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Re: slow viruses and organic soil amendments
In article <MOD$970930.8015@rec.gardens.ecosystems>, Tim McDermott
<mcdermott@draper.com> wrote:
>There was a story in the news in the last 6 months about a man in the
>Midwest US who got JK Disease (the human form of mad cow, discovered in
>New Guinea by two(?) Dutch folks whose names I can't even begin to spell)
>from bone meal. The prion is increadibly hard to destroy, so almost any
>use of animal products carries some risk.
Um, is there actually good evidence that they got it from bonemeal (an
analysis of the strain of the prion at least) or is it circumstantial?
>From browsing medline abstracts awhile ago I got the impression that it's
quite probable that BSE (mad cow disease) is not the only cause of JK. In
any case, JK is quite rare (dozen cases per year?) even in the British meat
& brain eating population which is the most at risk, so I suspect that
panic about bonemeal is premature.
--
Allyn Weaks allyn@u.washington.edu
PNW Native Wildlife Gardening: http://chemwww.chem.washington.edu/natives/
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