Who Cares

<a href="http://www.brownfieldnetwork.com/gestalt/go.cfm?objectid=DCA9A375-F000-AD9E-A311AA3E2AFF173A" >Birth cohort of <acronym title="Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy">BSE</acronym>-positive cow slaughtered in U.S.</a><br />n<br />n<blockquote>In February, Canada found the ninth case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (<acronym title="Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy">BSE</acronym>) on its soil. It involved a seven year-old bull in Alberta. And it turns out it's possible the mother of that bull also gave birth to an animal that got exported to the U.S. for slaughter in 2002 and ended up in a Nebraska packing plant.<br />n<br />nWhat's confirmed is that a member of the "birth cohort" of the <acronym title="Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy">BSE</acronym>-positive Albertan bull did get exported to a Nebraska feedlot and slaughtered at a packing plant in the state. Being in the birth cohort means that the mother of the exported animal was, at a minimum, born within 12-months of the mother that gave birth to the <acronym title="Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy">BSE</acronym>-positive bull. And it's possible the mother of the <acronym title="Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy">BSE</acronym>-positive bull and the mother of the exported animal could be one in the same.</blockquote><br />n<br />nSo, who really cares about this. <acronym title="Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy">BSE</acronym> isn't transmitted between "birth cohorts" or from mother to calf so this is a lot of smoke about nothing. <br />n<br />nPut another way, because my son is autistic, does that mean my other kids will be autistic? Of course not and this <acronym title="Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy">BSE</acronym> case is the same way.<br />n<br />nWhy this even made the news is beyond me. It has no relative merit in the real world.<br />n<br />n<strong>If everything is very important, then nothing is important. Brian Mulroney </strong>