Jan 23 ~"Injecting human brain material into animals is considered
"unethical"....
.... yet "the experiments that are the main support for the hypothesis
that vCJD and BSE are the same disease also require that vCJD be injected into
the brain of the putative source 'host' animal. Until this is performed,
hypotheses of the causal relationship of BSE and other TSE's, including vCJD,
remain conjectural and the role of other, possibly environmental, factors must
be reconsidered..."
A new paper on Transmissable Spongiform
Encephalopathies by Susan Haywood BVSc, PhD, MRCVS and David R. Brown M.Sc,
Ph.D. is published in the Veterinary Times on January 27th The authors
"discuss a re-evaluation of the TSE enigma and explore the role of
environmental factors in prion diseases."
Extract: ".....does not conclude
that vCJD is caused by BSE, as Phillips implies.
Circumstantial evidence
linking the consumption of beefburgers by young people in support of the
transinfection theory, whilst persuasive, has never been proven, in that the
putative 'infectious' burgers have never been identified, nor indeed fed, to
experimental animals.
Groups supposedly more at risk such as farmers,
vets, abattoir workers and butchers have not shown an increased risk of vCJD.
It is quite surprising that the one experiment that would confirm a link
between BSE and vCJD has not been carried out. If BSE and vCJD are the same
strain of disease and take on different characteristics dependent on the host
organism, then infecting cows with vCJD should lead to the cows developing
BSE.
This would prove BSE and vCJD to be the same disease. However,
those who could have carried out the experiments have classed them as
"unethical" because of the need to inject human brain into an animal. It
is incontrovertible that, the experiments that are the main support for the
hypothesis that vCJD and BSE are the same disease also require that vCJD be
injected into the brain of the putative source 'host' animal.
Until
this is performed, hypotheses of the causal relationship of BSE and other
TSE's, including vCJD, remain conjectural and the role of other, possibly
environmental, factors must be reconsidered.. ...." Read
paper
Jan 23 ~" even if manganese is just a risk factor, it is important that this
factor be kept in the equation, because it might just be the key that unlocks
the truth about these diseases. "
A new paper on Transmissable
Spongiform Encephalopathies by Susan Haywood BVSc, PhD, MRCVS and David R.
Brown M.Sc, Ph.D
.....there is a solid and expanding amount of
literature showing that metal imbalance and TSEs are linked....Mark
Purdey, a farmer from Somerset, has published evidence that hotspots of TSEs
exist in regions of the world where there is environmental imbalance between
copper and manganese.
Farms in Iceland prone to scrapie have soils with
dramatically increased manganese levels. A similar situation exists in
Colorado where deer develop chronic wasting disease (9). These findings led
both Mark Purdey and David Brown to hypothesise that sporadic TSEs might be a
result of animals becoming exposed to conditions where manganese in their
diets is elevated and copper is deficient.....The Horn report "failed to note
that comparing maps of BSE incidence to a map of manganese hotspots across the
UK when the epidemic was well established was inappropriate, since BSE was
clearly spread at this stage by recycling infected offal.
A more detailed
analysis, looking at the location of the very first cases of where BSE were
reported (as viewed on the DEFRA web page,) and the map provided in the Horn
report, indicates that the original BSE farms lie directly in a manganese hot
spot!
Others, however, have not allowed themselves to be side tracked in
this way but concentrated on the scientific evidence. In particular,
authorities in the Environmental Protection Agency in Colorado have begun
investigating the link between manganese, copper and chronic wasting disease
incidence in deer. This disease was originally thought to be a copper
deficiency disease before the prion hypothesis came to be recognised and CWD
was recognised as a TSE. Although manganese might not be 'the cause' it is
clear from the biochemical studies that have been carried out that metals do
play a role in the pathogenesis of TSEs. Therefore, even if manganese is just
a risk factor, it is important that this factor be kept in the equation,
because it might just be the key that unlocks the truth about these diseases.
....(Read
full paper)
Jan 23 ~ More about the Horn Report
It is interesting to see what Mark Purdey, mentioned in the paper above as
having researched the link between metal imbalance and TSEs, had to say about
the Horn Report in this article in the Ecologist: "....Since the BSE inquiry
had rejected the official scrapie-BSE hypothesis and found in favour of some
aspects of my own theory, the UK government responded by setting up a further
mini-inquiry to re-examine the origins of BSE. The resulting publication,
known as the 'Gabriel Horn Report', employed a mix of misrepresentation and
outright bogus disinformation in order to discredit the validity of my
theory. When I attempted to sue the government for libel, it pleaded
‘qualified privilege' of the expert committee and then spun out the legal
communications beyond the one-year post-publication mark - thereby exempting
itself from my claim. See article
in the Ecologist by Mark Purdey and the Mark Purdey
page on warmwell