Former cattle rancher Howard Lyman appeared on Wednesday's show discussing the increasing danger of Mad Cow Disease in the US. Called CJD when it affects humans, it was thought to be relatively rare. But Lyman referenced a study that showed that as many as 6 to 13% of Alzheimer patients may have been misdiagnosed, as they tested positive for CJD, which is associated with brain deterioration.

The problem, he said, has developed because cows are fed ground up animal parts, allowing disease-causing prions to spread. Because the illness can take a number of years to incubate, the animals often don't look sick. "Surveillance in the US is an absolute sham," opined Lyman, who said that over a 13 year period, only 57,000 out of millions of cattle in this country were tested for the disease. The government attitude is "don't look, don't find," he said.

Lyman, who advocates eating an organic vegan diet, said 40% of hamburger meat actually comes from "old spent dairy cows," that became too feeble to stand. "The majority of poultry inspectors would not eat the product they were inspecting," he added. Further, he warned that a large percentage of pet food is made up of rendered animal parts which may have prions. To avoid such products, he said to watch out for ingredients listed as "digest" or "bypass protein" which are code words for ground up animals.

Bumper Music

Bumper music from Wednesday January 07, 2004