Mad Cow Proposal

Emily Martin
eamartin@usieagles.org
English 201.501
Proposal
776 words

A Research Proposal: Mad Cow Disease

A General Framework

I want to research my chosen topic of Mad Cow Disease, also known as Creutzfeldt - Jakobs disease, Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy or Prion Disease, because out of all the topics brought up in Fast Food Nation this is the only thing that seemed interesting to me. I am interested in the problems with food in our country such as this disease or 0157.H7 E. Coli. I had a close family member pass away from the disease, and have been interested in his struggle for some time. I also want to research it because there is so much still unknown about the specifics of the disease, such as how it is contracted or how many people are diagnosed with it each year. I would also like to know what government officials and specific government agencies are doing to prevent people from getting it.

A special experience that prepares me for the research is the loss of my grandfather from the disease. He and I were very close and I would like to know what could have been done to prevent his illness, if anything. I have witnessed its effects first hand, but want to know more than its physical affects on the brain and body. I am also fascinated by medical marvels or better yet medical mysteries such as how this disease works or why it mimics the actions of other diseases like that of Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease.

I hope to learn how someone can prevent contracting Mad Cow Disease. I also want to learn more about the statistics of the disease. As I mentioned before, I want to know more of what, when, where, and how our government is going to protect its citizens from infected meat and what they are going to do if there is another outbreak, possibly one in the United States.

I do not expect my professor or classmates to know much about the disease other than the basics, being that you get it from cow brains. I do expect that they have heard of it from the media seeing that the last major outbreak occurred in the United Kingdom in 1993. I am pretty sure that many have no idea what it really is.

Establishing a Specific Focus

Mad Cow Disease in the United Kingdom peaked in January 1993 with nearly 1,000 cases of Mad Cow Disease being reported each week. However, the disease is known to lie dormant in a subject for many years before it takes over, so a specific time period is hard to determine.

Geographically, the disease is seen all around the globe. It has been diagnosed in patients from the UK, France, Ireland, the United States, Canada, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, and Spain. I am hoping to keep my focus in the United Kingdom and the United States, but with cattle being shipped around the world, I have a feeling it will be difficult.

From my personal experience with the disease and trying to prove that my grandfather had it, I have found that the limitations on the information and diagnosis of the disease are great in the United States. Certain government agencies, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention and Food and Drug Administration would like to look the other way and keep Mad Cow Disease as “hush hush” as possible and out of the media seeing as the government controls a large number of cattle farms and meat processing plants, and export our “clean” meat to foreign countries like the United Kingdom at a higher cost because they have such a bad reputation for their tainted meat. I am going to try and work around the limitations to discover as much about the disease as possible, but no government cover up is easy to work around.

The historical and critical contexts are nearly the same. I hope to show that the disease has been around for a hundred years or more and it is more prevalent than previously thought. It is important for people to know the facts of the disease to maintain their safety.

I hope to answer the questions who, what, when, where, why, and how. Who is susceptible to the disease; man, women, children, elderly? What causes the diseases; raw meat, bacteria, poor processing conditions? What is being done to prevent it? When can you become infected; immediately or is it dormant? Where can you contract the disease; in the United States, at home, restaurants? Why the disease is kept secret? And lastly, how does it progress and how can people protect themselves from getting it.

Potential Sources

Boen, Jennifer L. “’Mad Cow’ variant not now a risk: only 3 vCJD cases in the US were confirmed; all had link to UK beef.” Knight Ridder Tribune Business News (16 June 2007): 3 pg. 2 Aug 2007 http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?index

“BSE (Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy, or Mad Cow Disease).” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (18 May 2007): 3 pg. 2 Aug. 2007 http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvrd/bse/index.htm.

“BSE (Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy, or Mad Cow Disease) BSE Control Measures.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (27 June 2007): 1 pg. 2 Aug. 2007 http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvrd/bse/prevention.htm

“CJD (Creutzfeldt – Jakob Disease, Classic).” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (13 April 2007): 2 pg. 2 Aug 2007 http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvrd/cjd/

“Creutzfeldt – Jakob Disease (Variant) and Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (Prion Diseases).” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (10 Mar 2007): 4 pg. 2 Aug. 2007 http://www.cdc.gov/print.do?url

“Creutzfeldt – Jakob Disease Epidemiology; New Creutzfeldt – Jakob disease epidemiology research reported from National Institute of Public Health, Department of Epidemiology.” Medical Letter on the CDC & FDA (Aug. 2007): 2 pg. 2 Aug. 2007 http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?index

“Creutzfeldt – Jakob Disease; Scientists at Centers for Disease Control and Prevention detail research in Creutzfeldt – Jakob Disease.” Pain & Central Nervous System Week (29 Jan. 2007): 2 pg. 2 Aug 2007 http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?index

Disney, Helen. “Food policy proves hard to digest.” Public Finance (16 Feb 2007): 3 pg. 2 Aug. 2007 http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?index

D T Max. “An Invisible Epidemic.” Psychology Today (Sept/Oct. 2006): 4 pg. 2 Aug. 2007 http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?index

“Mad Cow Disease; Study findings from University of Erlangen provide new insights into Mad Cow Disease.” Pain & Central Nervous System Week (30 July 2007): 2 pg. 2 Aug 2007 http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?index

Tiffin, Helen. “Foot in Mouth: Animals, Disease, and the Cannibal Complex.” Mosaic: a Journal for the Interdisciplinary Study of Literature (Mar 2007): 9 pg. 2 Aug. 2007 http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?index

Wheeler, Tracy. “Groups to dispel myths of rare Creutzfeldt – Jakob Disease: CJD Foundation to raise awareness with DVDs, a seminar for nurses.” Knight Ridder Tribune Business News (24 June 2007): 3 pg. 2 Aug 2007 http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?index