New Mad Cow Disease Strain Shows up in Two Swiss Cows

New Mad Cow Disease Strain Shows up in Two Swiss Cows

www.ibtimes.com

An international team of researchers identified two Swiss cows with a new form of mad-cow disease in a study released online Friday. ……Humans can become infected by the prion proteins….

Two cows died in the Swiss countryside, ….and mandatory testing gave a positive result for BSE.

Previously, scientists had uncovered three prion variants, but when the current team examined the prions of the two cows, they found a fourth unknown variant.

(visit the link for the full news article)

Of course they did. Prions are misfolded proteins, and proteins misfold in response to environmental disruptions and changes. It's an evolutionary mechanism. But we've changed our planet's environment so radically that now, these little suckers are everywhere, not only in cows.

Just one example: cow products are used in many vaccine manufacturing processes. Years ago, the Mad Cow Committee set up to review the problem officially determined that there were so many different prion strains contaminating vaccines, it was prohibitively expensive, and therefor pointless to test for any prions at all. Much less remove them. So humans, our food animals and pets are routinely infected with prions and other misfolded proteins in vaccines - many of which have mutated and evolved to form new strains. And new diseases. Duh.

Our world is rife with pandemic prion diseases - evidence that evolution is accelerating, and the process is out of control.


PRIONS AS EVOLUTIONARY MECHANISM

'Lifeless' Prion Proteins Are 'Capable of Evolution'

…prions (infectious misfolded proteins) are now acknowledged to evolve and adapt.

….Mainstream medicine admits that prions are associated with 20 different brain diseases in humans and animals.

….the evidence suggests that not only do prions cause most modern chronic and debilitating diseases, but they also underlie the current trend to accelerated evolution in microbes as well as complex living organisms.

…environmental insults, either physical (heat, pressure, radiation) or chemical (heavy metals, arsenate, toxins), also cause proteins to misfold into toxic shapes.

Can Prions Be Epigenetic Regulators In Humans?

Although prions are infectious agents with a bad reputation, research suggests that prions also play a role in epigenetic regulation. ….Prions are most simply defined as misfolded infectious proteins. Prion diseases or, “Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies” (TSEs) are a group of neurodegenerative disorders that occur in humans and other mammals. ….

Prions are classifiable as epigenetic regulators because they are able to modify gene expression through protein interactions, as opposed to first receiving “instructions” provided by nucleic acids.

Also see:

Low Level Radiation Exposure Linked to Dementia, Fatal Brain Diseases

Fatal Brain Disease Spreads in Britain

Ra diation particles in food are a slow-release health threat



www.ibtimes.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Thank you for the posts, great info (S & F). There's a non-fiction book called "Deadly Feasts" by Richard Rhodes from the late 90s that covers prion diseases and public health which is captivating and sadly probably inevitable. I don't think we've reacted quickly enough globally to prevent CJD from spreading and can expect many preventable deaths to occur. Other prion diseases, besides mad cow, are frightening too.

don't quote me on this but it sure does seem like mother nature is trying to take us out lately!

all these new diseases (H1N1, AIDS, recent super bugs, now a new mad cow and all the other diseases that have blown up over the past 50 years), EQs, tsunamis, tornadoes, fires, famine, heat waves...

every time we catch up to her tricks, she takes another 10 steps forward.

reply to post by ICEKOHLD

don't quote me on this but it sure does seem like mother nature is trying to take us out lately!

I won't quote you because you're wrong. We've done this to ourselves. It's been known for a long time that industrial activities, vaccine and drug manufacturing, and food processing create prions and misfolded proteins - and chronic diseases - and stress our immune systems beyond endurance.

We are designed to handle natural environmental change, earthquakes, tsunamis, and even infectious pandemics - what we can't handle is the constant bombardment from industry.

So we're walking into a period of geophysical and climactic instability already overstressed. Bad planning for the species.



[Sorry - shooting from the hip. Don't mean to be rude. S& for your post.]

reply to post by sayaangel

....I don't think we've reacted quickly enough globally to prevent CJD from spreading and can expect many preventable deaths to occur. Other prion diseases, besides mad cow, are frightening too.

Mad Cow is the least of our problems - and the long list of chronic diseases caused by infectious misfolded proteins is growing almost daily. We all should worry more about prion-contaminated vaccines, drugs, processed foods, personal hygiene products, air pollution and contaminated water and soil than about beef.



Thank you too. S& for your post.

reply to post by soficrow


i agree with you. we have done this to ourselves. i'm nowhere near as versed in this matter as you but i am aware that these types of things are often the result of us trying yo play god.

reply to post by ICEKOHLD

i am aware that these types of things are often the result of us trying yo play god.

I sort of agree with you but would qualify the statement. ...I think it's very cool -and legitimate- to try to understand how things work naturally; what doesn't work is trying to use the knowledge when it's incomplete - which happens all the time. ....and the reason people jump the gun on scientific knowledge is because of the way funding works - scientists can only get money for research if they claim their approach can lead to money-making products (and then deliver). Wrong approach - knowledge for the sake of knowledge was still a legitimate goal even in the 1970's, but now it's ridiculed as senseless.

reply to post by ICEKOHLD


Ooops. The reply above does not make a lot of sense because my head was on a different thread, here: Bird Flu Research Rattles Bioterrorism Field.

My apologies.