PR Watch Reviews BSE-related Resources on the Internet

Reporting in PR Watch

USDA's Mad Cow PR Coverup: The 1st Quarter 1996 issue of PR Watch reviews a decade of efforts by the British and U.S. governments to deny BSE-related public health risks.
Shut Up and Eat: The Oprah Winfrey Lawsuit Brings Food Censorship to America: A lawsuit by Texas cattlemen against Oprah Winfrey marks the first test in court of new "agricultural product disparagement" laws which give the food industry unprecedented new powers to sue, harass and silence its critics. The lawsuit accuses Oprah and one of her guests of harming beef sales by publicly discussing industry practices such as animal cannibalism which created the mad cow epidemic in England. The 2nd Quarter 1997 issue of PR Watch examines the background of "disparagement laws" and also provides a full transcript of what was said on the Oprah show.
Swallowing Anything: The Hype Behind Alternative Remedies: The 3rd Quarter 1997 documents the use of risky materials such as bovine brain tissue in over-the-counter "health food supplements," in the context of PR and lobbying by the food supplement industry aimed at escaping government oversight and labeling requirements. It also documents a number of little-known risk factors in the United States related to a potential TSE disease outbreak here.
One Hundred Percent All Beef Baloney: Lessons of the Oprah Trial: Oprah Winfrey has won her case in court against Texas cattlemen, but the deeper issues behind the trial remain unresolved. For an analysis of the trial and its chilling impact on public discussion of food safety, read this PR Watch report.

Websites Devoted to BSE

Official Mad Cow Disease Home Page: The Sperling Biomedical Foundation, courtesy of Tom Pringle. This site has thousands of articles, ranging from detailed biochemical analyses of the prion protein to repostings of newspaper stories that you won't find anywhere else. Pringle makes no claim for the accuracy of everything he reposts (and some of it is definitely speculative or sensationalistic), but if you want to learn a lot about the disease from both a scientific and political perspective, you should definitely visit this website, which also has a "quick links" page that lists hundreds of relevant online resources.
MAFF BSE Information: A wealth of statistical and other information about mad cow disease from the British Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAFF).
Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy: Lots of good information, although with a pro-industry bias, from Texas A&M University.
Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE-"Mad Cow Disease"): Web site produced by the National Institute of Animal Health (Japan).
Bovine SpongiformEncephalopathy: Prof. Steve Dealler's website. Dealler is a colleague of Prof. Richard Lacey, arguably the most outspoken scientist in England against his government's risky handling of the mad cow debacle. This page is a treasure trove of gossip, references to articles that have appeared in the news media, contact addresses for scientists and journalists, and other information.
British Medical Journal BSE-CJD Home Page: This British Medical Journal's discussion of the BSE-CJD link. This has articles and letters dating back to 1988 and is a good historical record of who was raising concerns and when.
BSE information at UIUC: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Skewed in favor of government and industry. It lists IFST, APHIS and the Cattlemen, but doesn't include sources such as Steve Dealler. On the other hand, it does include a link to the IAO site, which is very comprehensive.
The BSE Inquiry: Transcripts from the British government's 1998 official hearings into the mad cow disaster.
Chemical & Engineering News 2/9: PRION RESEARCH ACCELERATES
How Now, Mad Cow?: News briefs from around the time of the March 20, 1996 British announcement, plus a chronology of previous years with some vegetarian advocacy thrown in. By Ron Rogers.
Institute of Food Science & Technology: The IFST is a food-industry-leaning professional association in England. Ralph Blanchfield is the guy in charge of their BSE propaganda. Their website includes a carefully-crafted, periodically-updated position statement which offers a thorough analysis of the current state of scientific knowledge about the disease, as seen from a pro-industry perspective.
NOVA Online | Transcripts | The Brain Eater: Transcript of a public television documentary about the transmissible spongiform encephalopathies.
Spongiform Encephalopathies: Links to BSE and CJD Resourses: Web site maintained by Mark Varner, extension dairy scientist at the University of Maryland. Includes proceedings of an important APHIS symposium on TSEs, May 1996, which included some interesting and candid presentations by Fred Bisplinghoff of the U.S. rendering industry, and by Dr. Richard Kimberlin, a leading researcher of mad cow-like diseases and scientific advisor to the British government.
The BSE-L Listserv: This link takes you to the archives of an internet mailing list that discusses the disease. Participants have included scientists, British farmers and government officials, USDA researchers, industry flacks and angry activists. To subscribe to the list yourself, send email to <listserv@rz.uni-karlsruhe.de> with the following line in the body of the message:
subscribe BSE-L
Amarillo Globe-News: Cattlemen vs. Oprah Winfrey: The Amarillo Globe-News is the main newspaper in the city where Texas cattlemen sued Oprah Winfrey for airing a program about mad cow disease. If you're interested in the trial, this website is an essential resource.
Roland Heynkes Home Page: Roland Heynkes is a European molecular biologist who has closely studied the transmissible spongiform encephalopathies. His website includes a number of his scientific studies, along with links to numerous other related information sources.
"No better explanation is presently forthcoming.": A memorable essay by Dr. Paul Brown of the U.S. Public Health Service, written immediately after the British government reversed a decade of denial and announced that people appeared to be dying from eating BSE-contaminated beef. "It now appears I was wrong," Brown says, admitted that he is "still astonished" by "the possible failure of the scientific pundits (including me) to foresee a potential medical catastrophe."
Beyond McDonald's - BSE: This web page on BSE is part of the McLibel web site, which offers a wealth of information about the "McLibel" lawsuit against two British activists who were sued by the McDonald's hamburger chain for criticizing the company's food and environmental record.

Websites Devoted to Other Related Topics

The AgBiz Tiller Online Edition
Alzheimer Research Forum: Information for both researchers and laypersons.
@marillo Globe-News: Cattlemen vs. Oprah Winfrey
American Meat Institute: Just the Facts (and Figures)
Australian CJD Support Home Page: Focuses in particular on advocacy for 2,100 Australians who were exposed to CJD risk as a result of medical treatments with human growth hormone (HGH) and human pituitary gonadotrophin (HPG) derived from cadavers.
BBC News | World | Oprah Winfrey faces mad cow libel suit
Cattleman Magazine Home Page
COWTOWN AMERICA: National Cattlemen's Beef Association Home Page. Unabashed pro-beef propaganda. The website is searchable.
CJD Voice: CJD Voice is a support group for family members of people who have contracted Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, the human equivalent of BSE. They have an online discussion group that talks about the disease and related issues.
The CJD-L Listserv: This link takes you to the archives of an internet mailing list that discusses Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease. So far, this has not been a very active mailing list, and most of the significant postings have been cross-posted anyway to the BSE-L listserv. To subscribe to the list yourself, send email to <listserv@rz.uni-karlsruhe.de> with the following line in the body of the message:
subscribe CJD-L
Electronic Telegraph
FDA Guidance for Industry: Gelatin: This document contains the recommendations of the Food and Drug Administration to companies that produce gelatin, advising them how to reduce risks related to mad cow disease. FDA's guidance is non-binding, which is particularly unfortunate since the latest scientific evidence (as reported in this document) shows that the infectious agent which transmists BSE is able to survive the gelatin manufacturing process.
FDA Memoranda to Blood Establishments: This web page has links to several memoranda discussing the current scientific evidence regarding potential human-to-human transmission of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease through blood products.
Howard Lyman: Mad Cowboy: Website for Howard Lyman, Oprah Winfrey's co-defendent in the mad cow disease "food disparagement" lawsuit.
Is CJD Transmitted Through Blood?: A review of the scientific evidence, published in Spring 1997 by the Centers for Disease Control.
The McLibel Verdicts
Product Disparagement Statutes: Discusses the "agricultural product disparagement laws" that have been passed in 13 states, and gives the full text of 11 of those laws. The lawsuit by Texas cattlemen against Oprah Winfrey was filed under the disparagement law in Texas.