One possible case of Mad Cow Disease " (Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy, (BSE)) has been found in the USA (as at 24th December 2003). The spinal cord is being shipped to England to confirm.

There may be concern among customers and distributors that Mad Cow Disease could effect Transfer Factor and your business in general. I would like to explain to you what BSE is and how it will not effect Transfer Factor nor your business.

First of all what is BSE? Here is a brief discription:

What is Mad Cow Disease?

Mad Cow Disease is the common term for Bovine Spongiform Encepholopathy (BSE), a progressive neurological disorder of cattle which can be transmitted to other species, including humans. In humans, it is called Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, after the two doctors who first described the symptoms of the disease.

The disease in cattle is called Bovine Spongiform Encepholopathy because this form of the disease occurs in cows (therefore, the term bovine), it causes a sponge-like destruction of the brain (therefore, the term spongiform encepholopathy - enceph means brain and pathy means pathology - meaning an abnormality).

What are the symptoms of Mad Cow Disease?

Symptoms include an excitable or nervous temperament to external stimuli such as touch to the skin, a progressive unsteadiness of gait resulting eventually in the inability to stand up. The disease is virtually 100% fatal.

The human equivalent of Mad Cow Disease, Cruetzfeldt-Jakob Disease, causes memory loss, emotional instability including inappropriate outbursts, an unsteady gait, progressing to marked weakness, severe rapidly progressive dementia and death, often within a year of the onset of symptoms.

What is the cause of Mad Cow Disease?

Currently the most accepted theory is that the causative agent is a modified form of a normal cell surface protein called a prion (pronounced PREE-ON) protein.

Where did Prions come from? Are they a type of virus or bacteria? What are they?

A prion is neither a virus nor a bacteria. Prions are proteins that contain no DNA or RNA, two substances previously felt to be essential for reproduction of a living tissue.

Prions are normal constituents of the body when in their normal form or conformation, but they can become twisted in a conformational change ( a change in shape - in the way the molecule is folded), and then they are thought to cause disease.

What is the chance that transfer factors could be contaminated by prions. None!

Is there any danger of contracting Mad Cow disease through the cow's colostrum or from extracted transfer factor?

Experts on mad cow disease have stated that BSE does not pass through the mammary glands into the colostrum. In examining all of the cows that became ill with mad cow disease, not one of them had infected milk, colostrum or mammary glands. Scientists have found that the prions exists in the brain and spinal cord. Milk has never been shown to have any infectivity. Even the cows that had BSE the milk from these thousands of cows had no prions!

World Health Organization:
"Tests on milk from BSE-infected animals have not shown any BSE infectivity, and there is evidence from other animal and human spongiform encephalopathies to suggest that milk will not transmit these diseases. Milk and milk products, even in countries with high incidence of BSE, are therefore considered safe."

Emerging Infectious Disease Journal:
"Many readers asked about the safety of milk and dairy products. Persuasive evidence indicates that these important consumables are risk free: milk from infected cows has been fed to, and injected into the brain of, susceptible RIII mice without transmitting disease. Even more convincingly, calves suckling gallons of milk from their infected mothers have not contracted the disease." Wilesmith JW, Ryan JBM. Absence of BSE in the offspring of pedigree suckler cows affected by BSE in Great Britain. Vet Rec 1997;141:250-1.

What about the fear that TF could be contaminated?
In light of scientific evidence that BSE or prions cannot pass through the mammary gland into the colostrum or transfer factors. It has never happened even in thousands of infected cows. If there was a continued concern, 4Life has the capacity to completely change its source of transfer factors from bovine (cows) to chickens. We are secure with 4life. 4Life Research is prepared for this challenge.

Ref   Mike Akins on December 24, 2003 at 03:57:33