The only way you're going to catch BSE is if you eat an infected cow's brain. Beef is perfectly safe. Here, go read Eric, he'll tell you. He's a former FDA meat inspector and is currently the head at the meat packing plant he works at of saftey or inspections or something. Maybe safety means not slipping and falling into the meat packing machines. He also provides a plausible infection vector for WA. http://www.1ryderfakin.com/ERIC14.htm Also, Eric suggests that beef prices are going to go up, rather than down, though as a side-effect rather than direct result. You know what is even freakier? My wife is from the town where it happened. She isn't surprised that there are wierdos there who eat cow brains. Kisc Timothy Nelson wrote: > Mad cow (BSE) and its human counterpart are scary simply because of the > method of transfer. You can reduce a piece of meat to cinders and it will > still be able to infect someone, just via the denatured proteins. No > pathogen is involved -- to me, that's VERY frightening. > > Then again, it is possible that this disease (despite the small number of > cases, its interesting) will prompt more research into stem cell > research...you never know. :) > > - Tim > > >