5-23 IAN BSE e-mail

 A sad response or commentary on a story I recently did on mad cow disease.

 I received this e-mail commentary in response to an interview I did with Idaho chief veterinarian Dr. Bill Barton in which Dr.  Barton says that the primary and only way to transmit BSE is through the consumption of brain tissue. Here is the e-mail. I shortened a portion of it that appeared to challenge statements made in my story

Hello Dr. Sparks,

 I wanted to post this to the comment section of your article.  

I thought I might just send some of the recent science to you, on the mad cow type variants, for your files Sir. I have followed this saga since 1997, when my mother died from hvCJD, and the feds told me it just happens, nothing to worry about. I just made a promise...........never forget..........the truth shall prevail.............end...tss

 There was a link to a scientific article. I went to the link and here are words from the abstract: We report transmission of atypical L-type bovine spongiform encephalopathy to mouse lemurs after oral or intracerebral inoculation with infected bovine brain tissue.

 So my heart goes out to this person who lost his mother but the  scientific article that he sent only confirms exactly what it was that Dr. Barton reported to me. If you stay away from the brain tissue of an infected animal, there is no reason to believe that mad cow can be orally transmitted.