Wednesday, October 03, 2007

Udderly Insane?

Have you herd (pun intended) the latest news on mastitis?

What Is Bovine Mastitis?

For those who don't know what bovine mastitis is...

In dairy cows, bovine mastitis is a common bacterial disease of the mammary that causes the udder to be painful and swollen. It has been associated with overproduction of milk. Cows that are injected with rBGH are believed to be prone to mastitis.

Even so, here in the USA, many scientists believe... "The gram negative bacterium, Escherichia coli is responsible for most cases of bovine mastitis in North America."

Yes... there's that ugly E. Coli bacterium popping up again.

By now, just about everyone has heard about some strains or versions of it; particularly since it's been popping up so frequently in our food supply in recent years.

But with regards to bovine mastitis, here's something you might not have heard about:
The USDA is promoting a potentially disastrous strategy for controlling mastitis in cows that could enhance a host of other diseases and create new disease agents. Prof. Joe Cummins (link)
To fight E. coli mastitis in dairy cows, the USDA/ARS's mad scientists have been feverishly at work adultering tobacco plants to produce a CHEAP new protein (called CD14) which they say can reduce the severity of mastitis.

So, in addition to that massive tax slam on cigarette taxes, after reading the brief article at this link, we have one more reason to quit.

What else might be affected besides tobacco?

We-ell... it kinda makes you wonder if this delightful little protein has been added to your milk in recent years, doesn't it? You'll understand why after reading the article.

TTFN

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Karen from all the studys that I have looked at smoking has a greater health risk to a person than a cafo. Just wondered what your thought is on it. I don't know if you smoke or not I just saw how you complained on how they just added more takes on tabacco.

kmyers said...

Thanks for commenting.

I am not aware of any studies that have been completed directly comparing smoking to cafos and the related health risks, so I cannot comment regarding what you have claimed to have found.

If you have a link to such a study (or studies), I would appreciate you posting it (or them) here.

But regarding your comment on taxes (I'm assuming that's what you meant by "takes" in your comment?) ...it was quite stunning to see that, as of October 1, Jasper County is now the HIGHEST in all of Indiana for income taxes.

We're followed closely only by Benton County. Most other counties have half -- or in many cases, less than half -- the amount of County income tax.

It's interesting to see that some of the highest concentrations of Dairy Cafos wind up with some of the highest income taxes -- or at least it appears to be happening in Indiana.

Dare I draw the conclusion that: More Cafos = More Income Taxes?

Or should it be:
More Cafos = More Taxes!

Your thoughts?

Anonymous said...

Are you so narrow minded that you cannot even grasp the concept that smoking is one of the most harmful things that has ever happened to mankind. Take some time and do some reseach and find out how many death are related to smoking each year. When you are finished with that look up the same thing about cafo's. I do apologize for my grammar on the first post I guess we are all not as perfect as Karen Meyers...

kmyers said...

I was wrong regarding taxes.

Jasper County is the second highest. Pulaski comes out on top as the highest income taxed county in Indiana by a hair. We're 2nd, followed closely by Benton.

Regarding the smoking thing. Yes, there are plenty of studies confirming the harm smoking can do. BUT no, there are NO studies comparing harm from smoking to harm from CAFOs. Simply put, no direct comparison studies have been done.

I'm guessing that such a comparison study could be quite daunting. One would have to factor in illnesses caused through the entire food chain -- including waterborne illnesses, airborne illnesses, foodborne illnesses, antibacterial resistant diseases and emerging diseases -- to provide proof none of them occurred as a byproduct of CAFO and/or CFO style farming methods... all that would have to be completed before being able to draw any solid conclusions, or failing that, the studies would be without merit.

Interestingly enough, there has been plenty of research into the survivability rates for; e coli, salmonella, lysteria, etc. Scientists are well aware how long each of these can survive on food, on land, on plants and in water... and in some cases, even airborne.

As for smoking being "one of the most harmful things that has ever happened to mankind" -- I'm guessing you're ignoring the plague, Spanish Flu, the World Wars, nuclear accidents and bombs, etc. etc. etc.

That's a bit of a narrow minded view you have, in my humble opinion.

Smoking is perhaps one of the easiest to trace causes for illness ...and one of the most preventable, so if you had stated it this way, I might have concurred with you.

Not a problem on the grammer. When I get rushed, I make mistakes, too. And I'm willing to admit my mistakes when I make them. Ummmm... you spelled my name wrong.