Long-term impacts of bovine spongiform encephalopathy on beef risk perceptions and risk attitudes in Canada.

In this study, the objective was to examine whether or not changes in bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) concerns exert an effect on people's risk perceptions and risk attitudes regarding consuming beef in Canada, 8 years after finding the first domestic animal with BSE. Data were collected from two surveys (2071 respondents) conducted with the same respondents in 2008 and 2011 in Canada. Data on meat consumption for the same households were also available from the Nielsen Homescan panel over the period 2002 to 2009. Based on census data, the current sample is generally not representative of the Canadian population, but the sample is unique in that the same individuals responded to two surveys and there is an ability to track their evolving household purchases of beef before the first survey and between the two surveys. In essence, alterations in beef risk perceptions are significantly influenced by changes in concerns regarding (1) feed given to livestock, (2) animal diseases and BSE, (3) trust in manufacturers, the government, and farmers, and (4) demographic characteristics. There were significant differences in beef purchases across households, with alterations to their risk perceptions and risk attitudes. In conclusion, although the first domestic incident of BSE was in 2003, concerns regarding BSE are still contributing to consumers' risk perceptions but not to their risk attitudes with respect to consumption of beef in 2011.

Determinants of public phobia about infectious diseases in South Korea: effect of health communication and gender difference.

This study investigated the individual and social determinants of the public's phobia of infectious diseases in South Korea, where collective action was recently fueled by the public phobia over mad cow disease (bovine spongiform encephalopathy [BSE]). Gender-specific multivariate regression was used to compare the public perception of BSE and highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI). The analysis results differentiated between the determinants of the phobia for the 2 diseases, BSE and HPAI (N = 1002). As with HIV/AIDS and leprosy, the public fear of HPAI was expressed as a disease phobia that seeks to ensure the social exclusion of infection sources, whereas the fear of BSE was influenced by social and communication factors. Therefore, BSE, unlike previous HPAI, can be rapidly amplified amid the growing distrust in health communication, in which case the social determinants of disease phobia are associated with communicator trust, social values, and political attitude toward diseases rather than disease perception.

The psychosocial and socioeconomic consequences of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE): a community impact study.

The detection of the first indigenous case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in Canada on May 20, 2003, had significant consequences for the livestock industry. As a result, borders were closed by several trade partners, particularly the United States. The outbreak led to direct and indirect economic impacts to the "cattle" industry exceeding $6 billion. As a consequence of a number of risk management interventions implemented by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) and provincial agencies, the BSE outbreak appears to have been largely contained. The initial results from our study of the socioeconomic and psychosocial impact of BSE on the health and well-being of rural and farm families living in Canada, a topic that remains largely unexamined are presented. Our analysis of the outbreak raises a number of questions concerning the resulting consequences for farmers, their families, and their communities, including considerations from a social determinants' of health perspective. In particular, our preliminary findings reveal that 5 years following the detection of the first indigenous case of BSE in Canada, ongoing uncertainty and stress resulting from unrecoverable financial losses continue to weigh heavily on the health and well-being of farmers, their families, and survival and sustainability of agricultural communities.

A country that never had a BSE crisis: consensus and tensions in transforming the Norwegian food system.

Norway is often described as a country where the safety of domestically produced food is not questioned and where there is a prevailing consensus about the division of responsibility for food safety. For this reason it was surprising to find that Norwegian consumers trust the safety of their meat less than do their British counterparts. This result is particularly interesting, as Norway is one of the few countries that has never experienced BSE, while Britain has been the country most affected by it. The data discussed in the article suggest that not having to cope with a BSE crisis meant that some problems within the Norwegian food safety system remained unresolved. This in turn has affected patterns of consumer trust. The article is based on the data collected for a comparative study on European consumers' confidence in food safety.

Recuperating from BSE: the shifting UK institutional basis for trust in food.

How did the UK, the villain of Europe as the source of the greatest recent crisis in trust in food, become the country with the highest reported levels of trust in the safety of food? The nature of the BSE crisis is explored, particularly how it rapidly became primarily a question of trust in government and science. The responses to the crisis by the different institutional actors is examined, especially the provisioning system and retailers, but also consumers themselves. A major reform of governmental institutional architecture resulted in the Food Standards Agency, a model for European development. But, we argue that this reform conformed with growing retailer power and control over the supply chain to provide a new institutional basis for trust in food.

Discontinuity patterns in stages of the precaution adoption process model: meat consumption during a livestock epidemic.

OBJECTIVES: Patterns of changes in social-cognitive variables were investigated in order to test selected stages of the precaution adoption process model (PAPM). It was hypothesized that non-linear trends (discontinuity patterns) in perceived vulnerability, positive and negative outcome expectancies, procrastination, and self-efficacy might be observed across the stages. DESIGN: Cross-sectional data from 808 respondents were employed. METHOD: Questionnaire data were collected in an on-line study on meat consumption during a livestock epidemic in Germany. Polynomial trends and analyses of variance with post-hoc-contrasts were used to examine the patterns of change. RESULTS: Discontinuity patterns were found for perceived vulnerability, negative outcome expectancies, and procrastination. The data provided partial support for discontinuity patterns in self-efficacy. Continuity patterns were found for positive outcome expectancies. CONCLUSIONS: Results provide support for a stage model rather than a pseudo-stage model.

Emotional and deliberative reactions to a public crisis: Mad Cow disease in France.

Although most theories of choice are cognitive, recent research has emphasized the role of emotions. We used a novel context--the Mad Cow crisis in France--to investigate how emotions alter choice even when consequences are held constant. A field study showed that individuals reduced beef consumption in months after many newspaper articles featured the emotional label "Mad Cow," but beef consumption was unaffected after articles featured scientific labels for the same disease. The reverse pattern held for the disease-related actions of a government bureaucracy. A lab study showed that the Mad Cow label induces people to make choices based solely on emotional reactions, whereas scientific labels induce people to consider their own probability judgments. Although the Mad Cow label produces less rational behavior than scientific labels, it is two to four times more common in the environment.

Trust in food in the age of mad cow disease: a comparative study of consumers' evaluation of food safety in Belgium, Britain and Norway.

How do food scandals like dioxines in food in Belgium (summer 1999) and the detection of mad cow disease (BSE) in Britain affect consumers' confidence in food safety? In this paper, based on three thousand telephone interviews during the last quarter of 1999, consumers in Belgium and Britain are compared with consumers in Norway, where there has been no such serious food scandal in recent years. 'Trust' is a diffuse and complex concept to measure. In this article a consumer trust typology is developed and operationalised. Combining a trust-distrust dimension and a reflexivity dimension, it is possible to differentiate between four main consumer types, which are called 'sensible', 'sceptical', 'naive' and 'denying' consumers, respectively. Does the distribution of these consumer types vary in our selected countries? Are there gender differences across national borders? Four hypotheses of how consumers could respond to food scares are investigated: the Reflexivity hypothesis, the Risk-reducing hypothesis, the Complexity-reducing hypothesis and finally the Don't worry, be happy hypothesis.

Factors governing speed of societal responses to threats: precision of definition of the threat may be more important than its anticipated likely severity.

Responses to two recent international public health threats, AIDS and BSE, both exemplify missed opportunities for early intervention. They are in contrast to the response to the Y2K computer issue, a threat of lesser-anticipated consequence but one that was more precisely defined. Lessons from these experiences should inform the public health response to new threats, such as the emergence of multiple drug resistance in human pathogens.

[Effects of BSE on consumer attitudes and behavior]. / Auswirkungen von BSE auf Verbrauchereinstellungen und -verhalten.

The extremely high media emphasis of the BSE issue during the period December 2000 to February 2001 has caused considerable short term public concern. A significant amount of this concern was due to an intensive communication of pictures. Pictures are "fast shots into the brain" (Kroeber-Riel). Pictured stimuli run under the cognitive control of the recipients effecting the consumer below the threshold of consciousness. However, the issue has fallen into oblivion very soon. In summer 2001 the public concern was not higher than before the BSE crisis. The perception of product quality regained a "normal level". The public concern has caused a considerable decline of the demand for beef and an increase of demand for substitutes and organic meat. When the media emphasis of the BSE issue diminished, the beef demand recovered but did not reach the pre-crisis level again. However, the BSE crisis has intensified animal welfare concerns, polarized public opinion about food and agriculture and had big effects in the political sphere. Furthermore, the BSE crisis has led to additional--politically supported--activities of the organic food suppliers causing a further growth of this market segment.

Early behavioural changes in mice infected with BSE and scrapie: automated home cage monitoring reveals prion strain differences.

Mice inoculated with transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSE) show behavioural abnormalities well before the appearance of clinical signs. TSE strains are obtained by serial re-infection of infectious brain homogenates in laboratory rodents. They are characterized by strain-typical brain lesion profiles, which implies that they might be differentiated behaviourally as well. Seventy female C57BL/6 mice were tested, 14 per group. Controls received no or sham inocula, two other groups received scrapie strains adapted to mice (139A, ME7) and one group a mouse-adapted BSE strain (301C). From week 7 until the end of the incubation period, 8 mice per group were subjected once every 2 weeks to open-field and hot-plate tests. Assessment of clinical signs, and measuring of body weight, food and water consumption were carried out weekly on the remaining animals kept in single cages. In addition, locomotor activity was recorded continuously in these mice by means of infrared detectors. Monitoring of circadian activity revealed early significant TSE strain differences, most pronounced during the nocturnal active phase. Behavioural changes in open-field tests also occurred before the appearance of clinical signs, and differences in rearing, wall rearing and sniffing were strain-specific, however, such differences varied according to the period of testing. Hind paw lick latencies increased equally in all groups after week 19, jump latencies also increased in the two scrapie groups but not in the BSE group. It was at this time that clinical signs first appeared consisting of ataxia, lack of balance, motor dyscoordination, and lordosis. These data imply that automated assessment of circadian activity in mice is a powerful and economical tool for early behavioural typing of TSE strains.

[Clinical findings in 50 cows with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE)]. / Klinische Befunde bei 50 Kühen mit boviner spongiformer Enzephalopathie (BSE).

The goal of this study was to describe the clinical findings in 50 cows with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE). The most important abnormalities were disturbances in behaviour, sensitivity and locomotion. Of 48 cows with behavioural abnormalities, 33 were panic-stricken, 33 were fearful and 32 were restless and nervous. Other behavioural disturbances included bruxism (n = 23), salivation (n = 15), licking of the muzzle (n = 15) and flehmen (n = 8). Hypersensitivity to touching of the head and neck with a pen and reacted by throwing the head sideways, head shaking, curling the muzzle or flehmen and salivating. Hypersensitivity to sound was observed in 41 cows. Hypersensitivity to light was seen in 22 cows. disturbances in locomotion occurred in 44 cows. In 41, there was ataxia, which was generalized in 28 and restricted to the hindend in 13.

BSE, public anxiety and private neurosis.

Following the recent focus of media attention on BSE, and the putative link between the cattle disease and cases of variant CJD in humans in the UK, we report two cases of "BSE phobia." The relationship between popular conceptions of science and psychopathology is discussed.