You wrote that the U.S. beef industry alone lost $11 billion in the three years after the detection of one cow with "mad cow disease" in 2003.However, these economic losses were unnecessary.  Why? Because mad cow disease (BSE) is not an infectious disease, so beef is safe in the all world.. In addition; the link between variant CJD, BSE and scrapie has been widely accepted although never proved!!! Two groups of eminent British scientists argued in 2001 over whether the "infectious agent" in BSE would kill 136,000 Britons or only a few thousand. And what is the reality- where is the truth, seven years later? The 1st vCJD cases were observed in 1995, and the peak number of deaths was 28 in the year 2000, followed by 20 in 2001, 17 in 2002, 18 in 2003, 9 in 2004, 5 in 2005, 5 in 2006, 5 in 2007, and only one so far in 2008." So these findings (2008) act in concert with Dr VENTERS theory (The epidemic that never was) published in 2001 (http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/323/7317/858).

Other neurodegenerative, Alzheimer's disease first showed up in medical records at about the same time that world meat consumption (high protein intake) began to rise. There is a direct correlation between the rates of meat consumption and the rates of Alzheimer's disease in various cultures across the world. In Africa and Asian countries (largely vegetarian India...) where meat consumption is relatively low, the rates of Alzheimer's disease are much lower than in the developed countries, where meat consumption is high. Animal studies (dog,rat) have shown that high protein intakes can result in development of symptoms and pathologic changes of magnesium (Mg) deficiency on Mg-intakes generally considered adequate. So effects of Mg-deficiency are exacerbated by high protein intake.

And what is about mad cow disease (BSE) and a high protein intake?.
See a nutritional experiment performed in England; published in Veterinary Record (MOORBY et al., 2000) and in Journal of Dairy Science ( DEWHURST et al., 2000; MOORBY et al., 2000).  There six from the 47 experimental dairy cows developed clinical signs of BSE; after six month incubation period (about 20% of crude protein in the dairy ration) ; without meat and bone meal, however, with high protein concentrate feeding.
      In connection with the protein surplus, ruminants are predominant about the Mg- deficiency, so BSE can be involved (www.bse-expert.cz). See these relationships, according to my recent presentation at 29th World Veterinary Congress in Vancouver (http://www.bse-expert.cz/pdf/Veter_kongres.pdf); Neurodegenerative Diseases and Schizophrenia as a Hyper or Hypofunction of the NMDA Receptors. There is the abstract about this article;
Neurodegenerative diseases, including BSE, Alzheimer's disease etc. are caused by different mechanisms but may share a final common pathway to neuronal injury due to the overstimulation of glutamate receptors, especially of the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor subtype. It is generally accepted that the influx of Ca as a result of excessive activation of the NMDA receptor underlies the toxic actions of glutamate in many systems. Also, ammonia intoxication leads to excessive activation of NMDA receptors in brain. On the other hand, Mg competes with Ca at voltage- gated calcium channels both intracellularly and on the cell surface membrane. So, Mg can protect against NMDA- induced neurodegeneration and Ca deficiency can be important about "NMDA hypofunction" in schizophrenia. There are no scientific references to date in which high intake of crude protein (and potassium) high enough to lead to a state of hyperammonemia (and hypomagnesemia) during the incubation period of the BSE. Therefore there is the first idea of this review; to show the hyperammonemia plus hypomagnesemia"simultaneous" action on the ruminant tissues. Recently was found that elevated manganese in blood was associated with "prion infection" in ruminants. These findings about "manganese theory" act in concert with this "BSE ammonia- magnesium theory".
Josef Hlasny, DVM, PhD., veterinary surgeon in Bludov, Czech Republic