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Old April 5, 2013   #12
bughunter99
Tomatovillian™
 
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: zone 5
Posts: 821
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The prions that cause mad cow disease and its relatives are found in the brain, nervous tissue and corneas of infected COWS. A similar condition is present in wild deer in certain areas of the country but that one is not known to impact humans.

Prions are very odd little organisms in that it takes a whole heck of a lot to render them inactive. Disinfectant sprays, cooking, basic sterilization procedures, irradiation and sunlight don't touch them. In the hospital tens of thousands of dollars of neuro surgery instruments are THROWN OUT after use on infected patients because of the difficulty in rendering them sterile and safe for the next patient. Prions can remain capable of causing infection for years in the soil. The are odd little things, part protein, part virus. Mostly not alive but still able to kill. Scary right? Furthermore, human infection is the result of ingesting them or in rare cases organ transplant.

The good news is to date there is no evidence that prions can be taken up by plants and cause human infections. The bad news is that incubation for BSE is decades long and it is 100% fatal. There is still a ton that is not known about it. It is extremely difficult to study.

BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy) is very very very very very very very rare in beef in the USA. Very. There are very very very very very strict regulations about it in this country. I will eat a product of the USA hamburger. Other country of origin I steer clear of. Steaks, any country...not a problem. Its not in the muscle. Hamburger is only an issue if someone is grinding brain or nervous tissue into it. Illegal in the USA, Japan, UK. Cows get it from being fed feed that contains the tissues of other cows that died from it. These feeding practices are 100% illegal in this country. There are also extremely strict regulations surrounding sick beef. Beef displaying signs and symptoms of BSE are forbidden from entering the food chain of either humans or animals.

Risk is extremely extremely low. Nevertheless I tend to err on the side of caution and do not utilize stuff in the garden made from beef parts. To date, pork, poultry have not been impacted by this freaky thing.

Stacy

Last edited by bughunter99; April 5, 2013 at 05:39 PM.
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