"paghat" wrote in message
news
In article , "Doug Kanter"
wrote:


Whatever you do, don't eat the brains.

Anecdotal evidence suggests a causative link between eating squirrel
brains and the development of a spongiform encephalopathy similar to
"mad cow disease".

Holy smokes! Where was THAT discovered? I mean....where is squirrel
popular
enough as a food source? :-)

Many, many, many mammals have forms of spongiform encephalopathy
restricted to their species. A study was undertaken in rural kentucky
where a dish called Burgoo is eaten (scrambled squirrel brains & eggs) &
where eleven cases of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease have been documented. The
definitive link was not successfully made between squirrels & the five
cases, nor has an agentative prion for squirrels been found in human
brains. Because all the western Kentucky cases were country folk who
indeed ate Burgoo from time to time, warnings against eating squirrel
brains have been going 'round for about eight years now. Of course, they
all also ate beef, and many other wild animals, so the link to squirrels
is very tenuous.

ALL wild animal brains AND BLOOD as well as domestic animal brains AND
BLOOD are equally suspect, and avoiding eating brains is not enough to
avoid the disease. But cluster of cases in rural Kentucky certainly beat
the statistical odds of so many cases in one area. Suspected cases of
Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in Alabama, Mississippi & West Virginia add
another but still uncertain layer of evidence that the disease prions are
passing to humans in areas wherever squirrel brains are eaten.

A more alarming finding of the west Kentucky study showed two groups of
patients with Parkinson's disease, one group with 12 of 42 patients having
eaten squireel brains, in another group 27 of 100 ate squirrel brains. A
much higher percentage ate other kinds of meat, but the recurrence of this
comparatively rare meat item for human diet rightly rings alarm bells. All
this evidence out of context seems very convincing, but in context the
greater commonality was all the patients ate venison, & just as many
researchers believe increased incidences of parkinson's and CJD in rural
communities is from eating venison, the blood of which carries the
suspect prions. The other commonality is the Kentucky cases all ate pork,
& pigs may also transmit the disease.

The problem with all these links is the prions found in people more
closely match up with types of scrapies or mad-cow prions found in cows,
deer, sheep, and goats -- but to date, no match with squirrel prions has
been shown, which doesn't mean that link never will be shown as further
studies progress.

Furthermore, the types of feeds that were long fed to cattle, which
carried the prion infections from roadkill & sick sheep that were turned
into protein meal by rendering plants, continued to be fed to chickens and
pigs long after it was banned as a cattle feed. Chickens do not live long
enough to show signs of the disease, but may well carry the prions to
humans. Two studies have indicated (again without definitive proof) that
eating pork increases the risk of this disease. Virtually all CJD patients
have a lifelong history of feating beef and pork. THey also turn out to
have had a higher-than-average consumption of lamb, and man meats prepared
"rare." Roast pork, ham, hot dogs, pork chops, smoked pork, & scrapple
(an appalling stew made from cooked pork bones & corn meal) are all more
likely to be in the CJD diet than is the case with the uninfected.

It appears that who eats meat, period, is at risk; who eats wild meat is
at increased risk; or who eats the brains of wild or domestic meats is at
still greater risk. Becausae it is believed by some researchers that
chickens may also harbor the prions, & in some places are still fed the
rendered protein meal, some speculate that even vegetarians may have some
risk from the use of chicken and steer manures on agricltural crops.

American cattle are not well tested, and the beef industry relies mostly
on its own propoganda & on its ability to lobby & buy off congress to
counter the bad press this disease generates. The immunohistochemistry
test used on AMerican cattle is not a senstive test for this disease, and
it is only used on cattle showing signs of illness, whereas most cattle go
to the slaughterhouse too young to show signs of their infection. There
are "sporadic" forms of the disease that the cow can carry to humans
without ever having shown signs of the disease. Many American cases of the
syndrome are diagnosed as Alzheimers or Parkinsons and if the patient is
elderly no one will even question the diagnosis.

In any case, if you're still eating hamburgers from Macdonalds, I sure
wouldn't worry about the squirrels.

-paghat the ratgirl

--
"Of what are you afraid, my child?" inquired the kindly teacher.
"Oh, sir! The flowers, they are wild," replied the timid creature.
-from Peter Newell's "Wild Flowers"
Visit the Garden of Paghat the Ratgirl: http://www.paghat.com


When I lived in rural Kentucky many of my uncles and their friends went
squirrel hunting several times every year. They and their families relished
the meat. I never developed a liking for it. Don't remember if the brains of
the squirrels were eaten, but considering the size of the animals I imagine
they were.

Most of those that ate the squirrels lived long, healthy and happy lives
well into their eighties and some even into their nineties.