960s that scientists understood that several animal and human diseases, including scrapie, were identical, and together identified them as transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE). The various guises assumed throughout history by TSE include an illness called kuru in a cannibalistic tribe in Papua New Guinea, an infectious disease that killed a group of children who had been treated for growth hormone deficiencies, and mad cow disease. Revealing the fascinating process of scientific discovery that led to our knowledge of TSE, Schwartz relates pivotal events in the history of biology, including the Pasteurian revolution, the birth of genetics, the emergence of molecular biology, and the latest developments in biotechnology. He also explains the Nobel Prize-winning prion hypothesis, which has rewritten the rules of biological heredity and is a key link between the distinctive diseases of TSE.
Up-to-date, informative, and thoroughly captivating, How the Cows Turned Mad tells the story of a disease that continues to elude on many levels. Yet science has come far in understanding its origins, incubation, and transmission. This authoritative book is a stunning case history that illuminates the remarkable progression of science.
Download Description
Fear of mad cow disease, a lethal illness transmitted from infected beef to humans, has spread from Europe to the United States and around the world. Originally published to much acclaim in France, this scientific thriller, available in English for the first time and updated with a new chapter on developments in 2001, tells of the hunt for the cause of an enigmatic class of fatal brain infections, of which mad cow disease is the latest incarnation. In gripping, nontechnical prose, Maxime Schwartz details the deadly manifestations of these diseases throughout history, describes the major players and events that led to discoveries about their true nature, and outlines our current state of knowledge. The book concludes by addressing the question we all want answered: should we be afraid? The story begins in the eighteenth century with the identification of a mysterious illness called scrapie that was killing British sheep. It was not until the 1960s that scientists understood that several animal and human diseases, including scrapie, were identical, and together identified them as transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE). Revealing the fascinating process of scientific discovery that led to our knowledge of TSE, Schwartz relates pivotal events in the history of biology, including the Pasteurian revolution, the birth of genetics, the emergence of molecular biology, and the latest developments in biotechnology. He also explains the Nobel Prize-winning prion hypothesis, which has rewritten the rules of biological heredity and is a key link between the distinctive diseases of TSE. Up-to-date, informative, and thoroughly captivating, How the Cows Turned Mad tells the story of a disease that continues to elude on many levels. Yet science has come far in understanding its origins, incubation, and transmission. This authoritative book is a stunning case history that illuminates the remarkable progression of science.
Customer Reviews:
Well Written, Scary as heck.......2006-06-24
An amazing tour of the history of prion diseases. From start to finish, it's well written, beuatifully explained and frighrening. If this book hasn't scared you, read it again
The molecular biology is astounding.......2005-08-07
This is a very complicated matter, with highly specific vocabulary that attempts to describe a variety of forms of a disease which is capable of being distinguished by different incubation periods in the various inbred species of genetically pure or altered mice that have been inoculated with transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) in the strains that have been isolated before the French edition of this book went to press near the end of the year 2000. A key word is prion, a protein that might form part of the membrane of a normal cell. Originally in this book, prion was defined by Stanley Prusiner, winner of the Nobel Prize in 1997, in 1982 as the carrier of the infection for TSEs. "Prions are small proteinaceous infectious particles which are resistant to inactivation by most procedures that modify nucleic acids." (p. 100). Forming rods in a polymer structure, ultimately doctors, "when examining brain tissue from kuru patients, had been able to recognize what they called amyloid plaques" (pp. 101-102).
Assuming that any cow in England which showed signs of bovine spongiform encephalopathy was an indication that the entire herd had been fed contaminated meat and bone meal, (from "forty-six British plants that until 1988 had converted a total of 1.3 million metric tons of meat and bones into animal feed" p. 147), "the total number of cattle affected by the disease from the beginning of the epidemic until the end of 2000 was nearly two hundred thousand in Great Britain," (p. 151). Since the cow form of the disease and the sheep form act differently in mice who are infected, a grand experimental test was performed to see if any sheep have picked up the BSE form:
"In the summer of 2001, rumors began to circulate to the effect that the BSE agent had been found in sheep; the official outcome was to be announced at the end of the year. Europe's health authorities were in a state of red alert. If the results were positive, drastic steps would have to be taken in the sheep-farming sector. Then, just two days before the outcome was made public, there was a dramatic announcement: The researchers had made a mistake. They had mingled samples of sheep brains with samples of cattle brains--and thus there are still no data on the possible transmission of BSE to sheep in natural conditions." (p. 188).
I have noticed that when people try to assign unique numbers to anything, there is always someone who fails to notice that two of those numbers are not the same. I have even worked with a computer that had so few consecutive numbers in a field that it was not able to tell the difference between numbers that had more than the number of digits in the field. There are forty million sheep in Britain, few of which look like cows, even in that night in which all cows are black, but worse than that: the brain samples might look a lot like brain samples from a cow. This experiment was more than double blind if no one kept tract of how samples were mingled.
I love the word epizootic: "Why was an epizootic--an animal epidemic--declared at one particular time, the early 1980s, and only in the United Kingdom?" (p. 189). It must be related to "the death of six white tigers from the Bristol zoo between 1970 and 1977; they died of what was then diagnosed as a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy, but no one knows what became of the corpses. . . . After all, it isn't often that a cow eats tiger in the way that we eat beef." (p. 190). There are so many things no one knows.
Boring & Dry.......2004-05-20
Maxime Schwartz was a molecular biologist and is now a professor at the Pasteur Institute in Paris. Schwartz traces the history of medical research into spongiform encephalopathies, and how the scientific understanding of how they are spread has changed over time. If you know anything about Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) or Mad Cow disease, I don't think you'll learn anything new in this book. How the Cows Turned Mad is not a sensational book, nor even a good book. Quite simply it is too wordy and dull.
Book Description
Prions are an entirely new class of pathogens, and scientists are just beginning to understand them. This book tells the strange story of their discovery, and the medical controversies that swirl around them.
Customer Reviews:
Concentrates on the science.......2006-10-25
While the book begins with a nicely written human interest story, this work concentrates on the science, and the picture is somewhat muddled even today. For one thing, the prion protein has deep evolutionary roots, which should mean it is critical to life, yet genetically engineered mice without prion proteins seem to thrive. The protein is involved in copper utilization but there are biological alternatives in place. There are still a few respectable scientists who are skeptical about the prion infection theory, and Yam points out one piece of definitive evidence is lacking: the ability to create a misshapen prion protein which is conclusively free of any possible viral contamination, and use it to infect an organism. If there is an infectious virus, it would have to be very small and rather unique. There are several hereditary forms of prion disease each of which involves a slightly different mutation of the gene; the disease can have sporadic (randomly occurring) as well as hereditary and infectious (mad cow disease) causes. Only humans with certain alleles of the prion gene are susceptible to mad cow, but 37% of Caucasians, for example, have that allele. No one knows why mad cow disease hasn't clustered more in particular families or regions. Use of human based biologicals in repairing wounds was a prime cause of disease transmission at one time, and we think the blood supply is probably safe primarily because if it weren't, there would be more cases (although the Red Cross does try to screen out potential carriers).
Yam does a good job in emphasizing and explaining the important scientific issues. He also involves the reader in the mysteries as they historically unfolded. Occasionally, he enumerates very detailed findings in a chronological manner when a more enlightening approach could have been used.
A great introduction to prions!.......2006-01-05
This book is a balanced, engaging introduction to the prion diseases. Philip Yam does a great job of presenting the varieties of views on BSE, CJD, and Kuru, and makes it clear to the reader that there are many riddles yet to be solved, and there is still a great deal of controversy surrounding these diseases.
However, he does not spend the entire book focusing on the controversy, and proceeds to delve into the details of prion theory, and possible therapeutic options.
Yam does a wonderful job of presenting the topic, and continues to provide stimulating and novel information on every page!
Easily the best book of its kind.......2004-03-26
Philip Yam's book The Pathological Protein is easily the best book of its kind. Written in clear, simple language for the non-specialist audience, The Pathological Protein is a thoroughly comprehensive, concise and, above all, scientifically accurate review of BSE and related diseases. Yam has been writing and editing for Scientific American since 1989 and this, his first book, demonstrates the high standard to which all science writers ought to aspire.
The first chapter of The Pathological Protein describes, from a very human perspective, the effects of variant Creutzfedt-Jakob disease on one victim, 19 year-old Stephen Churchill, and his family. From this tragedy, Yam then goes on to review the history of CJD and the mysterious diease 'kuru', which reached epidemic proportions amongst the Fore people of Papua-New Guinea because of their cannibalistic funerary rites. After discussing the hereditary transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) of humans, outlines what is known of the TSEs of animals. Philip Yam's reviews of scrapie, BSE, transmissible mink encephalopathy and chronic wasting disease are up-to-date, interesting, and extremely readable.
There is an interesting episode related in the book. Carlton Gajdusek had been searching, unsuccesfully, for the cause of kuru. William Hadlow, and American scrapie researcher on a secondment to the United Kingdom, visited the Wellcome Medical Museum in London to look at a display on kuru that Gajdusek had prepared. It was Hadlow who first noticed the very close resemblance between kuru and scrapie. The similarities in epidemiologic features, general clinical pattern and the neurohistologic changes led him to the realisation that these diseases were probably mmebers of the same family. As a result of Hadlow's insight transmission experiments were started which, eventually, led to our current understanding of the TSEs
This book covers the hypotheses for the origins of BSE, the evidence for the link between BSE and vCJD, current methods and problems of diagnosis of the TSEs, and the search for cures. Philip Yam clearly is thoroughly versed in the scientific literature of the TSEs, but also interviewed a broad range of scientists, consumers advocates and regulators. So, he knows what he is writing about, and this is made evident by the clarity and accuracy of his explanations. Although there is no 'dumbing down' of a difficult and complex subject, the author has written a book which makes his subject easily accessible to the non-specialist reader. The book is referenced, well indexed, has a useful glossary and also suggests sources for further information, including the more useful web sites and organisations providing suport and help for families of CJD victims. While the book is written for the interested lay person, I would have no hesitation in recommending Philip Yam's The Pathological Protein to veterinarians and colleagues who want an interesting, thorough and current review of these fascinating diseases.
A must read for a better understanding of mad cow disease!.......2004-03-07
An easy read even for people without a scientific background. The author takes you through a thorough exploration of the threats of mad cow and other related diseases. You may never look at beef the same way again.
A must read for a better understanding of mad cow disease!.......2004-03-07
An easy read even for people without a scientific background. The author takes you through a thorough exploration of the threats of mad cow and other related diseases. You may never look at beef the same way again.
Amazon.com
Mad Cow U.S.A. is not the book to read before you go out for a steak. In fact, it's not really a book to read before eating anything; this chronicle of government cave-in to pressure from the food industry just might scare away your appetite. Authors Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber argue that both the American and British governments colluded with beef producers to suppress important facts about interspecies transmission of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or "mad cow disease"--facts that might have prevented gruesome deaths. Could a British-style BSE epidemic happen in America? In a 1996 TV talk show, Oprah Winfrey attempted to ask the same question, only to find herself slapped with a lawsuit by a group of Texas cattlemen. Their grounds: the so-called agricultural product disparagement laws currently on the books in 13 states; these laws prohibit people from questioning the safety of any agricultural product, shifting the legal burden of proof from the food industry to its watchdogs. What happens when anyone who speaks out about problems with our food supply can be sued into silence? Rampton and Stauber fear grave consequences for public health, and they make a convincing case against these laws--and, inadvertently, for vegetarianism.
Book Description
The human death toll from British mad cow disease is doubling every three years. A version of mad cow disease unique to the U.S. is killing deer across North America; young hunters are dying from it. Did they get it from U.S. deer? Or from U.S. cattle or pigs that were fed "rendered byproduct" from slaughterhouse waste? With a new chapter of their 1997 book, Rampton and Stauber reveal a terrifying tale of governmental neglect and industry malfeasance.
Customer Reviews:
I'm glad I read this along with Lymon's "Mad Cowboy".......2005-08-18
Eeeek! After reading this I am never, ever eating non-organic meat again. And if I win the lottery I think I'll raise my own critters for eggs & milk (or better yet pay someone else to do it!). This book is frightening but helps explain why many of us feel so damned cruddy most of the time. There are so many toxins and chemicals and other assorted grossities in our food supply it's a wonder many of us are still breathing.
Parts of the book are a bit meandering and repetitive but I am very glad I took the time to get through it.
a real good inquiry into discovery and remedies for BSE.......2005-03-10
This is an excellent activist book on the discovery of a new type of disease, BSE, also called Mad Cow Disease. The story involves a very interesting history of the science as well as the reactions of the beef and fast food industries.
In a nutshell, the disease appears to be caused by an improperly folded protein (a "prion"), which when it enters the bloodstream can multiply and eventually turn the host's brain into mush, with horrible consequences of course. What the authors highlight is that the mode of transmission appears to be ingestion of these bent proteins, principally from infected cows, years if not decades before symptoms appear. They also stress that the manner in which cows are raised in industrial agriculture makes transmission far more likely: they are directly fed ruminants (leftover cow remains that cannot be eaten by humans), thereby transferring the prions on a massive scale. Humans can then eat them and perhaps become infected by BSE.
After this fascinating and beautifully writtern history, the authors then explore what should be done. While some ruminant feeding has ceased, they argue, the actions of beef producers are both too little (because they are voluntary) and inadequate (because they allow certain forms of ruminant, such as blood, to be fed to cows today). This part of the book is pure advocacy and, I believe, effective in arguing that all ruminant feeding must cease. While I cannot weigh in on the science, it really got me to think in a more informed way.
Recommended. This could become a far greater debate if, it turns out, a lot more infected beef-eating Americans are found. The authors stimulate debate.
The book that predicted it - Mad Cow USA.......2004-01-14
Six years before the appearance of mad cow disease in the US, this book predicted it. Mad Cow USA warned that the meat industry and the government were failing to take the necessary steps to prevent the disease here, and using falsehoods and PR to cover-up their failings. Unfortunately, this book nailed it.
Too Much Trivia.......2003-12-26
Parden the pun but where's the beef?
If Dr. Gajdusek was accused of child abuse, how does that relate to Mad Cow?
If Kuru affected some brain eaters before Mad Cow entered the world's vocabluary does that require a whole chapter?
If sheep drop dead from a relative of BSE who cares?
The authors buried the dangers of beef so deep in unrelated and unimportant information, an earth mover couldn't get to the point.
Most meat eaters will write this book off as pure science totally unrelated to everyday life.
Ironicly, those same meat eaters have the most to loose from a carnivore diet. While BSE is rare, there are a million other reasons to avoid meat not the least of which is the filthy slaughter houses.
Don;t get scalped!!!!.......2003-12-25
Wow! Judging from the prices of these used copies, the scalpers are out in force now that we have MCD in USA. You can get this book FREE as a download at www.prwatch.org/books/mcusa.pdf .
It is a great book, with a great history of the disease, its epidemiology, and uncovers the truth about the beef industry and their ties to the Dept of Agriculture. Get it!
Average customer rating:
- How embarassing! Thankfully it's a forgettable read
- if i could rate this less i would!
- foxy lady on cover makes 4 bad reading
- Hard to read, hard to put down
- Entertaining
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Mad Cows
Kathy Lette
Manufacturer: Pan Books Limited
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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Contemporary
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ASIN: 0330334026 |
Book Description
Maddy's first day out with her newborn takes a Kafkaesque turn when she's arrested for shoplifting. The only person she can turn to is her ex-lover Alex, who proves himself as useful as a solar-powered vibrator on a rainy day. How do you brief a lawyer with a heat-seaking penis? And why is Maddy's friend Gillian searching for a sperm happy to get egg all over its face?
Customer Reviews:
How embarassing! Thankfully it's a forgettable read.......2005-05-12
This is another C grade novel from Ms Lette, who hit her peak in her teenage years with the book Puberty Blues (co written, incidently). Mad Cows offers the reader another unbelievable plot, unlikeable characters and those irritating recycled puns that Kathy is fond of using time and time again (in interviews, in the paper, on TV, etc.)
This book was turned into a straight to video movie that rivals "Blow Dry" as the worst British comedy ever made.
And what a shame, considering that Lette is married to such a classy guy, the QC Geoffrey Robertson, human rights lawyer.
Argh!
if i could rate this less i would!.......2005-04-24
this is by far the worst book i have ever read! if you are looking for something light, entertaining or even slightly comedic then keep looking past this book. The plot is slow and seemingly never ending, extremely unrealistic. At most this book is depressing.
foxy lady on cover makes 4 bad reading.......2002-02-22
this book was sort of bad... i didnt really enjoy it...it was supposed 2 be funny but not being a mother i guess i couldnt see the humor... i guess the author only writes 4 a certain audience...obviously not me. but whatever....its cool, no offense... 2 the point, the book was pretty boring, not that funny, pretty predictable, w/ a weak ending...
Hard to read, hard to put down.......2001-06-02
This book starts out so funny. Then the turns that this woman's life take really turn shocking. It was hard for me to read, but the wit was so refreshing I had to keep reading, just to get more of it. Kathy Lette definitely enjoys her dark side. I think most young women writers coming out today are totally borrowing from Kathy. From plot twists to sarcastic commentary, you can find everything in one of her books years before the others. I would've given it 5 stars, but it does plod at times and at a certain point, she just throws out one-liners sentence after sentence that are so clever, but need more space to be appreciated. Also, she quotes the prequel to this one - Foetal Attraction - too much. I know she wants to make sure everyone gets to hear her brilliant wit, but she should trust that they will read the other books if they like her. Other than these really minor points, it's brilliant.
Entertaining.......2000-12-08
This is a very funny and witty and easy to read book. Kathy is not the new writing genius of the nineties and doesn't seem to care. That's it.
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How the Cows Turned Mad: Unlocking the Mysteries of Mad Cow Disease
