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Re: Bargyla's on blood avoidance

Beth von Gunten wrote:
> 
> >Bargyla said,
> >>Should never use blood. It can contain fungi and/or virus you don't want
> >>around your garden.
> 
> Janet responded:
> >To this let me add that we should all give serious consideration to NOT
> >using bonemeal as a soil amendment.
> >
> >In the United Kingdom, there have been 23 reported cases of
> >new-variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob syndrome believed linked to the outbreak
> >of bovine spongiform encephalopathy ("mad cow disease") there.
> >
> >Bonemeal is made of ground-up rendered livestock carcasses.  The
> >as-yet-uncharacterized agent that causes BSE survives the rendering
> >process.  Therefore, bonemeal made from BSE-infected cattle probably
> >can contain live BSE agents capable of transmitting the infection to
> >people handling the bonemeal.  Inhalation of the dust from bonemeal
> >during soil applications is the chief threat.
> >
> >Dr. John Gajdusek, the pioneer researcher at NIH, is quoted in Richard
> >Rhodes' book "Deadly Feasts" on this very subject.  Of the 10 original
> >cases of new-variant CJD in England, 4 individuals never ate beef but all
> >4 were gardeners who used bonemeal.
> >
> >Gajdusek said to Rhodes that people should avoid bonemeal because it
> >MAY be a vector for the BSE agent, and that agent MAY be the cause of
> >new-variant CJD.  CJD (old and new-variant) is inevitably fatal.
> >
> >Bargyla said,
> >> Pretty senseless to take chances.
> >
> >And I completely agree.
> >
> >--Janet
> ------------------------
> 
> The most specific information I have on this to date is the following
> exerpt from a much longer posting from the UK university mailbase
> food-for-thought listserve.  It sheds some light on the mode of
> transmission.
> 
> >DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH 97/333 Thursday 6th November 1997
> >
> >SEAC MEETING PUBLIC SUMMARY
> >
> >The Spongiform Encephalopathy Advisory Committee (SEAC) met on 24 October 1997
> >at the offices of the Ministry ofAgriculture, Fisheries and Food, Tolworth...
> >
> >...The focus on blood has arisen from research which found that the tonsils of
> >patients infected with new variant CJD contained the infectious agent, an
> >abnormal version of a prion protein. Tonsils are part of the body's
> >infection-fighting lymphatic system which exchanges cells with the blood
> >supply,
> >so the discovery by Prof John Collinge at St Mary's Hospital, London,
> >raises the
> >possibility that blood may be infectious.
> >
> >This dovetails with work by Prof Adriano Aguzzi of Zurich University,
> >Switzerland. The puzzle had been how eating food could cause a brain
> >disease. In
> >September, Prof Aguzzi reported in Nature a series of experiments on mice
> >stripped of their immune systems which demonstrated how the agent needed the
> >immune system to pass from the gut to the brain. His team revealed the "bridge"
> >from gut to brain: first the agent passes to the lymph system, to a class of
> >cells called follicular dendritic cells. From there it may pass to white blood
> >cells, notably lymphocytes, and then to the peripheral nervous system that
> >detects pain and moves muscles. From there it spreads to the brain.
> >
> >The good news of this discovery is that this serial chain of infection, between
> >gut and brain, offers the best place to block the process. The bad is that this
> >again does not rule out the possibility that abnormal prion is indeed
> >present in
> >blood.
> >
> >***********************************************************
> >J Ralph Blanchfield, MBE
> >Food Science, Food Technology & Food Law Consultant
> >Chair, IFST External Affairs
> >Web Editor, Institute of Food Science & Technology
> >IFST Web address <http://www.easynet.co.uk/ifst/>
> >***********************************************************
> 
> So the United Kingdom is in the process of devising ways to filter all the
> lymphocytes out of its blood supply.  I've heard though can't confirm that
> as a further precaution, it will no longer allow meat to be sold on the
> bone in the UK.
> 
> Beth von Gunten
> Ventura County, California
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