Well, hope this doesn't get written off as SPAM.

There has been some fudging in the press over the matters
related to CJD, or Creuzfeld-Jacob Disease over the years.

What has been established is that BSE is contracted by
cattle fed on remains of cattle, particularly the CNS and
other aspects of offal.

What has also been established is that CJD can be
contracted by humans eating human remains, particularly
the CNS and Brain.

Part of the dispute over whether or not we should be able
to go out and buy T-Bone steaks has been whether or not
there is any real link between BSE and CJD.

Whilst I am not disputing there is, recent media reports of
remote parties on Canadian pig farms in the rural backwoods
near Vancouver featuring snuff-while-you-wait type cabaret
acts, from which the human remains were fed to pigs would
seem to offer a reasonable indicator of whether 2nd degree
exposure to prions via the food chain is responsible for any
CJD cases.

The guy's business records will show where he sold his
pigs to, the stuff will have been in the food chain at least
a decade, maybe more, by now, and if there is any positive
correlating blip in CJD with a distinct link to Canada may
help explain how the cases of CJD in long-term vegetarians
arose.

Then again it may not as I gather it can be the height of
adolescent wit to palm meat products on vegetarians. I'm
thinking more in terms of meat by-products used in the
manufacture of foodstuffs generally considered suitable
for vegetarians.

Now before people think I'm a scaremongering creep with
a sinister mind, there are ways in which human remains
can quite accidentally get into the food chain where free-
ranging animals are concerned--someone dying quite a
normal death in a remote area and their body not being
found, for example. So, no, I shan't be suggesting the
rewording of food packaging with warnings such as "may
contain traces from nuts".

But it will be interesting to see if there is any Canadian
blip as far as total knowledge of the conditions go and
this goes double as the authorities should have a fair idea
of the timescales involved by now.

G DAEB
COPYRIGHT (C) 2008 SIPSTON
--