Beef Disease Persuasive Essay

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Scientists believe that it may not be safe to eat beef products. Several years ago the disease BSE or 'Mad Cow Disease' became quite commonplace amongst cattle. The disease incurs a mental deficiency, where the cow cannot think for itself, and slowly dies. This BSE has been known to cross the animal barriers; several sheep have had a similar disease after eating feed made from the reminants of dead, meatstripped cows. Now, scientists fear that it has crossed the boundary between cows and humans, as there are more and more cases of Creutzfeld-Jacob Disease (CJD) appearing more frequently. There is, as of yet, no cure for this disease, and the only way humans could contract it would be by eating beef products. This clearly has put a lot of people off beef, as the press also had coverage of the inefficient quality control by the government, and the fact that this has been going on for years is worrying. The disease can take upto 15-20 years to become evident in humans, so even if people gave up beef today, they will have a chance of getting CJB. However, to give up the products now would reduce the chances …show more content…

Cattle farmers will be hit particularly badly if no-one wants to buy their meat. It will affect other animals being sold for meat also; more people will want to buy the meat from sheep and pigs and so-on so they can still eat the same amount of meat. The whole episode may send the price of beef down so people will buy it and take the risk (which must be tiny) rather than forking out for more expensive meat products. If no-one wants to eat beef then cows will only be bred for their milk, which means there will be less cows in the future possibly. If cows are no longer required by the public for food, some abbattoir workers may lose jobs, and several butchers, to whom the money from beef products is a considerable percentage of their income, may be hit hard by

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