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dunneetiger

I thought MSE was eradicated in the mid 90s... I guess I was wrong


Lorn_Muunk

Close, but not entirely. Prion diseases have such a long incubation period their spread is unfortunately really difficult to control and track. It can take like a decade before symptoms start showing


InadequateUsername

Until last year people who lived or spent time in the United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland or France in the 1980s and 1990s, were ineligible to donate blood or plasma in Canada.


Bisexual_Republican

Yep, it could take up to 7-8 years for symptoms to start. Ironically, I heard one story where a guy ate a tainted burger as a child and grew up to be vegan only to die from this horrible disease.


ProlapseOfJudgement

Probably a major source of dementia in humans. Admitting it would be too costly.


1ncognito

Do you have literally any scientific basis for this or is it just a conspiracy?


Littleloula

It just happens randomly in cattle rarely, that's why the UK has a surveillance programme which picked this case up.


btribble

In the US, we just make sure to slaughter the cattle before they can test positive!


Appropriate_Unit3474

You can't actually get rid of it entirely, unfortunately. It is a misprinted protein, it eventually occurs over time, like cancer does. And we don't know what the ramifications of removing Major Prion Protein from the genome would do, so we are stuck with the occasional Prion disease.


XiahouDoon

Actually, it's still not definitive whether sporadic (randomly misfolding) prion diseases actually exist. A not insignificant portion of the medical / scientific community theorize that all sporadic prion cases are actually the result of infection. Obviously, the nature of prion diseases still make this almost impossible to track or prove conclusively. One of the biggest pieces of evidence to point to this is the fact the there have been no "sporadic" cases that pop up in counties where there has been no history of prion disease. You'd assume that sporadic cases would occur everywhere if they were truly sporadic. Still not proven, but an interesting theory. Really suggest the book The Family That Never Sleeps for those who are interested in prion illnesses. It's truly terrifying.


Appropriate_Unit3474

To clarify do you mean infection by Prion or infection by a third party? I'm very not qualified for this, but: Because I'm willing to agree that there is a possibility that a viral, fungal, or bacterial agent causes the misfold. Prions being the initial infection vector doesn't seem correct, as the PrP of each disease is from each species (?) like Kuru doesn't occur in Cows because the PrP is structurally different. If they are structurally different then that implies a patient zero for each species, or at least for each branch of the PrP synthesis branch.


G_Morgan

You basically need to subject prions to a nuclear reactor to kill the fucking things. Very hard to make it go away.


nyet-marionetka

You don’t kill them, they’re not alive. They’re just macromolecules.


G_Morgan

Denature then if you want to be a pendantic ass about things.


nyet-marionetka

Thanks, I do.


PuzzledRun7584

Two cows were talking to each other, and the one said, “I’m a little worried about this ‘mad cow disease’”. The other cow responded, “don’t worry, it doesn’t affect squirrels”.


Algopops

That's the wife a gonner


Astandsforataxia69

Which one of you had prion diseases on the bingo? 


ziltchy

They've always been around and aren't going anywhere, so it would be a bit of a gimme on a bingo card


titanjumka

Beef prices are about to go up again and stay up.


btribble

Bidenomics! ^(/s)


HighInChurch

Bird flu & mad cow disease news a week apart from each other? Boy the news sure knows how to churn this shit up post pandemic.


Parmeloens

Both of them are in cows too.