Wouldn't that be found in the spinal column and brain rather than muscle tissue?
Yes it would I suppose. (See below) - but I thought a bit of cheeky scaremongering on a Saturday morning was the order of the day
. Mind you - might not be keen on eating any part of a cow with CJD though.
CREUTZFELDT-JAKOB DISEASE AND EATING SQUIRREL BRAINS
The Lancet
Vol 350, No 9078 p.642
Joseph R Berger, Erick Weisman, Beverly Weisman
Spongiform encephalopathies have been reported in a variety of large and small
mammals.1 While conducting a study of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) in
south Florida, one of us (JRB) observed an affected patient who was
originally a native of Kentucky and had a history of eating squirrel brains. Dietary
transmission of prion diseases has been documented experimentally in animals -
- and in human beings who are cannibals.3 Several case reports have
suggested the possibility of transmission of CJD by consumption of brains of wild
animals.4 These observations, together with recent concerns about the
transmission of a unique encephalopathy in man believed to
be related to bovine spongiform encephalopathy5 led us to examine the possible
association of eating squirrel brains with CJD in rural Kentucky, where eating
squirrel and other small game is not uncommon. Culinary
preparations include scrambling the brains with eggs or putting them in a meat
and vegetable stew referred to as "burgoo".
A history of eating squirrel brains was obtained from family members of all five
patients with probable or definite CJD seen over 3·5 years in a neurocognitive
clinic in western Kentucky. Two women and three men aged
from 56 to 78 years (mean 68·2 years) were affected. None were related and
each lived in a different town. Eating squirrel brains was reported among 12 of
42 patients with Parkinson's disease seen in the same clinic and
27 of 100 age-matched controls without neurological disease living in western
Kentucky. Ataxia early in the course of the disease was seen in four of the
patients with CJD and myoclonus and periodic complexes on the
electroencephalogram were seen in all. Death occurred within 1 year in four,
whereas, survival exceeded 3 years from the onset of symptoms in one patient.
Analysis of codon 129 of the prion protein gene was not done.
This observation will require confirmation by studies of larger populations, and a
search for a scrapie agent in the brains of squirrels, which have not heretofore
been reported as having spongiform encephalopathies. In the
meantime caution might be exercised in the ingestion of this arboreal rodent.
