Alderspring RanchGrass Fed Beef is: Grown by us on our high mountain ranch in Idaho Grazed on certified organic and transitional pastures Fed only pasture and hay; nothing else, ever Never given chemicals of any kind (no antibiotcs, no hormones, no pesticides) Dry-aged 18-21 days, the old world way Hand carved and packaged

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BSE  (bovine spongiform encephalopathy) or Mad Cow Disease

BSE is one of a class of fatal brain diseases generally called transmissible spongiform encephalopathies.  These include scrapie (in sheep and present in the US), chronic wasting disease (in deer and elk and present in the US, especially in the Rocky Mountains, but growing more common in the upper Midwest), trransmissible mink encephalopathy  (an outbreak occurred in the US when farm raised mink were fed meat from “downer” cull dairy cows), as well as BSE (in cows) and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD and vCJD in humans).

These diseases are characterized by a long incubation period of up to several years, during which there is no visible indication of the disease. The incubation period for BSE among cattle ranges from three to eight years; for vCJD among humans, the incubation period is unknown, but is at least five years and could extend up to 20 years or longer.  The name is based on the major effect: as the disease progresses the brain becomes riddled with spongeline holes, with associated neurological impairment. The diseases are invariably fatal; there is no known treatment or cure.

We rarely eat meat unless we’ve grown it ourselves.  Our concern that US meat supplies may be tainted come from four problems we see in the industry:  1) imported beef products labeled as USDA inspected and commingled with domestic product; 2) loopholes in the ruminant protein feed ban; 3) the use of old cows for hamburger and other processed beef products; and 4) the industry drive to fatten cattle as cheaply as possible.  As Jo Robinson says on her EAT WILD  web site: “Can an industry that saves costs by fattening ruminants on pizza crust, chicken feathers, gummy bears, chicken manure, candy bars, bubble gum, cement dust, and ground-up telephone books be relied upon to produce a safe product?”
 

1) IMPORTED BEEF

The U.S. imports over 20% of the beef consumed.  Some of this imported beef carries a USDA quality grade stamp, leading consumers to believe it is a domestic product raised with the safeguards currently in place in the US.  This is not necessarily true.  According to Commerce Department figures, over 90% of all hamburger consumed in the U.S. is blended with imported beef and beef byproducts, and because of the commingling that occurs during processing, a pound of ground beef may contain meat from many companies and countries. 

In 1999 – 2000, the US imported beef from Canada, Mexico, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Chile, Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, United Kingdom, Ireland, Austria, Spain, Italy, Norway, Switzerland, Croatia, United Arab Emirates, Nigeria, Thailand, China, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and Other Pacific Islands.  (information from USDA, via an R-CALF position paper 5 August 2001).  Several of these countries have BSE. (Read more about imports and country of origin labeling)

You can be assured that our animals are born in east central Idaho, and live their lives quietly on our lush pastures and stored forages until they are ready to be enjoyed by your family. They are fed no supplements other than minerals.  They are born to our own healthy mother cows.

2) LOOPHOLES

Sandra Blakeslee wrote a series on the possibility of BSE in the United States for the NY Times.  On Jan 11 1999 she wrote: “Among 180 large companies that render cattle and another ruminant, sheep, nearly a quarter were not properly labeling their products and did not have a system to prevent commingling, the FDA said. And among 347 FDA-licensed feed mills that handle ruminant materials--these tend to be large operators that mix drugs into their products--20 percent were not using labels with the required caution statement, and 25 percent did not have a system to prevent commingling. Then there are some 6,000 to 8,000 feed mills so small they do not require FDA licenses. They are nonetheless subject to the regulations, and of 1,593 small feed producers that handle ruminant material and have been inspected, 40 percent were not using approved labels and 25 percent had no system in place to prevent commingling.”

In the January 14 issue, Blakeslee describes how US feed companies, pet food companies, pharmaceutical firms, and nutritional supplement manufacturers have been importing large quantities of possibly contaminated bovine parts and rendered animal protein from Britain.  She writes "British export statistics show that 20 tons of 'meals of meat or offal' that were 'unfit for human consumption' and probably intended for animals were sent to the United States in 1989. And 37 tons were exported to the US in 1997, well after the government banned imports of such risky meat."

Read Blakeslee’s complete articles: 
Many Makers of Feed Fail to Heed Rules on Mad Cow Disease.  NY Times 1/11/2001
Stringent Steps Taken by U.S. on Cow Illness.  NY Times 1/14/2001
Also read about the results of testing Canadian feed.  Canada uses a feed monitoring system very similar to ours.

Alderspring Ranch Grass Fed Beef is not fed any commercial feedstuffs, eliminating the chance of infection from poor handling by a feed mill.

3)  USE OF CULL COWS

Older cows that no longer serve for producing calves are usually sold as “cull cows” and ground up into hamburger, made into hotdogs, or used in processed foods such as canned soup.  Cull cows considered unfit for human consumption are rendered into animal protein that can still be used the production of chicken, pork and fish farm fish, as well as used in pet food.  Scientists have generally agreed that BSE or BSE-like diseases "spontaneously" appear in "one out of every million humans, cows, sheep and many other mammals. Since 36 million cattle are slaughtered annually in the United States, about 36 cows spontaneously infected with mad cow disease could be entering the nation's food chain each year."   Because of commingling that occurs during processing, a single infected cow could affect a large amount of processed product.

We do not sell you old cows.  Alderspring Beef comes from animals less than 24 months old.

4)   THE FEEDLOT DIET

It amazes us what feedlots will use to fatten cattle.  We are especially concerned about the widespread use of “broiler litter” which is simply the wastes from chickens in chicken houses.  Because chickens can still be fed ruminant protein (parts from cattle left over from processing or whole cows unfit for human consumption), we wonder if chickens can act as infectious agents by carrying prions from their feed, excreting them in the chicken waste, which can then infect cattle fed broiler litter.

Our animals eat what they were designed to eat: grass and forages.  No byproducts of any production process except the sun!

ADDITIONAL READING AND LINKS
 

Over 7500 articles on mad cow disease from the Sperling Biomedical Foundation at the “Official Mad Cow Website.”  This site archives articles from 1995-2000.
The effort has been continued by Dr. Michael Gregor at the Organic Consumers Association website.  You can also search the archives from the “Official” site from this location.

English organic farmer Mark Purdey is convinced that organophosphate insecticides (the kind common in pour-on insecticides such as WARBEX and fly tags used in the US) is a causative agent in BSE.  We use only pyrethroid-based fly tags. 
The Purdey Environmental Home Page: Organophosphates, BSE, CJD
An Underground Scientific Journey into the Origins of Spongiform Disease
Could the scientists be wrong on mad cow disease?
 

Can it happen here?  The puzzle of mad cow disease
A fairly succinct, but comprehensive summary of BSE and other similar diseases from Dr. Joseph Mercola’s website

Mad Cow U.S.A.  Could the Nightmare Happen Here?  By Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber. 
Somewhat dated, but a good read. You can download the book for free.
Some reviews:
   "Most accessible and informative... a lively account...The language is clear and straightforward... Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber tell this larger tale with style, aided by accounts of some richly colourful characters. ... Their exhaustive exploration of the people, the ideas and the growing understanding of TSEs is thought-provoking... dancing prose."   --New Scientist, April 4, 1998
   "In a first-rate piece of investigative journalism, Rampton and Stauber piece together the best synthesis of the problem I've seen. Mad Cow U.S.A. is an important book. And it reads like a detective story."
--Timothy B. McCall, M.D., author of Examining Your Doctor: A Patient's Guide to Avoiding Harmful Medical Care

Cattle feed violates ban: federal tests: Animal remnants found in 4 brands
January 7, 2005
National Post 
April Lindgren, with files from Chad Skelton 
Source: CanWest News Service 
Federal tests have, according to this story, discovered that four brands of Canadian cattle feed likely included cattle or other ruminant parts in violation of a ban on animal remains designed to protect against mad cow disease.
Sergio Tolusso of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency was cited as saying the feed and feed ingredients were sold as being free of animal matter, but microscopic examinations detected animal material in 66 of 110 samples tested between January and March, 2004.
Mr. Tolusso, the agency's feed program co-ordinator, was quoted as saying that
subsequent inspections of feed mills led officials to conclude "there were some cases where it was more likely than others that it could be ruminant protein. We are looking at four cases where we thought it [feed] could be material of ruminant origin."
Mr. Tolusso played down any risk the material could lead to the spread of mad-cow disease.
About half of the 110 samples were taken from imported feed products, while the balance came from Canadian mills. CFIA officials would not release the names or locations of the four plants.
Christine Aquino, spokeswoman for federal Agriculture Minister Andy Mitchell, was quoted as saying regular inspections and audits of the country's 550 feed mills have shown "a very high compliance with the feed ban."

The U.S. Agriculture Department, according to this story, allowed American meatpackers to resume imports of ground and other "processed" beef from Canada last September, just weeks after it publicly reaffirmed its ban on importing those products because mad cow disease had been found in Canadian cattle. 
The story says that in the next six months, a total of 33 million pounds of Canadian processed beef flowed to American consumers under a series of undisclosed permits the USDA issued to the meatpackers, permits that remained in effect until a federal judge intervened in April.