MAPLE GRIEF  - By Mark Purdey 

R-Calf’s misguided action against the USDA will backfire, and end up shooting all US ranchers in the foot.

But one of the main US cattle groups, known as R Calf, are not helping matters. In fact, their current actions to sue the USDA for rightly planning to lift the block on Canadian beef imports across the border is a misguided madness. R Calf’s actions will ultimately shoot their own ranching businesses in the foot. They are merely feeding the momentum of the myth of the mad cow "crisis", which will devour them all up in the end.

But since R-Calf are trying to blockade Canadian beef imports on the basis of a unproven, bogus argument – that the hyper-infectious protein-only contagion contained in BSE affected beef (albeit the three Canadian cases ) will pose a gave threat to US livestock/human health - then they are going to establish the misguided mindset within the ranks of their own marketplace. But R Calf’s actions will backfire on them in the end; for the moment another case of the BSE rears its ugly head on the US side of the border, then the US rancher will have to face the full frontal consequences of their own myth mongering.

When I lectured to a group of these folk at Billings in Montana, one of the questions from the floor raised the issue of a live cow/infected feed study conducted in the UK, as though this work had provided the ultimate evidence that totally justified the current hyper-infectious paranoia of the global health authorities towards BSE.

Single unpublished experiment represents the sole basis behind the global gospel on BSE.

In fact, the whole global policy on BSE has been forged on the basis of this single, unpublished, non peer reviewed study that has purportedly involved the successful induction of BSE in 11 of 16 cows that had been fed massive oral doses of brainstem taken from BSE affected cows – a dosage that no ‘on-farm’ cow would ever be likely to consume throughout its entire lifetime.

But even if transmission has been successful in these trials, we must remember that transmission does not necessarily imply an infection. You could merely be transmitting a toxic agent – as is the true cause of BSE. e.g.; A toxic, heat resistant metal micro-crystal that seeds the growth of an aberrant metal protein crystal aggregation once it gets implanted into the brain of a new host.

But the UK government’s account of this all important wee study seems to vary dramatically – depending upon who is being told about it. The fact that these trial cows had been purchased off the ordinary British farm (and remember, BSE is probably seeded in early life, perhaps even during ‘in utero’ stages) indicates that these studies were scientifically flawed from the outset. And the small number of cows involved also invalidates the usefulness of the trial – whatever the outcome.

But the fact that the whole world has designed its BSE policy on the back of such an insignificant, unpublished study is woefully weird , to say the least. Whenever governments have called their opposing forces, to provide evidence at public inquiries (such as myself), they rightly deem it imperative that any evidence submitted to the hearings must have already been profiled in the peer reviewed academic literature. But, true to government form, it is one set of rules for the Establishment, and another, far more stringent set for their opponents.

Furthermore, the UK government has been giving out contradictory statements on both the protocols and timing/dates of this study. For some Canadian rancher friends, the Czar family, had written to the UK government asking about these tests, yet were told in the response that this experiment was still in progress (and only a total of ‘ten cows’ involved!) and would be published shortly. But, seven years ago, one of the most truthful government officials, Mr Tom Eddy, had informed my brother, Nigel Purdey, over the details of these live cow tests and how they already had been completed with positive results. Again, no peer reviewed publication could be located. Nine months ago, the government informed me that these trials were complete and the results had been submitted to the EU commission. But in the absence of any journal publication, what are we to believe?