Sorry - my mistake. At least by researching it I educated myself on the (non) difference between nvCJD and vCJD.
Found on another site, a very interesting link:The Gibbs Principle
Any experts out there willing to take a stab at rendering that into English?
So far as I can tell, the Gibbs Principle states that encephalopathies like BSE, scrapie, or CJD simply occur spontaneously at a low rate (1 per million per year). I take this to be based on the idea that prions come into existance by means of some sort of mutated protein replication. This means that there’s no such thing as a BSE-free country. Unlike, say, smallpox, it simply can’t be wiped out, since it arises spontaneously.
This of course does not imply that it’s not a good thing to reduce lateral transmission by feeding cow brains to cattle in feedlots, etc.
I have no idea as to the scientific validity of this claim. If it is true, however, it implies that current international protocols regarding BSE are misguided. Not that they weren’t anyways.
Errr…reduce lateral transmission by not feeding cow brains to cattle in feedlots…
Slight correction based on my Bio class.(Ok, it’s only the first semester bio and it was only one lecture but it’s better than nothing.) It’s not that there was a problem translating mRNA into protein. That worked completely fine. However one Protein at some time after creation refolded incorrectly and this can occur any time after it has been created.(And will occur given enough time but generally takes an extremely long time.) Like others have said this bad protein has the odd quirk that it catalyzes the “refolding” so it turns the good proteins bad at an alarming rate.
http://intro.bio.umb.edu/111-112/111F98Lect/pdfs/31MoBo9.pdf
Oh one other thing I remember from that lecture. My prof mentioned on of the things researchers did to figure out it really was a protein was to genetically engineer mice that don’t produce the PrP protein.(He pointed out at the time that something replicating via protein was very controversial.) If it was a virus it should still be able to replicate without the protein and produce bad PrP. But what happened it that the mice couldn’t get the disease.(So it wasn’t a virus.) So this suggests that if you could genetically engineer cattle to not have this protein they couldn’t contract the disease and you get rid of this particular prion.(No idea how many different prions cattle carry though.)
Considering how few people actually get sick from eating mad cow-infected beef, I don’t see what the big deal is. Sounds like you’re far more likely to die of E. coli or plain food poisoning from eating badly prepared or stored beef.
I had a big discussion with my husband about this last night. He’s European and has already been through this once, so he’s quite paranoid.
He says it’s just the beef parts that contain brain or neurological tissue that are problematic. Like hot dogs, hamburgers or sausages that contain a lot of filler. For those meats they take the meat plus internal organs and grind them all up together.
He says we shouldn’t eat ground beef or sausages until this is cleared up.
But my question is: what about ground turkey? I’m sure they use the same nasty techniques of grinding up turkey organs into it, but can fowl catch Mad Cow?
In the U.S., at least, brain and other tissue is not normally added to products labeled as hamburger or ground beef. Hambuger and ground beef are supposed to contain only muscle tissue and some of the fat associated with muscle tissue.
Some sausage products may contain other parts, but the less desirable organs are usually made into pet foods, or sold as specialty items.
Mr. Mars, do you have a reputable cite that says this? I’m not doubting you, but it would make my life easier if I could show that to my husband, so I don’t have to avoid ground beef.
While brain and spinal column tissue might not be added to ground beef, there’s always a chance some might sneak in. Standard operating procedure in slaughterhouses is to cut the carcass in half lengthwise, splitting the backbone in two. Bits of spinal column can then easily make their way into ground meat, especially as many bits are then mechanically deboned prior to the grinding.
What you need to do is work on the paranoia, not look for evidence that there is zero possibility of finding a prion in ground beef.
Actually, one of the most common uses of cow brains is as animal feed - one of the sources of the whole problem. They’re turned into a mash and fed - to pigs, mostly, as it is illegal to feed ruminant protien to ruminants. However, it’s still legal to feed ruminant protien to non-ruminants, and non-ruminant protien to ruminants. So cow brains are fed to pigs, and then pig brains are fed to cows. Yum! (It would most likely be a good idea to stop this practice, I would think.)
Is any of this fed to fowl (chickens and turkeys)? Can they get it?
Actually I’m not sure. I know from class that loads of animals from cows, sheep, mice, rats, primates, and humans could all catch it from each other.(Since they all have variations of that PrP protein.) However I’m not sure if birds have that protein or not. (If they did then they might be able to get it too.)
But scrapie isn’t transmittable across species, is it?
Isn’t that how cattle got BSE – from eating scrapie-infected brains?
So far, we only know of these prion diseases coming to man from cattle but we know that other species can cross-infect.
Yes, I believe that’s how the cattle got it. Oh, there is another form of this disease in people called kuru. However that didn’t happen from people eating cattle. That happened when people ate a person that apparently had the offending prion.(Like my prof said, this PrP protein can just spotaneously refold. It requires so much activation energy that this doesn’t happen very often on its own. However if you ate the unluck person then you get the catalyzing protein that gives you the problem.)
Well, now: I’m not the best at surfing the net. Here are a couple of sites that describe USDA regulatory content and makeup of ground beef:
http://www.mycustompak.com/healthNotes/Food_Guide/Ground_Beef.htm
“Varieties
Ground beef comes mostly from the chuck, sirloin, and round, though the taste depends more on the amount of fat than on the cut of origin.”
http://www.ams.usda.gov/lsg/cp/beef/APPROVED%20TDS136-06-22-00%20Modified%20with%20AMT%204.pdf
Note: AMS is the Agricultural Marketing Service, a part of the USDA.
Nowhere in them does it state that hooves, brains, etc. shall not be included in ground beef. I believe such statements are not considered necessary, as industry common practice does not include such things in ground beef. The sites do go into some detail about precautions that should be taken with sick or downer cattle, and other health concerns.
Ever see the movie “Rocky”? Those were beef halves he was beating on in the cooling plant. The heads and viscera have been removed. Those parts go to be processed as pet food or fertilizer.
The beef halves then hang, cooling, or “aging” for up to three weeks at 38 degrees. They are then cut up, with the more expensive cuts such as steaks and roasts removed first. Then ribs and stew beef are removed. What’s left is cut from the bone and ground into hambuger. In many cases, the chuck roasts, which tend to be tough, are also processed into ground chuck. You may see the round marketed as either round steaks or ground round.
Anyway, since in a previous life I worked in a beef processing plant for several months, I’m confident that the only parts used in hambuger or ground beef come from what’s hanging in the beef halves. That does not a cite make, but that personal knowledge plus the sites I posted above are about the best I can do.
Also, I have no direct knowledge about what may go into the various processed meat products. As was pointed out by someone else above, the beef halves are split down the spine, so it’s not impossible that some spinal content could come into contact with steak, roast, or ground beef cuts.
I fully intend to take the opportunity to fill my freezer with frozen beef if there’s a scare in the next few weeks.