The Effects of Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies on Humans

Do you really know what is in your meat? What about what happens to the meat after it is slaughtered? Fortunately, the conditions have gotten much better throughout the years. But many years ago, in the early 1900s meat consumers bought spoiled and rat infested hams that were produced by the meat industries. Nowadays, the meat industry has improved to a certain extent. Today, about 80% of all U.S. feedlots are injected with hormones (Lerner). Americans should know what they are eating. This is important in the meat industry because they are the producers of all the meat that we eat. The meat industry has improved and is much better than the 1900s, but still not at as ideal as everyone thinks it really is.

Proteinaceous Infectious Particles, commonly known as Prions, are extremely rare misfolds of the protein PrPc, which cause fatally neurodegenerative diseases, and are theorized to be infectious only by the protein itself (U.S National Library of Medicine, 1998). This “protein-only theory” is still heavily debated today, as some scientists deny the theory, and there isn’t a significant amount of evidence on each side to qualify the theory or disprove it (Soto, C. 2011). The base “Prion” protein is encoded in the gene PRNP, while being non-infectious. Prions are most commonly found in human prion diseases, but they can also be in other animals in the form of Mad Cow Disease and Chronic Wasting Disease, classified as Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathies

However, most experts say that overall meat is safer now than it's ever been. There is still a risk, though. For example, according to a study published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases, almost half of our meat and poultry contain Staphylococcus aureus, a type of bacteria that can cause serious infections as well as death (Andrew E. Waters). Here's what Lance B. Price, Ph.D., senior author of the study said about the bacteria, “We know that nearly half of our food supply's meat and poultry are contaminated with S. aureus, and more than half of those are multidrug resistant.” However, he goes on to say, “What we don't know [is] how often these transfer to people. We need more studies to quantify the public health impact (Gardner).” Furthermore, Pascal James Imperato, M.D., dean of the School of Public Health at SUNY-Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn, NY said, “Numerous studies of this type done in other countries...have generally come up with the same findings, that multidrug-resistant S. aureus are present in a variety of animal meats.” "But, so far, no one has been able to draw a connection between the presence of those bacteria in meats and human illness (Gardner)." So, as one can see, even though S. aureus is

To show his audience how cattle are killed. Many of the meat industries don't care for animal health or the condition in the slaughterhouse. Many times the manured was not clean off the meat and packing to sent off to markets. In these cases, the rate of e.coli and salmonella are increased leading to food poisoning. “ Her six-year-old son Alex was infected with a bug in July of 1993 after eating 8 add to Hamburger his illness began with abdominal cramps that seem as AV receiver payment for Progressive diarrhea that filled the hospital toilet with blood.

Mad cow disease is to serious and deadly that it is not worth the risk of eating beef from a feedlot. Michael Pollan stated, "Mad cow is a brain disease that is always fatal. It is spread by eating the brains of infected animals" (56). Clearly mad cow disease will kill anyone that gets infected so it is not worth the risk to eat CAFO beef. In addition, "Ground-up cattle brains were put into cattle feed and some of those cows got mad cow disease. Human beings who ate infected beef also got the disease..." (Pollan and Chevat 56). This shows how completely unnatural CAFOs are and why people should not eat or buy CAFO meat. It also illustrates just how dangerous mad cow disease is; that people should be cautious by boycotting CAFO beef. However, an author for the Los Angeles Times, Paul Roberts said, “there has never been a confirmed case of mad cow disease connected with anyone eating U.S. beef" (Rodgers). Evidently getting mad cow disease in the U.S. is unlikely. Pollan retaliated by saying "Then people in England began dying of a sickness called mad cow disease" (55-56). This shows that although people have not eaten infected beef in the U.S. they have in other places. Therefore if people want to stay safe then they should not eat the beef produced in CAFOs so that they do not get mad cow

"This is no fairy story and no joke; the meat will be shoveled into carts and the man who did the shoveling will not trouble to lift out a rat even when he saw one." (Sinclair “The Jungle”). When it comes to having safe and approved food, our esteemed nation does not have the greatest reputation. Ever since the use of slaughter houses and meat packing plants began, people have been getting severely ill and even dying

     Mad Cow Disease, scientifically referred to as (BSE) Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy, is a disease that affects those humans who eat the meat from infected cows. Mad Cow Disease is one of several fatal brain diseases called (TSE) Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy. (USDA) There was evidence of a new illness resembling the sheep disease scrapie. It was technically named BSE but quickly acquired the mad cow tag because of the way infected cattle behave. (CNN) In 1997, there was an award given to Stanley Prusiner, for concluding that a distorted protein called a prion was responsible for Mad Cow Disease, noted the long incubation period made it difficult to distinguish (Bryant).

BSE is a form of transmissible spongiform encephalopathy that is transmitted when cattle consume feed that contains other animal protein from infected animals such as scrapie in sheep (CDC,

Imagine that there is a disease that is terrible and causes trouble for you every day, there is no cure, there is only the dragging on of day after day. This is Tay Sachs Disease, it is a disease that is lifelong, that is, unless it kills you early on in life. This disease has lots of symptoms. These symptoms are a result of how the disease affects the brain and its functionality. This disease is an inherited disease, and is known as a serious genetic disease.(“Health and Wellness Resource center and Alternative Health Module”). This disease is a autosomally recessive disease that is caused by a defect in the HEXA gene which provides instructions for making part of an enzyme called beta hexosaminidase A, which is critical in the brain

Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) is a rare and fatal human neurodegenerative condition falling under the category of Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy (TSE) because of having characteristic of spongy degeneration of the brain that it causes and its ability to be transmitted. First it was described in the United Kingdom in March 1996 and it has been connected with exposure to a TSE of cattle known as Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) sometimes called Classical BSE, having been reported first in 1986 in the United Kingdom.

Workers in the Slaughterhouses contribute to the contamination of the meat because of human error. Contamination can happen at any time when the cow is going through the process of being taken apart. First, the cows that go into the slaughterhouse are covered in feces in the feedlots. The workers have to remove the hides carefully to make sure that none of the feces touch the meat. When the “Gutters” in the slaughterhouses eviscerate the digestive system from a cow, pieces of dirt and manure could mix in with the meat. If the job isn’t carried out carefully and precisely, the digestive system could spill all over the place; on the floor, the table, the conveyor belt and the meat. Schlosser said “A former IBP ‘gutter’ told me that it took him six months to learn how to pull out the stomach and tie off the intestines without spillage. At best, he could guy two hundred consecutive cattle without spilling anything. Inexperienced gutters spill manure far more often.” Even if it’s an expert gutting a cow, there are often times when a mistake is made due to human error. At

2. In a healthy cell floating in the cytoplasm are proteins we refer to as “chaperones” because they instruct or guide the folding of younger proteins. They guide them through the folding process resulting in perfectly structured protein. That performs its function as it should. When chaperones go bad aka Prions, as is the case in Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE), we see the wide spread destruction that can occur when mutations in the folding occur. In Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy the PrPsc protein acts as a chaperone and influences the PrPc protein it comes in contact with, to misfold which results in a new structure this new form iis hydrophobic (PrPsc). As these proteins form they aggregate with other PrPsc proteins. As the PrPsc proteins aggregate they trigger the neuron to self destruct which

Right when the US department of agriculture (USDA) found out, they launched an emergency investigation that involved the United States and Canada. Canada and the States had a goal which was to find out where this disease started and to stop it before it was too late. Some people say that all slaughtered cows should be tested, but the problem is that many of these cows are very young and the disease will not show up in the cows until they have reached 30 months of age. DeHaven also said that “This is a disease with a very long incubation period-typically three to eight years.”

Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome is a disease that can cause life-threatening brain damage and mental health issues. The primary cause for the disease is a deficiency of vitamin B1. Most sufferers who contract and recover from the syndrome suffer permanent brain damage. Alcoholism is the predominate – but no only - catalyst for the sickness. Physicians identify most Wernicke-Korsakoff during alcoholism treatment. The disease’s 20 percent mortality rate poses a serious health threat. To date, there is no plausible vaccine for the illness.

Transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) are neurodegenerative diseases that are thought to be caused by the misfolding of prion proteins. Prions are able to replicate in the absence of nucleic acids. TSEs include: scrapie, bovine spongiform encephalopathy, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, kuru, Gerstmann-Straussler-Scheinker disease, and Fatal Familial Insomnia. They can affect many different animals, including humans. Currently, there are no ways to diagnose, treat, or cure TSEs, as much more research is needed before these diseases are completely understood.