"Name withheld by request" wrote in message
...

Considering that the British Mad Cow crisis destroyed the UK beef
market,

Actually, at the moment UK beef prices , you know, that destroyed industry,
is currently got beef prices slightly higher than the US.



How much higher is a matter of debate. Dr. Richard Lacey, a leading
microbiologist whose early warnings were ignored by the British
government,

for good reason, he was predicting up to a million dead, the current
estimate is about 400.


Many drugs are derived from cattle, including growth hormones from
pituitary glands; adrenaline products; cortisone; insulin for
diabetics; and medications for the treatment of stomach ulcers.
Thromboplastin, a common blood coagulant used in surgery, is derived
from bovine brains. Pituitary extracts from Mad Cows (as well as
human donors with CJD) have been traced as the cause of CJD infection
in recipients.

yeah, like in the UK where all UK vaccines etc were produced on bovine
foetal serum. Pity we couldn't oblige you with millions of dead but current
estimate is probably 400.

This is the usual hysterical rubbish that the UK was deluged under for
years. Looks like you poor sods are going to get it now.

I'm sure Oz wouldn't mind if I repost the following of his

Jim Webster

Something I came across, just for fun.

Less than 150,000 cases. Ferguson NM, Ghani AC, Donnelly CA, Hagenaars TJ,
Anderson RM.
Estimating the human health risk from possible BSE infection of the British
sheep
flock. Nature. 2002 Jan 24;415(6870):420-4.

Less than 870,000. Ghani AC, Donnelly CA, Ferguson NM, Anderson RM.
Assessment of the
prevalence of vCJD through testing tonsils and appendices for abnormal prion
protein.
Proc R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2000 Jan 7;267(1438):23-9. (this is calculated
on the
numbers that could be worked out by testing the tonsils of apparently normal
people but
it depends on incubation periods for vCJD being known and that is a
difficult
calculation)

Less than millions. Ghani AC, Ferguson NM, Donnelly CA, Hagenaars TJ,
Anderson RM.
Epidemiological determinants of the pattern and magnitude of the vCJD
epidemic in Great
Britain. Proc R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 1998 Dec 22;265(1413):2443-52. This
article
explains why it will be difficult to put any specific figure on the total
number
without incubation period data or a change in the prevalence of disease
indicating a
peak of disease.

100-10,000,000. Dealler SF, Kent J. BSE: an update on the statistical
evidence. British
Food Journal. November 1995. This calculates the numbers by assuming that
bovine
tissues would contain similar infectivity to other species at a similar
point in their
incubation period and henc the dose given to human in the UK.

'few hundred'-millions. d'Aignaux JN, Cousens SN, Smith PG. Predictability
of the UK
variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease epidemic. Science. 2001 Nov
23;294(5547):1729-31.
They use back calculation like Dealler and come to similar figures.

Less than 100,000. Cousens SN, Vynnycky E, Zeidler M, Will RG, Smith PG.
Predicting the
CJD epidemic in humans. Nature. 1997 Jan 16;385(6613):197-8. This uses
several levels
of incubation period in predictions but still does not use very long ones as
would be
expected. They admit that at that time is is difficult to predict.

Less than 403. Valleron AJ, Boelle PY, Will R, Cesbron JY. Estimation of
epidemic size
and incubation time based on age characteristics of vCJD in the United
Kingdom.
Science. 2001 Nov 23;294(5547):1726-8. This depends on taking the case
distribution of
vCJD to fulfil specific factors then the incubation period is around 16
years (actually
quite reasonable - editor). It is possible, however that some of their
criteria are not
correct.

--
Oz
This post is worth absolutely nothing and is probably fallacious.
Note: soon (maybe already) only posts via despammed.com will be accepted.