posted September 16, 2003 07:12 PM         

There is substantial evidence that when BSE was recognised in the UK and Europe that animals were getting slaughtered that if left to live for another few years would have developed BSE symptoms. These were promptly turned into human and animal food.

Also there have been cases of pet cats dying from this disease via pet food. The rendering plants process dead, diseased euthanised animals and that rendering processes have changed and these processes do not stop the prions that cause the disease.

It doesn't stop with beef cattle either as pigs, sheep, chicken are all susceptible to the prions that cause this disease. Mink farms in the US have reported outbreaks that have all the signs and syptoms but it is a new varient known as Transmissible Mink Encephalopathy. Also there has been discovered that it occurs naturally in the wild amongst deer and could even be overlooked in some cases as rabies.

Kuru was the first recorded incident from New Guinea Eastern Highlands, as soon as missionaries started to get the local Fore tribe to stop eating their dead the Kuru was in decline.

There is no cure and until symptoms appear no diagnostic tests, once you have BSE, you might as well prepare your will. Creutzfeld Jacob is a varient of this disease and there is a new varient (vCJD) that occurs in people under 40yrs of age. People as young as 16 have died from the vCJD in the UK.

Researchers have also stated that because there is an incubation period of around 25-30yrs we could be facing a major outbreak around the year 2015.

Also many cases of dementia in the elderly could also be mis-diagnosed and in actual fact be CJD.

The researchers have also stated that every part of an infected animal is contagious, not just the brain, spinal coloumn and central nervous system.

It doesn't get killed by heat, freezing, exposure to formaldehyde or radiation. They have only found one thing that will kill it and that is chlorine bleach, but we can't immerse foodstuffs with bleach.

Another problem is that they have recorded a case of a patient that had a cornea graft who later developed CJD. The donor cornea came from a man that died of CJD in the 1970's, the CJD was transmitted via the optic nerves into the patients brain. There could be many cases of iatrogenic (man made) CJD resulting from surgery on a undiagnosed CJD patient, the surgical instruments even though sterilised would still transmit CJD to the next person or persons who had an operation after them.