“Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy,” no cow would live to remember the name. Or so it was thought…
To emerge from the culling, the cleansing, a community thought lost.
Those whose destiny chose them, whose purpose had been foretold. The brave 3500. Survivors, the gifted, whose future was destined to create, to educate, to bring forth… The Mediverse.
Unilateral education, from past to present and what is yet to come. They walk diligently, they choose sparingly. “How can you know where you are going if you do not know where you have been?”
Champions of the Mediverse. They are here and exist to bring the freedom of education before further actions of ignorance.
Cows.. Cows Gone MAD!
Dr Ricardo Persaud FRCS (ORL-HNS), CCT (Otol) (UK), Consultant ENT Surgeon and Head of Department, NMC Royal Hospital Sharjah, UAE.
Part of the medical task force assigned to the mission of fighting the Mad Cow Disease outbreak [link to works cited section]. The disease affected cattle across the globe during the 80s and 90s. This moment in history had far reaching implications with millions of cattle being culled in order to rid the world of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE), commonly known as Mad Cow Disease.
CowsGoneMad is a NFT project centred around Mad Cow Disease (Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy,
BSE).
The UK was affected by an outbreak of Mad Cow Disease in the 1980s and its human equivalent variant
Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD) in the 1990s. These outbreaks resulted in the culling of 4.4
million
cows and the deaths of 177 people.
....
The outbreak of BSE was due to the practice of adding extra protein to cattle feed, in the form of
meat-and-bone meal (MBM) derived from the remains of cows and other animals. Feeds with MBM were
found
to increase milk yields more than those derived from non-animal sources such as soybeans.
Dr Ricardo has a special interest in Mad Cow Disease
for
two key reasons. Firstly, only ENT surgeons are allowed to remove tonsils in order to confirm the
diagnosis because the prion protein that is associated with Mad Cow Disease is predominantly found
in
the tonsils. Secondly, he contributed towards the eradication of the disease by his involvement in
the
development and trial of single use surgical instruments (SUSI) for tonsillectomy, whilst working in
London, UK (O’Flynn, Silva, Kothari & Persaud, 2007). Tonsil SUSI theoretically reduced the spread
of
prion proteins associated with reusable tonsillectomy instruments.
Mad Cow Disease taught us that feeding dairy cows with MBM had a twofold effect. This process
resulted
in short-term gains such as enhanced milk production, but serious long-term consequences,
specifically
the death of affected cows and humans.
Lessons learnt from Mad Cow Disease:
1) Refrain from human interference with nature for short term gains.
2) Apply understanding to other current environmental, social and health issues such as
combatting global warming and encouraging natural immunity to fight viral infections.
Reference:
O’Flynn, P., Silva, S., Kothari, P., & Persaud, R.
(2007). A Multicentre Audit of Single-Use Surgical
Instruments (SUSI) for Tonsillectomy and
Adenoidectomy. Annals of The Royal College of
Surgeons of England, 89(6), 616–623.
https://doi.org/10.1308/003588407X205350
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