BSE

[Bizzy Lizzy]

I heard on the lunchtime news that BSE has again been found in one cow in Wales. No part of the cow entered the food chain apparently. My question is: If this flares up again would you want to give up eating beef? Did you give up beef the last time this disease was around?

[Libra Gran]

No wecarried on as usual, far too many of these scare tactics around, one minute it's okay to eat something, the next they say it's bad for us.

[Plantaholic]

Not a big red meat eater, can't remember what we did the last BSE outbreak

[Daisy]

We don't eat much beef anyway, but I don't remember that we gave it up last time there was a BSE scare.

[Nanto2girls]

Beef is our favourite meat,we just carried on as normal when the disease was around last time.

[Gemini]

I can't eat beef as it is one of my worst ibs triggers. I would stay away from it during a scare if I did eat
it, and certainly wouldn't feed it to a child.

[Oma]

No we didnt avoid it im with Libra on this far too many scares and do and dont s . Im not a big red meat lover anyway though so dont eat a great deal of it

[Bizzy Lizzy]

I can't eat beef as it is one of my worst ibs triggers. I would stay away from it during a scare if I did eat
it, and certainly wouldn't feed it to a child.

That is interesting Gem, I didn't realise that beef has a bad effect on the digestion. I don't really eat much beef and stopped eating it totally when the previous scare was around and, as you say, definitely would not feed it a child as they seem to be at the highest risk. The incident of vCJD in humans since the last scare has not been as high as was predicted but the condition can take many years to develop (previous called a slow-virus and seen in people over 50). The new disease is now seen in teenagers and young people which make it worse somehow. We were talking about offal a while ago and I think there is a greater risk with that than the muscle meat. Not a big worry for us as I no longer cook beef of any kind. Not because of BSE but just because I try to avoid red meat and we eat a lot of vegetarian meals. The Government says there is nothing to worry about which I always find worrying

[Plantaholic]

I knew a lady who was in our swimming group who died of CJD but she had been living in France for a long time. Dreadful death apparently, she was such an attractive smart lady

[Gemini]

One of my late clients brothers died of it. When you know of someone rather than it just being a news story, it seems more 'real'.

[Bizzy Lizzy]

Yes it is a nasty disease and although all neurological diseases are horrible I think this is one of the worse.

[Nana]

My DD2's ex boyfriend died of the disease too. Very young & a very painful death.

I'm staying on a working Dairy farm in Wales til the end of the week & I can't imagine how the farmer would recover from it, if it ever happened to his herd. He's already struggling with the low price of milk. His son couldn't believe I've never touched a cow. 😂

[Glammanana]

If one cow has tested positive surely there must be others carrying the disease it stands to reason doesn't it,how sorry I feel for the farmers if it did raise its ugly head again,we don't eat alot of beef to be honest but when we lived abroad we did use a lot of Argentine beef,we now use mainly chicken/pork but there is bound to be a scare element on those again some time in the future.