new research debunks trad views on nutrition

[Perris]

a snippet from the last article linked has something relevant about 'balanced rations' for chickens:

"these suggested intakes were determined using “nitrogen-balanced” studies, which represent, says Patel, “the minimum protein we need to prevent malnutrition”. But preventing malnutrition, she argues, “is a whole different ballgame from thrive mode”

In the chickens' case, it's about producing eggs or growing fast, but in neither case is it formulated for the bird to thrive.

 

[Perris]

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/apr/17/ada-american-diabetes-association-big-pharma

 

[Perris]

There is a short graphical piece in Reuters today about the spread of bird flu to cows in the USA. Bizarrely, despite noting that

"The infections in cattle are from the same subtype of bird flu that has been infecting wild birds and poultry flocks globally, also killing several mammal species that likely contracted the virus from consuming sick or dead birds"

it omits to mention that said cows may have been unintentionally fed infected dead birds in their feed.

https://www.reuters.com/graphics/HEALTH-BIRDFLU/lgpdndoyrpo/

Didn't they investigate what the cows were eating? or is the industry mobilising to keep it secret? It is a very unpleasant subject but in this case, an ostrich policy to what goes into the feed that we give animals that we then eat, or whose products we eat, is insane. Enlightenment is here:

https://nutrientmanagement.tamu.edu/content/tools/feedinglitter.pdf (thanks to @TexasBlues for the link) Note the date of this piece: 1996. Older than many BYCers I suspect.

The note to another graphic in the piece, on other mammals that have caught it, and acknowledged to have caught it probably by eating dead or dying infected birds, suggests cows very likely got it the same way. "Other infected mammals include: badger, beech and pine marten, caracal, coati, coyote, ferret, fisher, fox, lynx, mink, mountain lion, opossum, polar bear, polecat, porpoise, raccoon, sable and wild dog." But, you may be thinking, unlike those species, a cow would not naturally eat a dead bird. Indeed it would not. However, mixed up in its homogenised feed, it doesn't know what it's eating. Neither do we, or our chickens, when we give them, or eat, homogenized feeds and UPFs. Put enough salt and sugar in, and almost anything can be made palatable, as the food industry has discovered to its profit and our loss.

'Mad cow disease' or bovine spongiform encephalitis was created by feeding cows, in the form of a homogenized concentrated feed pellet, the brains of sheep who had scrapie, along with other 'waste' products. And variant Creutzfeldt-Jacob Disease is likely caused by people eating beef from an animal with BSE (https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/creutzfeldt-jakob-disease-cjd/ )

Feeding poultry litter (including deadstock buried in it) to cattle has been going on apparently out of sight and out of mind of consumers (and that Reuters reporter) for a long time. Why risk all this to save a few pence on feed? If bird flu stops the practice, that would be a silver lining to this cloud.

 

[Molpet]

There is a short graphical piece in Reuters today about the spread of bird flu to cows in the USA. Bizarrely, despite noting that

"The infections in cattle are from the same subtype of bird flu that has been infecting wild birds and poultry flocks globally, also killing several mammal species that likely contracted the virus from consuming sick or dead birds"

it omits to mention that said cows may have been unintentionally fed infected dead birds in their feed.

https://www.reuters.com/graphics/HEALTH-BIRDFLU/lgpdndoyrpo/

Didn't they investigate what the cows were eating? or is the industry mobilising to keep it secret? It is a very unpleasant subject but in this case, an ostrich policy to what goes into the feed that we give animals that we then eat, or whose products we eat, is insane. Enlightenment is here:

https://nutrientmanagement.tamu.edu/content/tools/feedinglitter.pdf (thanks to @TexasBlues for the link) Note the date of this piece: 1996. Older than many BYCers I suspect.

The note to another graphic in the piece, on other mammals that have caught it, and acknowledged to have caught it probably by eating dead or dying infected birds, suggests cows very likely got it the same way. "Other infected mammals include: badger, beech and pine marten, caracal, coati, coyote, ferret, fisher, fox, lynx, mink, mountain lion, opossum, polar bear, polecat, porpoise, raccoon, sable and wild dog." But, you may be thinking, unlike those species, a cow would not naturally eat a dead bird. Indeed it would not. However, mixed up in its homogenised feed, it doesn't know what it's eating. Neither do we, or our chickens, when we give them, or eat, homogenized feeds and UPFs. Put enough salt and sugar in, and almost anything can be made palatable, as the food industry has discovered to its profit and our loss.

'Mad cow disease' or bovine spongiform encephalitis was created by feeding cows, in the form of a homogenized concentrated feed pellet, the brains of sheep who had scrapie, along with other 'waste' products. And variant Creutzfeldt-Jacob Disease is likely caused by people eating beef from an animal with BSE (https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/creutzfeldt-jakob-disease-cjd/ )

Feeding poultry litter (including deadstock buried in it) to cattle has been going on apparently out of sight and out of mind of consumers (and that Reuters reporter) for a long time. Why risk all this to save a few pence on feed? If bird flu stops the practice, that would be a silver lining to this cloud.

My understanding is that If they cooked it the AI would be killed.

 

[Perris]

My understanding is that If they cooked it the AI would be killed.

indeed, and that's important when the focus is on the health of humans eating beef or drinking milk (pasturisation seems to kill it too). But not if the focus is on the health of the cows, and their role as incubators of a potential mammalian version of bird flu.

 

[Molpet]

indeed, and that's important when the focus is on the health of humans eating beef or drinking milk (pasturisation seems to kill it too). But not if the focus is on the health of the cows, and their role as incubators of a potential mammalian version of bird flu.

I was thinking about cooking the food the cows were fed

 

[Perris]

I was thinking about cooking the food the cows were fed

so that's true also of e.g. salmonella, campylobacter etc. but people regularly get these from chickens because it hasn't been cooked or handled properly, and the same would apply to bird flu in beef.

My point is really that this new health hazard is so unnecessary: cattle do not naturally eat dead birds, bird poo, feathers and sawdust, and those ingredients shouldn't go into cattle food just because they are a cheap way to add protein, carbohydrate, fibre, vitamin and mineral levels to cattle concentrated feed.

 

[Perris]

something interesting today on the health benefits of spices; I've linked to the transcript as I find it more user-friendly than the podcast (but you can get back to the podcast from here if you want)
https://zoe.com/learn/spices-with-kanchan-koya?lid=oic3x4xvp7cw

 

[Molpet]

something interesting today on the health benefits of spices; I've linked to the transcript as I find it more user-friendly than the podcast (but you can get back to the podcast from here if you want)
https://zoe.com/learn/spices-with-kanchan-koya?lid=oic3x4xvp7cw

Yes transcript is much faster too.
Good information
I use cylon cinnamon because it's supposed to be better for glucose. Unfortunately it's powered. I will have to look for whole

 

[NatJ]

My point is really that this new health hazard is so unnecessary: cattle do not naturally eat dead birds, bird poo, feathers and sawdust, and those ingredients shouldn't go into cattle food just because they are a cheap way to add protein, carbohydrate, fibre, vitamin and mineral levels to cattle concentrated feed.

How careful can a cow be about what it eats?

If there are bird droppings and molted feathers in a pasture, is it even possible for a cow to graze without eating them too? (I am asking because I really do not know enough about cows to know the answer to that.)

I grant that would be a very different amount than the amounts the cow would eat if the poultry litter is deliberately fed to them, but if cows do "naturally" eat some of those things while grazing, that would also make them at risk of catching avian influenze from pastures that wild birds go into.