As a carrier of a "Prion-like disease" (Parkinsons) and knowing about
Alzheimer's, perhaps I'd be a good choice to bring the list up to speed on
the topic. Kuru, was a slow disease and only hit males in later ages. Only
the males ate the brains. (Check me on this). The same disease in beef is
BSE (Bovine spongiform Encephalitis), and it also takes years. We don't
really know how much is happily cavorting in our beef herds, because we only
test "downer" cattle. In sheep it's called "Scrapie." We have been studying
it for awhile. One study in CO let their study animals infect the local deer
and elk. Exactly how, isn't certain, though it's known that the pasture can
be infective. Sick deer/elk are said to have "Chronic Wasting Disease".
Hunters are asked to provide the occasional brain for study. 15% of some
stocks are thought to be infected. This was spread around the country by the
good old profit motive. Game farms, (Read: Private hunting compounds) bought
and sold and trucked around animals that looked OK but carried the
"infection".  I use the word in quotes because it is caused by neither a
virus nor a bacterium. The protein is as normal as apple pie until it
replicates, seemingly on a whim, with a different shape. This normal protein
is then said to be mis-folded. So, how do you test for that...in the absence
of symptoms. 

The human form is Crutzfeld-Jacob (Parkinsons isn't official) disease. It's
not supposed to jump species but in the UK a few decades ago it seemed to
have developed a variant that killed 200 or more of its citizens. This was
traced back to the feeding of sheep byproducts to cattle to save the cost of
other sources of protein. USA discovered this, so don't blame the UK. A
whole generation of cattle and sheep were disappeared and the outbreak seems
contained. Since you can freeze it and get it pretty warm without killing
it, and ordinary methods of sterilization don't work, the smart jury is
still out. 

For a time there was speculation that ordinary dentistry could be spreading
from one person to another. The outbreak ended but many in the UK won't eat
a rare steak. In no time, it went from sheep to cattle to humans.

This was a long way to go for a point. These proteins are spread by
infective particles that are ingested. They are usually slow acting, but
don't have to be. With this as background let's wonder a little more how the
insides of one bee can infect the outside of another, when close contact
does not.

Christina: don't let me BS here. I realize this is your area. Smooth this
out if you will. 

Dick Marron

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