You know how, if you eat infected cow meat, you can get Mad Cow Disease? It's known as Creutzfeld-Jakob disease in humans. And it's something that we in the lab are VERY paranoid about. It's caused by prions, tiny proteins in the brain, and it's virtually unkillable. They also aren't sure how it's spread. So if I come into contact with the nervous system tissue of an infected person, I could theoretically get it just being in the same room with it, so little is known about prions.
Well, I have a friend in pharma research who read something terrifying lately. It seems that an unusually large number of people who are working with animal models of neurodegenerative diseases are coming down with those same diseases themselves. The implications of this are staggering- it means prions could be causing all kinds of things, and just exposure to animal CNS/PNS tissue is enough to be a risk factor.
Which is all just a way of saying, just because something is "animal" doesn't mean it can't affect us, and in ways we might not even realize, let alone in the ways we can see- like economically, as you pointed out.
Well, I have a friend in pharma research who read something terrifying lately. It seems that an unusually large number of people who are working with animal models of neurodegenerative diseases are coming down with those same diseases themselves. The implications of this are staggering- it means prions could be causing all kinds of things, and just exposure to animal CNS/PNS tissue is enough to be a risk factor.
Which is all just a way of saying, just because something is "animal" doesn't mean it can't affect us, and in ways we might not even realize, let alone in the ways we can see- like economically, as you pointed out.
Yes, I know, not exactly JAMA.


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Last First in wotmania Chat
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Last First in wotmania Chat
Slightly better than chocolate.
Love still can't be coerced.
Please Don't Eat the Newbies!

LoL. Be well, RAFOlk.
This message last edited by Joel on 17/08/2011 at 02:22:43 AM
For the second time, another disease has been declared "eradicated"
16/08/2011 11:11:20 PM
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Something scary about "animal" diseases-
16/08/2011 11:51:45 PM
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I was reading about prions at Cracked.com earlier.
17/08/2011 01:51:29 AM
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don't be ridiculous, you don't need to encounter ANY animal
17/08/2011 02:02:04 AM
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Wiki is vague on this.
17/08/2011 07:52:09 AM
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yah, prions are a scary scary thing.
17/08/2011 01:58:53 AM
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Re: Something scary about "animal" diseases-
17/08/2011 04:45:27 AM
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Sorry.
17/08/2011 03:58:39 PM
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Re:
Sorry.
17/08/2011 09:46:59 PM
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Interesting.
18/08/2011 08:30:39 PM
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lol you know what's funny?
18/08/2011 10:21:53 PM
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If Rinderpest = Foot & Mouth, it most certainly wasn't gone from the First World years ago.
17/08/2011 05:51:41 PM
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no, that's not what I meant
17/08/2011 06:30:28 PM
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In a way, I'm glad I never heard of it, and hope I don't have to deal with it! *NM*
17/08/2011 06:36:28 PM
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