If I understand the story correctly, they thought the cow had pneumonia (which isn’t good for cows, but doesn’t damage their meat), so they killed it and made it into food. Much later they said, hmm, let’s test it — oh crap. Eat it, get brain-sponge. :mad:

It was extreme ineptness on their part, Adrianne - I really don’t understand how they could not have done the testing part slightly before they decided to turn the cow into food - Thank God, I don’t feed my dogs any beef ;)

IIRC, the mad-cow test takes a couple months for a definitive answer.

Good point, Chris - but shouldn’t it be the responsibility of the government to not let the diseased beef mix with healthy beef till the tests are out at least?

Even if the cows died of Mad Cow Disease (BSE), eating their flesh does not put dogs at risk, only their owners (if they eat dog food.) According to this month’s Scientific American, the Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) that is affecting deer & elk populations in Canada & the U.S. has been found to be transmissible to feline predators, but not wolves (= wild dogs.) BSE & CWD are probably the exact same disease, caused by prions which originated with domestic sheep, who get the same thing, called scrapie in their case. So Fido, chow down!!

Thanks for the info, nenamldu. It is still a point of worry that if Canada allowed the contaminated beef to get into dog food this time, they might allow it to get into human food next. One can’t be too careful about stuff like this.

I’m not sure to what extent this statement is true.