comment: >
  
  It’s easily preventable by keeping meat protein out of animal feed.
context: Fuck as a Brit the 90s are back. The burning bodies in fields. >
  
  We could also follow it up with Foot and Mouth, we get burning and disinfectant. >
  
  Farm to table, foot to mouth. >
  
  The issue back when this was killing people in the 80s was they were feeding the cows their own byproducts, like brains. That was causing it to spread so I assume this practice has stopped. >
  
  Prions are the cause of mad cow disease, and they are very difficult to destroy. Obviously feeding bovine by-products to cows is a concern, but fertilizing with manure from infected cows that hasn't been properly composted is a huge concern. We see e-coli outbreaks in lettuce from insufficiently composted manure. The spread of mad cow could happen just as easily. >
  
  Are you saying it because you know for sure (from actual studies) or are you just extrapolating from the e-coli stuff.
  Because one thing is a whole bacteria which has an actual cell wall that lets it resist the active chemical and biological agents of the outside environment, a completelly different thing is a random protein from inside an animal that's misfolded.
  I don't thing you can just presume that a protein will last long outside: it might, it might not.
  PS: Not a biologist, might be completelly wrong, would love to hear more about this. >
  
  Prions are EXTREMELY durable and infectious. 
  They’re considered so infectious that surgical instruments used on someone infected with them are destroyed, because they cannot be reliably sterilized. >
  
  
  Sustained heat for several hours at extremely high temperatures (900°F and above) will reliably destroy a prion.
  
  Are we sure this is not a kind of alien attack? >
  
  
  You must construct additional prions! >
  
  Well that's fucking horrifying >
  
  Bird flu's decimating poultry farms at the same time.
  I think Mother Nature's trying to tell us something. >
  
  Mad cow is completely preventable. The reason it develops is because they add ground up cow brains and spinal cords to the feed.  You see this in humans that practice cannibalism as well. >
  
  We dont usually see humans practicing cannibalism >
  
  It's common enough that it has been studied. An example is kuru, another prion transmitted disease that was studied in Papua New Guinea. It was a common practice to eat the dead, and their spirit energy would bless those who partook. >
  
  Was that the one where they can't stop dancing and laughing? >
  
  Laughing is a symptom. Not sure about dancing but it causes tremors.
  Makes me wonder if the Dancing Plague of 1518 may have been a similar disease. >
  
  My money for that one is on ergot. >
  
  From the article:
  
  There are essentially two types of BSE, classical and atypical. The classical variant has caused all known cases of Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans where the patient was infected from eating meat. There are no known of a human developing the disease as a result of cattle infected with atypical BSE. Scientists are currently trying to determine which affected the infected cow.
  
  It's not yet known which variant it is. >
  
  Yes.  This is important.
  Atypical means it was an old cow that developed prions on its own.  Classical means it was infected somehow.. >
  
  what is also important is that I don't fully trust any of it. Remember all the calming thoughts around an outbreak in Texas almost a decade ago? In the end it wasn't serious, but the propaganda to keep chill and just eat burguers was real while the fog was clearing out. >
  
  Yeah, you shouldn’t trust any of it.  I don’t trust the beef industry at all.
  At the same time, mad cow was absolutely rampant in the Uk for a decade, when the British government was telling everyone that humans could not get mad cow, and not that many people died from it all things considered.  About 178 it seems.  Your chances of getting mad cow from infected beef are still quite slim, as long as you don't eat an infected brain.  There will be a few American deaths from mad cow since the disease left the UK but the number won’t go higher than 1 to 5.
  There are bigger things in life to worry about. >
  
  It's the main reason why in a lot of countries you are prohibited from donating blood if you lived in the UK during the late 1980's/early 1990's when the initial outbreak occurred.
  Due to prions being able to stay dormant for years/decades, they won't take the chance of having their blood banks from having their stored blood potentially contaminated. >
  
  
  stay dormant for years/decades
  
  Well... prions don't stay dormant for years/decades.
  Prions are misfolded proteins that are nearly indestructible and cause nearby proteins to collapse in the same shape.  They stay... forever.
  But yeah, I know what you mean, there can be decades between the introduction of prions and the start of the disease. >
  
  Thats scary. Prion disease is terrifying and there is nothing we can do at this pointin science. >
  
  
  there is nothing we can do
  
  Scientist here. Have you considered the option of just not eating animals' corpses?
  lol. Of course this gets downvoted. Stay classy, reddit. >
  
  wow, since when is facebook scientist a scientist? >
  
  If you had the option of being the top scientist in your field or getting mad cow disease, which would you choose? >
  
  My dad's uncle died from that disease.
  I hope it's taken care of quickly before people get hurt. >
  
  Yeah, horrible way to die but at least it's relatively fast once the decline hits. 6 weeks maybe. Like accelerated Alzheimer's or something until the brain stops working >
  
  Not true. My friends dad had it.  Everyone assumed it was alzheimers until the autopsy.  He was declining for at least a couple years and had odd behaviors.  This was early to mid 90s >
  
  My Mum had it, not the form from beef but the form from unknown. 
  Yeah, there were "odd behaviours" but nothing that could compare to the true decline that lasted for like 6-7 weeks. Odd behaviour didn't majorly affect the day to day. Going insane does. When the true decline started it went from mistaking me for my uncle to thinking there was gas everywhere all the time in 2 weeks. >
  
  Sorry that happened to your family. 
  Friends dad would walk the sidewalk in the neighborhood and pick up anything “shiny” in peoples yards.  He needed help caring for himself for at least 12 months.  I didnt ask much about the autopsy, but friend said his dads brain basically turned into a sponge. >
  
  Ah, we/she only had to deal with 6 weeks of that. A year would have been genuinely horrific. My mum kept trying to push the dog out of the window to save him from the impending gas disaster and we'd have to pick her up from the road. Didn't realize every case wasn't so fast. Feel for your friend >
  
  I’m tired >
  
  Oh look, 18 months ago the EU lifted the ban using dead animals as feed (which is what caused the mad cow disease outbreak last time), and voila, another outbreak. 
  Whoever could have guessed that might happen. >
  
  This logic has a lot of holes in it 
  
  
  You’re assuming that there’s a direct correlation between the ban and any prevalence of mad cow disease 
  
  
  You’re assuming that mad cow disease didn’t occasionally flair during the course of that ban 
  
  You’re assuming the lifting of said ban directly (or perhaps indirectly) led to this outbreak >
  
  
  You’re assuming that there’s a direct correlation between the ban and any prevalence of mad cow disease 
  
  There is literally a direct correlation, yes. Do you know anything about Mad Cow Disease?
  
  You’re assuming that mad cow disease didn’t occasionally flair during the course of that ban 
  
  No I didn't.
  
  You’re assuming the lifting of said ban directly (or perhaps indirectly) led to this outbreak
  
  Certainly more than a little coincidental, because again feeding dead livestock to cattle was what caused the first outbreak to begin. >
  
  
  Certainly more than a little coincidental, because again feeding dead livestock to cattle was what caused the first outbreak to begin.
  
  Just an update: It is the naturally occuring non-threatening variant:
  
  The eight-year-old cow with atypical BSE was found on a farm in Zuid-Holland, the ministry said. The diagnosis was determined by scientists at Wageningen Bioveterinary Research, Agriculture Piet Adema stated in an update to the Tweede Kamer. In very rare cases, atypical BSE develops naturally and spontaneously in older cattle. It is not caused by contaminated animal feed, as opposed to classical BSE. It is the fourth case of atypical BSE ever found in the Netherlands, and only the fourth found in the European Economic Area in the past five years.
  
  So put down your pitchfork. Thank you.
  also, your first assumption was wrong in any case, as mad cow disease is caused by feeding cows the byproduct of other cows. Not only is feeding cows any byproduct still banned, the use of bovine byproduct is also still banned. >
  
  That's was a great first month this year, can't wait for what's next. >
  
  All the signs of a sci-fi blockbuster were there in the first month of the 2020s. >
  
  I forgot Iran shot at an ukrainian plane, with what we know today who would believe this was unintentionnal? >
  
  The missile was fired with intent, the target however was not what they thought it was. >
  
  For the people coming in late to the thread:
  This seems to be the atypical variety which rarely appear on old cows. Luckily it wasn't caused by infected food. There doesn't seem to be a risk that the disease spread via the food chain. >
  
  Just what these past 3 absolutely shit years needed. >
  
  2020s events starter pack:
  [] Reminiscent of the 1930s
  [] Reminiscent of a Transformers movie
  ✅ Disease of the month
  [] Hail Satan >
  
  Writers room is throwing everything at the wall. Upper management doesnt seem to know what they want. A feel good hero story? A doomsday movie? A scifi thriller? >
  
  We absolutely got plopped in a Michael Bay Transformers writer’s room circa 2013. No Fun. >
  
  So we didn’t learn anything from the previous outbreak? ”Yeah let’s make the cows cannibals again, what could go wrong?” >
  
  morons never learn, and so history repeats as it always does >
  
  You assume ignorance where it may not be. Profit motives are simply amoral. >
  
  As good a time as any to become vegetarian >
  
  I was living in Europe during the last outbreak. I hope it doesn't escalate. >
  
  I cant give blood for the same reason. >
  
  Ditto. It's a scary disease that can come bite you after so long. >
  
  lets hope this did not come from food because then we have a problem. If it's just a spontaneous mutation, well, that can happen to all of us ¯⁠\⁠⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠⁠/⁠¯ >
  
  There was a big concern in the nineties that thousands of people would eventually show up with this disease. So it was only 88. >
  
  Hope they're able to contain it.
  I grew up in the countryside of the UK in the 90s. It absolutely devestated the farmers around where I lived. I can still remember the wall of the smoke on the horizon from the burning corpses. It was heartbreaking. >
  
  I lived in Britain in the 80s and ate beef. No blood drive will touch me. >
  
  I remember my grandma (born around 1920) saying the following when mad cow disease was a big topic in the 90s: „When I was a child and we had mad cow like that, we just ate it.“ >
  
  I’ve been trying to reduce my meat consumption for environmental reasons, guess this is just another reason to reduce. >
  
  prions are nasty business.  someone clearly fed cow to cow. >
  
  well, nope. this one is one of the spontaneous occuring one, not an acquired one. this is simply nature being nature >
  
  Oh god. Not this again. >
  
  I watched a documentary on bbc several years ago and it explained that dependant on certain peoples genes, CJD may lie dormant in most of the population before presenting. 
  Those who died in Britain in the 90s presented with symptoms within months or years. 
  This documentary said that thousands of others, or possibly more could start showing symptoms in the coming decades. 
  Terrifying when I think basically everybody I know and love ate British beef in the 90s. >
  
  Did somebody start a Plague Inc playthrough and pick Netherlands this time >
  
  Can't wait for ground beef to be $40/lb >
  
  You could just not eat meat. Meat eaters think they need to consume an entire animal with every meal.
  I'm not even a vegetarian, I'm just annoyed at cooking meat, and it's pretty damn easy to avoid or limit your intake.
  Edit: guy replied and blocked me from responding lmao. Not sure why people get butthurt over suggesting they decrease their meat intake. Continue complaining about the price, I guess. >
  
  Dude, this was a very intense response. You have no idea how much meat this person eats. >
  
  absolutely terrifying >
  
  I knew sending my mother in law on a trip to Amsterdam was a bad idea. >
  
  I was stationed in the UK from 75 to 92 off and on, returning to the states in 92 and donated blood until 1999 when I received the lifetime ban from the CDC due to the exposure to mad cow disease. At the end of 2022, the CDC rescinded the ban. I filed application to the Red Cross, and have been reinstated and can now donate blood. >
  
  I guess it's back to farming Cow Level in Diablo 2 >
  
  And beef prices just jumped 50% >
  
  Two cows standing in a field in Holland.  One says to the other ' I'm a bit worried about the mad cow disease '. The other cows looks up and says 'well I'm not, I'm a duck.......🐄 >
  
  Ah look forward to scenes like we had in the UK back in the day. The smell of cooking beef as pits with hundreds of kulled cattle being burned. It did make you hungry though. >
  
  This disease is not scary except that there is no cure for it. It’s very easy to prevent. >
  
  What do you mean, it is “not scary”? You can prevent it by not consuming contaminated meat - but that’s a huge problem when most people do eat meat.