SCI/TECH: Study Reveals Mad Cow Disease May Spread In Urine

A Swiss study conducted by the University Hospital in Zurich has found that under certain conditions in mice, prions, the brain protein that transmit and cause Mad Cow, scrapie and wasting disease in elk and deer could be found in urine. The mice who were infected with scrapie excreted prions in urine which in turn were injected into other mice, causing scrapie infection in the newly injected mice. Researchers say that although laboratory conditions are a long way from the real world setting, it appears that transmission through grazing animals browsing on urine contaminated fodder could well be possible. Mr Adriano Aguzzi, an expert in prion disease and head of the study stated that the finding could explain the spread of chronic wasting disease found in deer and elk in western US states.



Apparently the mouse urine only contained the prions when they had kidney inflammation which is common in animals with viruses or autoimmune disease and even dementia, which is a symptom of Mad Cow Disease.

A team of researchers have already announced the finding of prions in the urine of a patient suffering mad cow disease.


[edit on 13-10-2005 by Mayet]

This are not good news, indeed prions comes back to hunt us again, I know that we are not running in the while stepping on wild life urines but mice are found in almost every home in America.

I have come across a few in my house.

Ok, people... why is this news?
because people dont understand the "state" of the prion...

think of it like a zombie monster... can't be killed, can only be protected against...
now drop these zombie monsters on the ground, or on cutting tools at a slaughterhouse... every cell that they come into contact with, they will attempt to eat its brains and turn it into a little zombie monster also...
until a cow comes along and eats the zombie soil infected hay, and becomes a big zombie monster 8 years later... and in the process spreads brain eating zombie monsters to every other cow in the field for the 8 years in between...

somone once said, that one cow nearly killed the canadian cattle industry... no my friend... one cow nearly killed canada... screw the cattle industry...
when a cow is found to have mad cow...it is not overkill to nuke the soil, the rest of the cows in the area, any slaughter houses that might have touched the cow... as well as any meat cutters/butchers that might have touched it.
does that make it easy to understand...
they dont die.
BTW... this is the reason that some states still dont allow tattoos... they dont know enough about prions to say that it doesn't spread prion disease... guess what? IT DOES... except when using disposible needles, and one use inks...

Very important report Mayet.

Laz - it's important news. This stuff needs ALL the coverage it can get.

FYI though - Laz is right. It is old news, and there is MUCH more to the story:

Source: "Mad Cow" Spreading in Deer and Elk


"The old news is that prions spread in urine and other bodily fluids, including blood - which means that soil and groundwater are contaminated easily, then waterways and finally, tapwater. So burying diseased carcasses is a really bad idea - even in 'approved' landfills. Burning carcasses only works at very high temperatures; if temperatures are not high enough, the prions are simply released into the air. And just to make matters really interesting, prions can use insects and microbes like viruses as vehicles of transmission.


The second big myth about prion diseases involves transmission: "Researchers have yet to discover how chronic wasting disease spreads." Again, technically true. No one has tracked the 'chronic wasting disease' prion to confirm that it spreads exactly like other prions are known to spread. Unfortunately, research on prion transmission in the USA was stalled when President Bush defined prions as "select agents" under anti-terrorist legislation.

The old news is that prions spread in urine and other bodily fluids, including blood - which means that soil and groundwater are contaminated easily, then waterways and finally, tapwater. So burying diseased carcasses is a really bad idea - even in 'approved' landfills. Burning carcasses only works at very high temperatures; if temperatures are not high enough, the prions are simply released into the air. And just to make matters really interesting, prions can use insects and microbes like viruses as vehicles of transmission."

"How does chronic wasting disease (CWD) in deer and elk spread from animal to animal? … University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers show that prions - infectious proteins considered to be at the root of the disease - literally stick to some soil types, suggesting that the landscape may serve as an environmental reservoir for the disease."
www.sciencedaily.com...

* Prion transmission in blood and urine: what are the implications for recombinant and urinary-derived gonadotrophins? Hum Reprod. 2002 Oct;17(10):2501-8. Reichl H, Balen A, Jansen CA. PMID: 12351519

"This finding indicates that previous attempts to quantify BSE and scrapie prions in milk or non-neural tissues, such as muscle, may have underestimated infectious titers by as much as a factor of 10,000, raising the possibility that prions could be present in these products in sufficient quantities to pose risk to humans..."
* UCSF-Led Team Reports New Test Improves Detection of Prions in Animals
www.sciencedaily.com...

"It is possible that infectious prions have leached into the water supply, government scientists admit. … The main risks to human health are contamination of water supplies from buried animals, or carcasses awaiting disposal, and pollution of the air from burning pyres."
www.newscientist.com...

"Fly larvae and mites were exposed to brain-infected material and were readily able to transmit scrapie (prions) to hamsters. New lines of evidence have confirmed that adult flies are also able to express prion proteins. Several cell types found on the human skin, including keratinocytes, fibroblasts and lymphocytes, are susceptible to the abnormal infective isoform of the prion protein, which transforms the skin to produce a potential target for prion infection."
* Could ectoparasites act as vectors for prion diseases? Int J Dermatol. 2003 Jun;42(6):425-9. Lupi O. Center for Vaccine Development, University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, Galveston, TX, USA. PMID: 12786866

This 1986 paper describes how "proteinaceous capsids" use viruses as vehicles of transmission, and how the subsequent RNA interference silences genes.
* "Viral influences on aflatoxin formation by Aspergillus flavus." Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 24:248-252. Schmidt FR, Lemke PA, Esser K (1986)

"Epidemiological observations indicate that a microbial vector is responsible for the transmission of natural prion disease in sheep and goats … A similar phenomenon was already described with a protein antigen of the ameba Naegleria gruberi. ...It is proposed that many microbial proteins may be capable of replicating themselves in mammalian cells eliciting and sustaining thereby degenerative and/or autoimmune reactions subsequent to infections with microorganisms."
* Med Hypotheses. 1999 Aug;53(2):91-102. Is the pathogen of prion disease a microbial protein? Fuzi M. Budapest Institute of National Public Health and Medical Officer Service, Hungary. PMID: 10532698

"Although composting reaches high enough temperatures for a long enough time to kill most pathogens ...it would be highly unlikely that composting would inactivate prions."
cornelldailysun.com...

[edit on 13-10-2005 by soficrow]

very disturbing. think about if masquitoes (sp?) could spread such a thing....that would be bad bad news. this is bad news as it is because of the careless eating habits of people....very disturbing stuff here.

Originally posted by grimreaper797
very disturbing. think about if masquitoes (sp?) could spread such a thing....that would be bad bad news. this is bad news as it is because of the careless eating habits of people....very disturbing stuff here.

GR - please - read my references. The spread of prions has NOTHING to do with peoples' eating habits - and EVERYTHING to do with industrial and manufacturing practices.


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Give us some hope here soficrow...
I read that scientists are finding ways of "turning off" prionic yeast cells, among the good ones. In essence, they exclude the prion infected cells from reproduced cells... showing that there may be a way to teach our cells to ignore the infected cells that have the disbled protein barrier... only allowing the good ones to split.
Long way off for human prion infections, but it shows hope...

Originally posted by LazarusTheLong
Give us some hope here soficrow...

Long way off for human prion infections, but it shows hope...

Lots of hope out there laz - but needs a shift in attitude and paradigm to get it. ..."Don't worry, be happy" is so 80's - dontcha think? Like, prevent panic, preserve the economy - and look where the fools led us?

I prefer to assess the real problem - which is the only way to find real solutions. Ducking out on reality isn't very ...productive. Unless of course, you're turning a profit on ignorance.


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