On Sat, 5 Jun 2004 12:18:04 +0100, Jaques d'Alltrades
wrote:

The message
from martin contains these words:

If the recent examination of pathological specimens is anything to go
by, you may have reason to eat those words.

The recent examination produced two positive results out of 12,000
cases AFAIR. It was made clear at the time, that when the agent is
identified as present, it does not necessarily lead to a case of nCJD.
In the meantime, nobody who has eaten meat/meat products in UK in the
last ten years is allowed to be a blood donor in the Netherlands.
Is the same true in UK and if not why not?

IIRC there was a significant percentage of dodgy prions, not 2:12,000.
(The number ·36% keeps presenting itself.)

The phrase 'possible epidemic' was used. (Though I'm not sure that the
word 'epidemic' is quite accurate unless caniballism becomes de rigeur
[mortis?].)

This, BTW, was a very recent finding.

AFAIK there is no restriction on carnivorous UK blood donors, and as for
'why not?', there is a shortage of blood donors as it is, especially now
they've found 'blood antibodies' in mine and thanked me for past
galleons donated....

There is shortage of blood donors everywhere.
If the medical authorities abroad, think there's a chance of
transmitting nCJD via UK blood, then the same is true in UK.
I find most of the CJD thing hard to take seriously.
According to expert forecasts, by now UK should be looking like it did
during the Black Death.

The persisting cold wet weather also makes global warming hard to
believe