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Old 27-03-2003, 02:08 AM
Mark Dawkins
 
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Default MAD COWS OR MAD SCIENTISTS?


http://www.redflagsweekly.com/features/2002_july24.html

MAD COWS OR MAD SCIENTISTS?

THE SUPPRESSION OF ALTERNATIVE EXPLANATIONS

By David Crowe

The smoke and flames from funeral pyres for hundreds of thousands
of British cows are fading into distant memory, but the fear of
this disease affecting livestock or wildlife continues to circulate
the globe.

Most people do not realize that there is a non-infectious explanation
for Mad Cow disease and other spongiform encephalopathies and chronic
wasting diseases. This is due to the reluctance of scientists,
health and agriculture bureaucrats and most of the media to question
a theory that affects public health once it is active policy.

One man, Mark Purdey, has turned himself from organic dairy farmer
into an amateur scientist and globe-trotting epidemiologist to
doggedly continue building the major alternative theory.

The infectious theory of Mad Cow disease not only resulted in the
possibly unnecessary destruction of hundreds of thousands of cows,
but it diverted attention from other causes of health problems
facing livestock and wildlife. It created a fear of eating beef
(perhaps not entirely misplaced, but for the wrong reasons) and
resulted in the circulation of tons of toxic materials from the
slaughtered cows into the atmosphere. It also prevented investigations
into alternative solutions to the epidemic of disease, even though
these might be cheaper, more constructive and far less destructive.

The dominant belief is that Mad Cow disease (also known as Bovine
Spongiform Encephalopathy or BSE) and the related diseases Scrapie
in Sheep and vCJD (variant Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease) in humans are
caused by a prion, a mutant protein. These semi-living beings are
thought to be able to withstand temperatures that would kill the
hardiest bacteria, viruses and parasites. It is believed that this
allowed them to be transmitted from sheep to cows through the
rendering of sheep brains into MBM (Meat and Bone Meal) protein
supplements for cows.

An apparently unrelated health problem in cows that existed before
Mad Cow disease was warble fly infestation. These flies lay their
eggs in a cows skin, causing health problems and reducing the value
of cow hides. To combat this, in the early 1980s the British
government mandated the use of heavy doses of organophosphate
insecticides. These were poured in an oil-based liquid along the
spinal column of cows. It was intended that they be systemic,
absorbed into the cows body, as it was believed that this was
necessary to provide full and enduring protection from warble flies.

Mark Purdey was one of a handful of farmers who refused to use
organophosphates (such as Phosmet) on their cows in 1982. He was
concerned that the high doses would damage the health of his cows
because the application was so close to the spinal column. He was
also concerned about the health of people who drank milk from his
cows. In 1984, Purdey won his court fight, and gained the right to
use less toxic methods to combat warble fly.

When the first cases of neurological problems were reported in cows
in 1985, Purdey felt that his avoidance of these pesticides had
been vindicated. However, researchers and the British Government
had a different idea, blaming the rapidly emerging disease on the
recently postulated prion, based on the detection of protein plaques
in the brains of sick cows.

Purdey started to publicly argue his theory that organophosphate
pesticides were actually the cause of neurological problems,
attracting some attention, and seriously annoying the British
scientific establishment and government who were starting to act
as if the infectious theory was fact.

Purdey noted many inconsistencies in the prion theory. Cows were
supposedly infected by feeding on supplements containing the brains
of sheep with Scrapie, yet Shetland Islanders had been eating potted
sheep brains for centuries without similar diseases occurring. He
also noted that British byproducts were exported around the world,
yet the 170,000 British cases of BSE far outnumbered the total in
the rest of the world. Cases of BSE had been found on organic farms
with cows brought in from outside, but not on those raised from
birth on the organic farms, even though organic farming rules allow
restricted amounts of the suspect MBM feeds. Other ruminants, such
as goats and sheep, were not affected by Mad Cow-like diseases in
England, even though they were fed MBM supplements. Conversely,
several antelopes at the London Zoo and cattle at the Liscombe
experimental farm developed BSE, but had never been fed MBM
supplements.

When BSE was found in other countries it was in places like Bretagne
in northwest France where organophosphate pesticides were first
encouraged by the French government. As in the UK, BSE cases first
occurred a few years after the pesticide program was initiated. The
lower number of cases may be due to the lower doses used, the use
of annual treatments (as opposed to twice a year in the UK) and
because the program was not mandatory.

As further evidence, the decline in BSE cases in the UK began about
the same time the warble fly eradication program ended.

British cases of vCJD in humans also fit the environmental theory.
The disease was found in some long-term vegetarians and in humans
who had never eaten cow brains. There is no good explanation of why
cows could only get BSE from eating sheep brains, but humans could
get it from eating only other parts of cows.

Although there was a great deal of panic, there were actually few
cases in humans. Purdey noted that about 80% of the 82 cases were
in rural areas, even though more than 80% of Britons live in urban
areas. One cluster in the Weald district of Kent is in a hops growing
area where organophosphate pesticides are used at 100 times average
levels for all crops.

Purdey lobbied for government funding to test his research. Eventually,
he did get a small amount, and Dr. Stephen Whatley of the University
of London was able to show in a test tube that organophosphates
were found to produce 3 of the 4 protein transformations required
to create the mutant prion protein. A victory, but also a major
defeat. The UK BSE inquiry admitted that "the door is not yet closed
on the possibility that OPs [organophosphates] played a role in
rendering cattle susceptible to BSE infectivity," but the infectious
theory was still cast in the primary role because of the inability
of Whatley to show all four transformations.

Purdey was not about to give up. He felt that there must be a
co-factor that he had missed. To find it he went on a tour of places
in the world where spongiform encepalopathies had existed in animals
or humans for some time, collecting samples of soil and feed. In
these places, where organophosphates had little or no use, he found
extremely high Manganese levels and low Copper, Selenium, Zinc and
Iron. He did not find this in geographically similar areas where
no illness was found. The causes of this mineral imbalance varied,
including acid rain, volcanic emissions, lead-free gasoline production,
emissions from steel, glass, ceramic, dye and munitions manufacturing
and the take-off zones of major airports.

BSE-like diseases were found in Colorado among deer and elk in an
area of the front ranges where overpopulation often forced starving
animals to graze on pine needles. These showed very high levels of
Manganese, perhaps due to acid rain from upwind smelters. In Iceland,
Purdey found Scrapie associated with similar high Manganese/low
Copper soil conditions. In Slovakia the two clusters of CJD are
close to ferromanganese factories and glassworks (heavy users of
Manganese). These cases may well be related to the almost eradicated
occupational disease known as "Manganese Madness" which occurred
among miners exposed to poorly ventilated working conditions. Its
symptoms and brain pathology are similar to spongiform encephalopathies.

Purdey was not just randomly testing for mineral abnormalities.
Copper is a constituent of the normal prion protein, and Manganese
could be a replacement when Copper is deficient, or when Manganese
is present at high levels, such as in many mineral supplements for
cattle. It is at this point that Organophosphates re-enter the
theory. They can remove copper from the body, leaving the door open
for Manganese (or other similar metals) to replace it in the prion
protein. This results in a non-functional conformation of the
molecule, particularly when Manganese is from the 2+ form to the
oxidative 3+ and 4+ forms.

Recently, Purdey traveled to Groote Eylandt, an island north-east
of Australia where 25% of the worlds Manganese is currently produced.
About one in thirty people in the largely aboriginal Agurugu village,
where the fine mine dust regularly settles most heavily, have Groote
Syndrome, a progressive neurological disease. Researchers supported
by the mining company hypothesize a genetic defect introduced by
Portuguese sailors 300 years ago, even though this theory does not
explain why some white mine workers also have this syndrome, nor
does it explain the emergence of this syndrome since open pit mining
began in the 1960s.

Purdeys theory was now multi-factorial. Organophosphates were a
major factor, but the copper/manganese imbalance could be exacerbated
by animal feeds or mineral supplements. Similar situations could
occur where the soil is low in the antioxidant metals and high in
Manganese.

After extending the theory, David Brown, a researcher at Cambridge
University performed experiments that incorporated high Manganese
and low Copper conditions and was able to reproduce all four protein
changes in vitro, thus providing full laboratory confirmation that
Purdey's theory is at least plausible.

At the height of the Mad Cow frenzy, the British government invited
Purdey to make a detailed proposal for research funding. Predictably,
after sitting on the proposal for more than a year, they rejected
it, and then funded two of its reviewers for some of the studies
suggested by it. A cynic might conclude that they had asked for a
grant proposal solely to have Purdey reveal his arguments and
thoughts in full detail, so that they could then fund some reliable
researchers to debunk them, without giving Purdey resources that
might strengthen his arguments.

Interest in Purdeys ideas is still growing in a grass roots fashion,
although slowly, and usually beneath the radar of major media
outlets. Purdey has a small grant from the US Fats and Protein
Research Foundation, supervised by Dr. Larry Berger of the Animal
Science Lab in Urbana, Illinois. Purdey recently gave 14 lectures
in Japan, some Slovakian researchers are studying the influence of
Manganese and Copper on familial and sporadic cases of CJD. Some
British universities are also quietly investigating in this area.

Purdey is attempting to obtain brain samples from Groote Eylandt
to test for manganese and copper levels, and has persuaded one local
GP there to see whether a chelating drug that removes Manganese
will have beneficial effects.

Purdey is now investigating whether ultra-violet light is an
additional factor in the development of SE diseases, perhaps in
concert with a haze of terpines from the pine trees that often grow
at these elevations. He hypothesizes that the eyes could act as a
trigger, because of their concentration of nerves exposed to light.

Purdey and other researchers have turned up many potential factors
that could stimulate the development of spongiform encephalopathies
and chronic wasting diseases. If some or all components of this
theory prove to be valid, the solutions to these devastating diseases
could be incredibly simple. It may also open new avenues of research
into mental illness. Supplementation of cattle feeds with minute
amounts of copper and regulation of the manganese levels could work
near miracles, at minimal cost. Chelation could be used to reduce
the levels found in people or animals suffering from these illnesses.
Yet, it is likely that governments and the scientific establishment
will continue to concentrate their efforts almost exclusively on
infectious agents and genetic defects, suppressing anybody brave
enough to argue against them on this or other health issues.

_______________

Mark Purdey can be reached via his website: http://www.markpurdey.com
or by email to .

Further Reading:

The Inquiry into BSE and variant CJD in the United Kingdom:
http://www.bse.org.uk.2000

Purdey M. Ecosystems supporting clusters of sporadic TSEs demonstrate
excesses of the radical-generating divalent cation manganese and
deficiencies of antioxidant cofactors Cu, Se, Fe, Zn. Medical
Hypotheses, 2000; 54(2), 278-306

Brown DR et al. Consequences of Manganese replacement of Copper for
prion protein function and proteinase resistance. EMBO J, 2000 Mar
15; 19(6): 1180-6.

Purdey M. The Purdey Environmental Home Page: http://www.markpurdey.com

_______________

David Crowe writes on medical and telecommunications topics and is
a regular contributor to redflagsweekly.com. He has a degree in
biology and mathematics and has peer-reviewed papers published in
the areas of biosystematics and computer science.
_______________
http://www.redflagsweekly.com/features/2002_july24.html

  #2   Report Post  
Old 27-03-2003, 02:08 AM
Oz
 
Posts: n/a
Default MAD COWS OR MAD SCIENTISTS?

Mark Dawkins writes
One man, Mark Purdey, has turned himself from organic dairy farmer
into an amateur scientist and globe-trotting epidemiologist to
doggedly continue building the major alternative theory.


yawn

One born every day .....

--
Oz
This post is worth absolutely nothing and is probably fallacious.
Note: soon (maybe already) only posts via despammed.com will be accepted.

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Old 27-03-2003, 02:08 AM
Dennis G.
 
Posts: n/a
Default MAD COWS OR MAD SCIENTISTS?

Oz wrote:

Mark Dawkins writes
One man, Mark Purdey, has turned himself from organic dairy farmer
into an amateur scientist and globe-trotting epidemiologist to
doggedly continue building the major alternative theory.


yawn

One born every day .....

--
Oz

Heard a great one on the radio last night. A woman called a talk show
host to tell him that it took twice as much energy to extract a barrel
of oil from the ground as one could get from the oil extracted.
She was told that it was true because an environmental page on the
internet said so.

No wonder everything costs so much !
Dennis
 
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