It is not known whether bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), a dise

Question

It is not known whether bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), a disease of cattle invariably deadly to them, can be transmitted directly from one infected animal to another at all stages of the infection. If it can be, there is now a reservoir of infected cattle incubating the disease. There are no diagnostic tests to identify infected animals before the animals show overt symptoms. Therefore, if such direct transmission occurs, the disease cannot be eradicated by __________.

Which one of the following best completes the argument?

(A) removing from the herd and destroying any diseased animal as soon as it shows the typical symptoms of advanced BSE

(B) developing a drug that kills the agent that cause BSE, and then treating with that drug all cattle that might have the disease

(C) destroying all cattle in areas where BSE occurs and raising cattle only in areas to which BSE is known not to have spread

(D) developing a vaccine that confers lifelong immunity against BSE and giving it to all cattle, destroying in due course all those animals for which the vaccine protection came too late

(E) developing a diagnostic test that does identify any infected animal and destroying all animals found to be infected

Source: LSAT

soumanag · Answer

This can be treated as a conclusion question. The correct answer choice will give a conclusion derived from the argument.
The correct option should be A.

Analysis:

Premise / evidence: 
1. It is not known whether BSE can be transmitted directly from one infected animal to another at all stages of the infection.
2. There is a probability, that there are a number of infected cattle.
3. There is no diagnostic tests to identify infected animals before the animals show symptoms
Therefore: There is little known about the disease and it is very difficult to identify also it might have already spread.

Conclusion:

Therefore, if such direct transmission occurs, the disease cannot be eradicated by ........

Paraphrase:

Early detection, removing the infected animals.

Options:

(A) removing from the herd and destroying any diseased animal as soon as it shows the typical symptoms of advanced BSE
 Correct option. Is supported by the evidence given in the argument.

(B) developing a drug that kills the agent that cause BSE, and then treating with that drug all cattle that might have the disease

Drug might be created even it is not known which animal is infected. If new drug is given to all animals, it will be effective to cure those animals infected.

C) destroying all cattle in areas where BSE occurs and raising cattle only in areas to which BSE is known not to have spread

It is possible to eradicate the disease by destroying all the cattle and moving to a safer location. Also this idea is not related to evidence presented. 
 
(D) developing a vaccine that confers lifelong immunity against BSE and giving it to all cattle, destroying in due course all those animals for which the vaccine protection came too late

Vaccine might be created even it is not known which animal is infected. Since uninfected animals will be immune the disease will be eradicated over time.

(E) developing a diagnostic test that does identify any infected animal and destroying all animals found to be infected

This is also a possible way to eradicate the disease. If the disease is identified and all the animals with the disease are isolated then the disease will be eradicated.

pqhai · Answer

It is not known whether bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), a disease of cattle invariably deadly to them, can be transmitted directly from one infected animal to another at all stages of the infection. If it can be, there is now a reservoir of infected cattle incubating the disease.  There are no diagnostic tests to identify infected animals before the animals show overt symptoms.  Therefore, if such direct transmission occurs, the disease cannot be eradicated by______

Which one of the following best completes the argument?

(A) removing from the herd and destroying any diseased animal as soon as it shows the typical symptoms of advanced BSE
 Correct. Because we cannot identify an infected animal until it shows typical symptoms. Hence, if we wait until see the infected animal, it's too late.
 
(B) developing a drug that kills the agent that cause BSE, and then treating with that drug all cattle that might have the disease
 Wrong. If a drug can kill agent that cause BSE, it can prevent the disease for sure.
 
(C) destroying all cattle in areas where BSE occurs and raising cattle only in areas to which BSE is known not to have spread
 Wrong. if we destroy ALL castle in areas to which BSD occurs, 100% we can prevent the disease.
 
(D) developing a vaccine that confers lifelong immunity against BSE and giving it to all cattle, destroying in due course all those animals for which the vaccine protection came too late
 Wrong. the vaccine does help to prevent BSE disease.
 
(E) developing a diagnostic test that does identify any infected animal and destroying all animals found to be infected
 Wrong. If the diagnostic test is helpful, we can identify infected animals and destroy them before the disease could be spread.

NickHalden · Answer

A. seems to be the correct answer choice.
removing from the herd won't cure as the infection might already have spread to others before it became overtly visible

shashankism · Answer

It is not known if disease is directly transmitted from one infected animal to another at all stages of infection.
No diagnostic tests are available to identify infected animals before the animals show overt symptoms.
So, disease cannot be eradicated by removing the animals which shows the symptoms.

(A) removing from the herd and destroying any diseased animal as soon as it shows the typical symptoms of advanced BSE 
Yes this seems correct according to our logic.

(B) developing a drug that kills the agent that cause BSE, and then treating with that drug all cattle that might have the disease 
If drug is developed to kill the agent that cause BSE, disease can be eradicated.

(C) destroying all cattle in areas where BSE occurs and raising cattle only in areas to which BSE is known not to have spread 
Again destroying all cattle in the area where BSE occurs will eradicate the disease.

(D) developing a vaccine that confers lifelong immunity against BSE and giving it to all cattle, destroying in due course all those animals for which the vaccine protection came too late 
similar to B & C

(E) developing a diagnostic test that does identify any infected animal and destroying all animals found to be infected 
If diagnostic test is developed, it will help to identify the infected animal and hence the eradication of disease is possible.

Poorvasha · Answer

It is not known whether bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), a disease of cattle invariably deadly to them, can be transmitted directly from one infected animal to another at all stages of the infection. If it can be, there is now a reservoir of infected cattle incubating the disease. There are no diagnostic tests to identify infected animals before the animals show overt symptoms. Therefore, if such direct transmission occurs, the disease cannot be eradicated by______

The argument states that: a) If the disease can be transmitted from one animal to another, there will be a reservoir of infected cattle. 
b) there are no diagnostic tests to identify infected animals until they show symptoms.

Which one of the following best completes the argument that the disease can't be eradicated. hence, we need to find 1 way considering the information given the stimulus that can't eradicate the disease.

(A) removing from the herd and destroying any diseased animal as soon as it shows the typical symptoms of advanced BSE : they can be identified once they show symptoms, however, since it is unknown if the disease can be transmitted at all levels of infection, it could be possible that they have already infected the herd already, so this would not lead to eradication of the disease. Correct.

Skywalker18 · Answer

Let's take this question top to bottom. This is technically an inference question, though that can be hard to see. However, we are inferring where the argument would go based on what's come before, which is no different from any question asking "Which of the following can be inferred from the information above?"

Knowing that, we just need to think about the premises that are given:

1) It's unknown if BSE can be transmitted at all stages of infection.

2) If it can, there is a reservoir of infected cattle incubating BSE.

3) There are no diagnostic tests to identify infected animals before the animals show overt symptoms.

4) Direct transmission has occurred.

(A) Correct. Let's think about what would happen if we did this. Any cow/bull with symptoms will be killed. However, it will already have infected other cows, which don't yet show symptoms. So we'll never be able to get rid of the disease this way.

(B) is totally plausible. If we can develop a drug that kills BSE, then we can use it to treat all the cows at once, so BSE can't be spread.

(C) may be totally dramatic, but it would work. If we kill every single infected cow, then start over in an area without any BSE, we will get rid of BSE.

(D) is also a great idea. If we inoculate all cows against any future BSE, then let all the infected ones die, we'll be left only with healthy cows that can't develop BSE.

(E) is a big hypothetical, but if it could be accomplished, it would work. Right now, we know there isn't a diagnostic test that works to reveal cows before they show symptoms. But if we could see every single cow that had the illness, we could kill them all, and all the cows that were left would be clean.

Lotus1 · Answer

Why is C not correct? Because A talks of the symptoms and argument says BSE shows no symptoms. C seems best of all options.

guddo · Answer

It is not known whether bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), a disease of cattle invariably deadly to them, can be transmitted directly from one infected animal to another at all stages of the infection. If it can be, there is now a reservoir of infected cattle incubating the disease. There are no diagnostic tests to identify infected animals before the animals show overt symptoms. Therefore, if such direct transmission occurs, the disease cannot be eradicated by __________. 
 
Which one of the following best completes the argument?

The argument says that if infected cattle can pass BSE to other cattle before showing symptoms, then there are hidden infected animals in the herd. Since those animals cannot be identified before symptoms appear,  a strategy that waits until symptoms appear  will not be enough to eradicate the disease.

(A) removing from the herd and destroying any diseased animal as soon as it shows the typical symptoms of advanced BSE

This is correct.  This method depends on waiting until symptoms appear.  But the argument says infected animals may already be spreading the disease before that point, and there is no test to detect them earlier. So this method cannot eradicate the disease.

(B) developing a drug that kills the agent that cause BSE, and then treating with that drug all cattle that might have the disease

This is not supported as impossible. If all possibly infected cattle could be treated effectively, eradication might still be possible.

(C) destroying all cattle in areas where BSE occurs and raising cattle only in areas to which BSE is known not to have spread

This could still eradicate the disease. It does not depend on identifying infected animals individually.

(D) developing a vaccine that confers lifelong immunity against BSE and giving it to all cattle, destroying in due course all those animals for which the vaccine protection came too late

This could also work. It does not rely on detecting infection before symptoms.

(E) developing a diagnostic test that does identify any infected animal and destroying all animals found to be infected

This directly removes the problem stated in the argument, since the current obstacle is the lack of such a test.

Answer: (A)

It is not known whether bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), a dise

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It is not known whether bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), a dise

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