Testing For The Disease Meat and meat products such as steaks and sausages, or cosmetic products that contain cattle material, are not tested for prion. Presently, the only reliable tissue on which tests for prion can be done is the brain of infected animals. Testing is done during autopsies. It has been found that cooking will not destroy the 'bad' prion protein that is believed to give rise to the disease. The protein can also withstand radiation and autoclaves designed to sterilize surgical instruments.
The story goes that smallpox-contaminated blankets were used throughout Americans' westward advance to remove the Indians. Waldman writes, in reference to a siege of Fort Pitt (Pittsburgh) by Chief Pontiac's forces during the summer of 1763: Using germ warfare against other human beings in NOT a good idea.
:eek: :eek: these were good deeds of Christians. The table of the religious game has turned around nowadays. Because of it, human beings will find its extinction eventually.
Despite their assurances of food safety, federal officials have taken the precaution of recalling 10,000 pounds of meat from the infected cow and from 19 other cows slaughtered Dec. 9 at Vern's Moses Lake Meat Co., in Moses Lake, Wash. Officials say they are still recovering meat and will not know how much has been returned until later this week. ``We expect by now that many of the customers who may have purchased some of this meat have been notified by the grocery chain. If not, they can contact those stores'' related to the recall. the slaughtered cow was deboned at Midway Meats in Centralia, Wash., and sent Dec. 12 to two other plants, Willamette Valley Meat and Interstate Meat, both near Portland, Ore. Willamette also received beef trimmings -- parts used in meats such as hamburger. Officials say those were sold to some three dozen, small, mom-and-pop Asian and Mexican facilities in Washington, Oregon, California and Nevada. Supermarket chains in the West -- Albertsons, Fred Meyer, Safeway, and WinCo Foods -- have voluntarily removed ground beef products from the affected distributors. Safeway has said it will look for another supplier.
Not against BSE "mad cow disease." Apparently, BSE is caused by something that is not living and can withstand enourmous heat. nitro
Also, it is possible for brain tissue to be driven into or splattered on muscles in a slaughterhouse. Animals are usually killed with a blow from a hand-held jackhammer that slams a piston into the skull. The last few beats of the animal's heart can circulate the tissue. Also, sawing a carcass in half can splatter spinal cord tissue around, as can the use of high-pressure jets that strip meat from bone. Agriculture officials said they believed that such methods were not used on this carcass.
The prion protein is actually made by every animal, but in a specific shape. What happens is that a mutated form (read=different shape) of the protein in diseased animals, causes the normal proteins in us, to change shape. Those changed ones build up, and cause the damage, ie. spongy type brain tissue that is characteristic of the disease. Why that scientific explanation is not the purpose of this excellent forum, I repeat it for this reason: it takes only ONE abnormal protein to set a chain-reaction. Tiny amounts of infected tissue are all that's needed. Scarry stuff... best avoid those hot-dogs! Best of luck for 2004!