[905] in Vegetarian_Support_Group
RE: BSE
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Charlie Behrens)
Tue Apr 9 09:23:41 1996
Date: Tue, 9 Apr 1996 08:20:00 +0000
From: Charlie Behrens <CHARLIE@aimtech.com>
To: Raymond Q Luk <rql@MIT.EDU>, vsg <vsg@MIT.EDU>
You raise excellent questions. Especially, "How long have sheep been known
to have scrapie?"
It seems only logical to me that since sheep scrapie is the source of BSE,
eating infected sheep could very well be deadly to humans too. However, as
prions migrate to cows, humans, and other animals, my understanding is that
they manifest different symptoms, not necessarily as deadly as BSE, or
perhaps even worse. Whatever the specifics though, I have little doubt that
eating scrapie-infected sheep is bad for humans and should be avoided.
----------
From: Raymond Q Luk
To: vsg
Subject: BSE
Date: Saturday, April 06, 1996 6:53PM
I read the entire article recently posted on this list about BSE.
(From Mathew Krom, article by: Michael Greger).
I'm a bit curious, though. The article makes a the point:
> "BSE was 'almost certainly'[10] caused by feeding cattle ground up, dead,
> diseased sheep"[18] infected with an ovine spongiform encephalopathy
> known as scrapie.[20]
Isn't it logical that "scrapie" is just as deadly as BSE, assuming BSE
is deadly to humans? How long have sheeps been known to have scrapie?
Humans have been eating sheeps for as long as they've been eating
cows. If the sheeps have been known to have this for an extended
amount of time (few decades, century or two?), has scrapie been known
to jump species barriers into humans, yet?
Also, does anyone have any general info on "prions?" ("Infectious
Proteins")
- Ray
