3 ms·
The article doesn't mention the outbreak in Europe (mostly in the UK), which peaked in the early 1990s. Fortunately (based on the graph in Wikipedia) the tail e
by PhantomGremlin 9y ago
The article doesn't mention the outbreak in Europe (mostly in the UK), which peaked in the early 1990s. Fortunately (based on the graph in Wikipedia) the tail end of that looks pretty low. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bovine_spongiform_encephalopathy#Europe https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bovine_spongiform_encephalopat...
The European outbreak was probably caused by feeding contaminated protein supplements to cattle. It affected quite a few more people than the contaminated dura mater grafts in Japan.
- hedora 9y agoIt also doesn’t mention that the US started testing beef after that. Two contaminated samples were found. If I remember right, the government’s response was to decrease testing by about 90% both times.
- EdwardDiego 9y agoContaminated protein supplements = the remains of sheep being fed to cattle.
- fred256 9y ago... and as a result anyone who lived in Europe during the 1990s is disqualified from donating blood in the US.
- PhantomGremlin 9y agoYeah, that's how I know about it. I spent some time in England in the early 1980s. So it affects me. But I did get my gallon pin before they kicked me out. Which means that there could be hundreds of Americans walking around with foreign prions, just because of me. :) The real advantage of being kicked out is that once you tell them the reason you can't give anymore, they ghost you. Totally. No more phone calls literally begging for your blood. :) The funny thing is, I'm sure, all the English are donating blood to one another. And they're surviving. I can see the opposite viewpoint as well. If even a single American got BSE from "foreign" blood, there would be an incredible shitstorm. And the poor recipient would have received the equivalent of a death sentence.