It's been known for some time that onset of symptoms could take up to
30 years. Cryo--interesting question, as well as effect of life
extension on probablity of coming down with this thing.. Stopped
eating red meat years ago because of this nasty--but then, a
restaurant will likely fry my eggs in the same spot they made a
hamburger. Still, have to be reducing the odds.
Anyone doubting eventual appearance of vCJD in US should read this:
http://caq.com/caq62/caq62madcow.html
Compared with Europe, US is completely reckless, thanks to money
flowing to the power of the beef/poultry industry, and thence to the
regulators. Best-case scenario: Appearance in Europe was freak
occurrence (perhaps related to genetics of Cow Zero) and will not
repeat here in spite of seemingly identical conditions; no prions
will be imported into the US foodchain (unless a tourist falls into a
balogna mixer).
Cross your fingers and hope to live.
jm
--On 16 May 2001, at 15:53, Randy Smith wrote:
> > > A frightening article from http://www.newscientist.com... > Here is an excerpt: > > "....... > Gene data reveals that further waves of human deaths due to mad cow disease > are likely > > > Further waves of deaths from the human form of mad cow disease look > increasingly inevitable, following new genetic studies in mice. > > These show that mice can vary enormously in the time they take to develop an > equivalent disease, depending on the combination of genes they have > inherited. > > The studies undermine hopes that the 100 or so victims to date of variant > Creutzfeld Jakob Disease (vCJD) only succumbed to the disease because of > freak variations in one key gene. > > The new work suggests the time it takes to develop the disease might depend > on a combination of several genes, not just one. This means that far greater > numbers of us could be "incubating" the disease, but have yet to show > symptoms. > > "It's not a question of whether you get the disease, but when," says John > Collinge, the neurogeneticist at University College London who led the > research. He adds that, if we are fortunate, the incubation times may be > longer than natural lifespans for many people. > > "We would predict that some humans would have very long incubation periods > and others would have short ones depending on the cocktail of gene variants > they've got," he says. > ......." > > So, does anyone know if the prion disease will continue to ravage the brain > even when submerged in LN2 (or at the proposed, somewhat warmer storage > conditions)? > > _________________________________________________________________ > Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com >
John Marlow
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