Posted by Carlos on May 11, 1998 at 13:30:14:
In Reply to: My own list posted by Chris on May 05, 1998 at 22:20:59:
I acquired and read Deadly Feasts by Richard Rhodes this weekend. I had previously read Spoiled: The Dangerous Truth About a Food Chain Gone Haywire, by Nicols Fox. Between the two books, I think I have now sworn off meat (at least beef) for good.
Deadly Feasts recounts the search for the cause of diseases which at first were believed to be unrelated, and then turned out to be virtually the same. "Kuru", a disease of New Guinea cannibals discovered in the 1950's, "scrapie" a disease of sheep (mainly in England), and Cruetzfeld-Jakob Disease (CJD) a disease of humans discovered in Germany all are apparently caused by prions (pronounced "pree-ons"), which are rogue proteins that replicate without DNA or RNA. It is hypothesized that they replicate through a crystallization process. In any case, the class of diseases caused by prions are Transmissable Spongiform Encephalopathies (TSE's), and they are uniformly fatal to whatever species they infect.
BSE (aka mad cow disease) was almost certainly caused by feeding cattle the ground up bones of scrapie-infected sheep. There are documented cases of CJD among very young people in England, which were almost certainly caused by eating BSE-infected beef. There is no cure, no treatment - the disease turns brains into mush (hence "spongiform"), and victims gradually lose physical control and mental faculties until they die.
I recommend both books highly, but only if you have a strong stomache!