BRAIN TRUST Nisha Pawar HONR 299J Spring 2014

CHAPTER 16—CLUSTERING  Current CDC position: sporadic CJD has nothing to do with tainted meat (only variant CJD)  Therefore, beef in the US is safe!  Two things that contradicted these statements…

1) Mice Studies  BSE material injected into mice –expected to only show variant form of CJD  Ended up showing BOTH variant and sporadic CJD  Disproved CDC and USDA claim about variant CJD being the only form that can be related to BSE  Suggests easier transmission from animals

2) Janet Skarbeck  Friend dies from CJD at a relatively young age—decided to investigate further  Discovers at least 15 cases of CJD individuals in the same area that frequented the same racetrack restaurant in NJ  CDC continues to dismiss her findings—deems it highly unlikely because of wide range of meat distribution  Why do you think CDC did not consider contamination of the restaurant a plausible cause for the high frequency of the disease in the area?

Japanese Ban on U.S Beef Imports  “The government has put priority on the political schedule between the two countries, not on food safety or human health” – Michiko Kamiyama, Food Safety Citizen Watch

Clustering  Neglects the supposed spontaneity of the disease Increased Infection Rates  Italian study—found high prion protein concentration in nasal cavities of CJD patients  Subsequent studies by Adrianno Aguzzi found high concentration of prions in muscle tissue and spleen  Also found the disease can be silent—no symptoms but can still transmit disease— “subclinical phase” (Collinge & Hill)

09/09/new-cwd-findings CHAPTER 17—MAD DEER  New disease—Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD)  Colorado State University has sudden outbreak—70% deaths of their deer population  Possibility that deer came across scrapie agents that caused a recent outbreak in the same area  Horizontal transmission— transferred to other species; also showed successful transmission to cattle brains  Also began spreading to nearby elk population as well as farther distances away, but how?

New Technology –IDEXX  New diagnostic tool for diagnosis cattle  Increased number of cases of CWD because diagnosis was more accurate  Initial disbelief of results obtained from new technology

CHAPTER 18—MORE TAINTED MEAT  1998—Doug McEwans dies from CJD at age 30’s  Lesions did not match those of human variant CJD  Thought his death was related to venison consumption but assured by the CDC that it was highly unlikely  CDC uses the fact that large amounts of people that have NOT gotten CWD from eating meat as an explanation to why they cannot be linked  Similar avoidance to BSE by British government

Gajdusek— “Zoonosis”  Gajdusek writes a paper with veterinarian  Possibility of wild animals carrying prions silently and spreading it among species  Large numbers of CJD cases related to close interactions with wild animals  Deer—hunting and eating meat  Squirrels—considered a delicacy

Aguzzi issues a warning  “The threat-from within posed by CWD needs careful consideration since the evidence that CWD is less dangerous to humans than BSE is less-than complete”  Says we downplayed importance of BSE in the UK but we shouldn’t be underestimating this disease