Speculation

I found <a href="http://wireservice.wired.com/wired/story.asp?section=Breaking&storyId=1050153&tw=wn_wire_story">this</a> speculation/story interesting on the latest case of <acronym title="Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy">BSE</acronym>.<br />n<br />n<blockquote>A rare and puzzling form of mad cow disease that some believe arises spontaneously may have afflicted the U.S. animal that tested positive for the ailment last week, a senior Agriculture Department scientist told Reuters.<br />n<br />nThe <acronym title="United States Department of Agriculture, Bought and Paid for by The Big Meat Packers">USDA</acronym> has sent a sample of the suspect animal's brain to an internationally recognized laboratory in England to pinpoint if the animal has bovine spongiform encephalopathy (<acronym title="Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy">BSE</acronym>). The <acronym title="United States Department of Agriculture, Bought and Paid for by The Big Meat Packers">USDA</acronym> said it could take another week to complete final tests.</blockquote><br />n<br />nHow this will affect the cattle business I have no idea but I find the theory interesting for one reason. Since the whole <acronym title="Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy">BSE</acronym> thing blew up in the US I have privately speculated that there is a form of <acronym title="Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy">BSE</acronym> that is naturally occurring in cattle and it will eventually be picked up with the increased testing methods. I mean really it's only logical. There is Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease which occurs naturally in humans and is very rare and can be distinguished from Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease which is caused by <acronym title="Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy">BSE</acronym>. <acronym title="Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy">BSE</acronym> is a disease cattle got from sheep originally and have passed to humans but might there not be a naturally occurring version, that is extremely rare and strikes cattle only just like Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease? To me the logic is there.<br />n<br />nI am not saying the natural occurring kind and artificial kind of <acronym title="Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy">BSE</acronym> should be treated any differently but it wouldn't surprise me if the increased testing standards would turn it up some day. I think it's there and will need dealt with.<br />n<br />n<b>Logic is not a body of doctrine, but a mirror-image of the world. Logic is transcendental. Ludwig Wittgenstein</b>