- Note - As I have earlier stated, it is my belief cattle
mutilations are, in part, involved with tracking the spread of BSE/Mad
Cow Prions. Tongues are commonly removed in mutilations. I have also stated
that Mad Cow/BSE is essentially the same disease as CWD which is the same
disease as CJD/Alzheimers which is the same as GSS, etc. Prion disease
is prion disease.
-
- The discovery of prions in cattle tongues should not
come as a surprise in light of the known concentration of them in afflicted
HUMAN tonsils. The British discovered this years ago and then, much to
their dismay, found that over half of reusable childrens' tonsillectomy
instruments that were checked for prions in UK hospitals were found to
be contaminated with prions AFTER the instruments were sterilized.
-
- And then there was the announced study to begin checking
removed tonsils, nationwide, for signs of prion infection. The results
of that test were never released...-- Jeff Rense
-
-
-
- Mouth's Muscle Could Be A Route For BSE Infection
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- By Helen Pearson
Nature.com
1-2-3
-
- Tongue meat could carry a risk of infection from mad
cow disease, a new report suggests1.
-
- Tongue could contain high levels of the prion protein
thought to cause bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in cattle and variant
Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans, say Richard Bessen and his colleagues.
Prions injected into hamster brains travelled to the tongue and accumulated
to relatively high levels, the team found.
-
- This doesn't prove that cows with BSE have prion-loaded
tongues, or that eating these tongues could cause human disease, says Bessen,
who works at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska. But guidelines on
the meat allowed into the food-chain should be re-evaluated, he says.
-
- Cattle spine and brain are barred from meat products
in some European countries. In infected animals, these tissues accumulate
prions. Tongue is not banned.
-
- There are fears that infected beef is still entering
the food-chain. There are also safety concerns over meat from sheep and
deer with related prion diseases.
-
- Nerves could carry infectious prions from the brain to
the tongue, explains pathologist Jan Fraser of the Institute for Animal
Health in Edinburgh, UK. "Whether there's sufficient [infectivity]
to cause disease is a moot point."
-
- Mice injected with nerve cells from infected cow tongue
remain healthy. "We have no evidence at the moment for infectivity
in the tongue or peripheral nerves of BSE cattle," says Fraser. But
the new result makes further testing worthwhile, she says.
-
-
- Tongue tied
-
- In cows, the brain might download prions to the tongue.
In humans, prions might enter via the tongue, Bessen's team proposes. Current
opinion holds that prions infect people through the stomach.
-
- Prions injected into hamsters' tongues took 1-2 weeks
to reach the brain. These animals fell ill in around 80 days - compared
with 190 days when infected through the gut.
-
- Prions can enter through small wounds on the tongue.
"A lesion, cut or infection could enhance the ability of [an animal
or person] to become infected," says Bessen.
-
- "It can presumably propagate the infections pretty
rapidly to the brain," says prion researcher Byron Caughey of Rocky
Mountain Labs in Hamilton, Montana. "Whether it actually happens I
don't know."
-
-
- References Bartz, J. C. et al. Rapid prion neuroinvasion
following tongue infection. Journal of Virology, 77, 583 - 591, (2002).
|Article|
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- © Nature News Service / Macmillan Magazines Ltd
2002
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- http://www.nature.com/nsu/021230/021230-5.html
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