Subject: Re: Mad cow disease and bone meal. Is it possible?
From: Bettyc <Bettyc@flyinggoat.com>
Organization: Texas A&M University OpenVMScluster
Date: Wed, 20 Aug 1997 22:34:48 -0700
Message-ID: <MOD$970821.6812@rec.gardens.ecosystems>
References: <MOD$970820.14487@rec.gardens.ecosystems> <MOD$970821.6129@rec.gardens.ecosystems>


> dhs wrote:
> > With all the talk about mad cow disease and animal feed made of other
> > animals, I have become concerned about using bone meal in my garden. (I
> > guess manure is ok).
> > Is there any information about that? Thanks for any input.
>
> To get Mad Cow desease, you need to have the prions that are 'infected'
> (from an outside source from your own body) replace your own prions.
> The way this is done is by ingesting the original 'infected' prions.
> Don't eat any cow brain tissue and you shouldn't ingest any infected
> prions. (Prions are only in brain tissues)
> This means avoiding sausages, hotdogs, some mince pies, and any other
> meat products made from 'trash' parts of the cow. Bone meal is made
> from 'trash parts' of cows but as long as you do not directly ingest it,
> you'll be fine.
> --

I forgot to mention that Mad Cow desease actually came from cows being
fed cheap (and now illegal) feed with parts of sheep brain tissue in it
from sheep infected with the sheep desease Scrappie. So you should
probably also not eat any 'trash' sheep products either. Chickens and
other poultry do not seem to be infected in any way.
--