5 ms·
The “fun” question is whether prions are present in milk and other dairy products. One might argue that they are not, by virtue of them being largely localized
by admash 5y ago
The “fun” question is whether prions are present in milk and other dairy products. One might argue that they are not, by virtue of them being largely localized to neural tissue.
Of course, this raises the question of how CWD is being transmitted in elk, since elk don’t eat elk.
“Scientists believe CWD proteins (prions) likely spread between animals through body fluids like feces, saliva, blood, or urine, either through direct contact or indirectly through environmental contamination of soil, food or water.”
https://www.cdc.gov/prions/cwd/transmission.html https://www.cdc.gov/prions/cwd/transmission.html
Milk is clearly a body fluid, though is curiously absent from the above statement.
And as other comments about the difficulty of sterilizing prions make clear, pasteurization will have no effect.
- jtdev 5y agoPrions persist in soil for years; elk eat where other elk have deposited prions.
- spoonjim 5y agoYears? Oh jeez. The soil is covered with brain eating murder proteins?
- robbiep 5y agoCWD was innoculated in a deer by insuflating prion bound with clay
- TheGallopedHigh 5y agoInsuflation: the act of blowing on or breathing on
- titanomachy 5y agoIn this case likely means inhalation through the nose
- Turing_Machine 5y agoYeah, the sense of smell is a basal one. The nasal cavity has bazillions of nerve endings that are almost directly wired to the brain. That's why so many drugs are snorted. It works faster than just about anything else other than direct intravenous injection.
- robbiep 5y agoThat’s not at all why drugs work quickly through the nose - it has absolutely nothing to do with nerve endings, it has everything to do with a large surface area of mucus membranes allowing quick uptake into the venous system.
- Y_Y 5y agoIt's just a fancy form of the word "snuffle".
- dnautics 5y agoThey arent just localized to neural tissue; they are in high concentration in the tongue, which is probably why grazing animals are so susceptible