Mad Cow Disease could i have it, so scared?

Im 14, Ive ate alot of beef in my life and i think i have the Mad Cow Disease.

The only reason why im scared because it takes decades to show symptoms, so that means i can have it now and not even know it

O thanks alot, I am a hyperchondriac and I had myself diagnosed with flesh eating disease, and that college dorm disease Tuesday night, now I have mad cow disease to worry about!

Whats the point in putting yourself through so much worry if you have no way of knowing whether you have it or not. I seriously doubt you have it as so many people consume a lot of beef and the cases are minimal. Ive not heard of a case of Mad cows Disease (BSE) for years.

It you have it there's nothing you can do about the past. However, if you don't have it, you can start doing something positive right now by giving up all meat products, even dairy if you can go VEGAN all the better. There are plenty of healthy foods to eat without a diet of meat. In fact a lot of the tofu products taste like meat but are made from healthy vegan ingredients. Read books by John Robbins. especially "the food revolution".

What Does This Have to Do With People?

BSE is a concern because it can be transmitted to people if they eat meat that came from a cow with BSE. If a person eats BSE-infected beef, the person is at a higher risk for getting a human form of the disease, called Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, or CJD. It is a very serious disease that affects the brain, but CJD is very rare in the United States. Only one in a million people get it. And it is not contagious, meaning a person can't catch it from someone who has it. Likewise, a cow that has BSE can't infect other cows.

If you live in the U.S., your chances of getting "mad cow" are slim to none. The U.S. has very tough guidelines on what can and cannot be fed to cattle as well as a very good testing program. It is also getting tougher. As a producer of beef cattle, we have to keep very good records on our cattle that we sell so that if something ever comes up, it can be traced directly back to where the calf was born and that is our ranch. Trust me, we do everything we can to keep you, the consumer, safe not only because we feed it to our children and grandchildren, but also if we had to destroy our whole herd, it would wipe us out financially. Go ahead and have a steak, it sounds pretty good to me right now.