That article is very disappointing. It fails to mention the previous cases of VCJD documented in an in depth expose done by the now defunct Denver Rocky Mountain News. It was titled "Killer in the herds" or words to that effect.
I lived outside Denver in the beginning years of this century. I settled there after 15 plus years in the Navy. The mention of mad cow? I was stationed at Site One, the ballistic submarine refit facility located in the Argyleshire countryside at place called Holy Loch, in Scotland through the height of mad cow. Our status of forces agreement with our UK hosts required us to sell UK beef in the commissary. The Red Cross has determined those 2 years have made my blood unacceptable for donation.
When the DRMN special report came out, I was back at sea, working in the oil patch off the Louisiana coast. The HR manager for the company I worked for was crazy about hunting in Colorado. I asked him if he heard of chronic wasting yet, he said he was unaware of it. When I went home after my hitch, I contacted the DRMN and asked them if I could make a pdf of their report to share with folks interested in coming to CO from away, to hunt. They were most unwilling to allow that. I asked about reprints I could buy, they said they'd consider making it available for purchase. That decision was not made prior to them going under with the advent of the interwebs.
Anyway, in their report they talk about a couple of hunters who consumed venison almost exclusively, and how their behavior changed, and their quick deaths. The report also documents how downer cows were turned into feed supplements, and fed to the cows on the concentrated agricultural feeding operations on the eastern side of CO, how the sale of this ground up cows was halted in the US, but the producers of it were allowed to continue making it, selling it to our neighbor to the south, and how we live imported that cattle back into our country, slaughtering, processing, and selling the meat in our retail food system.
Sorry for the long winded post. I think MSN did a terrible job reporting on chronic wasting, mad cow, and vcjd.
