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.
The USDA 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 (BSE). The USDA said it could take another week to complete final tests.
How this will affect the cattle business I have no idea but I find the theory interesting for one reason. Since the whole BSE thing blew up in the US I have privately speculated that there is a form of BSE 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 BSE. BSE 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.
I am not saying the natural occurring kind and artificial kind of BSE 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.
Logic is not a body of doctrine, but a mirror-image of the world. Logic is transcendental. Ludwig Wittgenstein
