What's mildly irritating you today?

[ZenGum]

My brother likes steak thus:

A good vet should be able to get it back on its legs.


And, agreed, do NOT eat undercooked hamburger. Burger = mince = bits = brains and spinal cord = abnormal prions = vCJD = your brain turning into a sponge over the next decade or two.

For this reason I don't eat mince products. On the rare (geddit?) occasions I eat meat, I want a slab of muscle, not bits. I could never understand why anyone would eat kidney. Thats the toxic waste processing facility! Would you picnic at the gabage dump?

[Nirvana]

Originally Posted by ZenGum

My brother likes steak thus:

A good vet should be able to get it back on its legs.


And, agreed, do NOT eat undercooked hamburger. Burger = mince = bits = brains and spinal cord = abnormal prions = vCJD = your brain turning into a sponge over the next decade or two.

For this reason I don't eat mince products. On the rare (geddit?) occasions I eat meat, I want a slab of muscle, not bits. I could never understand why anyone would eat kidney. Thats the toxic waste processing facility! Would you picnic at the gabage dump?

This quote is mildly irritating me =)
abnormal prions would NEVER happen in the USA unless one is gutting their own cattle that are over 24 months of age because cattle younger than that cannot get mad cow and, brains and spinal cord are not included in any meat processed in the USA and they have not included for years. The only cases of CFJ in the USA in humans originated in England and those people came to the USA. Mad cow cases that were in the USA originated in Canada and Mexico where they still feed animal by products[not supposed to] to their cattle a practice that was banned in the USA almost 20 years ago. The reason not to eat uncooked hamburger has to do with e-coli a bacteria as abnormal prions are not affected by cooking.

[Nirvana]

Why I came to this thread before I digressed, I hate when someone steals the graphics off my page and uses them on their page. I have no trouble dealing swiftly with those in the English speaking countries because they generally understand, remove my copy written work or I will have your SP remove your web page for infringement, its those say in .. Russia that are such assholes about it!

[Pie]

Originally Posted by ZenGum

And, agreed, do NOT eat undercooked hamburger. Burger = mince = bits = brains and spinal cord = abnormal prions = vCJD = your brain turning into a sponge over the next decade or two.

Prions are relatively unaffected by heat. Therefore, cooking your burger to kingdom come will not affect its ability to turn your brain to mush. (See also: network television)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prion

Originally Posted by wikipedia

Infectious particles possessing nucleic acid are dependent upon it to direct their continued replication. Prions however, are infectious by their effect on normal versions of the protein. Therefore, sterilizing prions involves the denaturation of the protein to a state where the molecule is no longer able to induce the abnormal folding of normal proteins. However, prions are generally quite resistant to proteases, heat, radiation, and formalin treatments,[37] although their infectivity can be reduced by such treatments. Effective prion decontamination relies upon protein hydrolysis or reduction and/or destruction of protein tertiary structure. Examples include bleach, NaOH or strong acidic detergents such as LpH.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sterilization_(microbiology)

Originally Posted by wikipedia

Using mice as test animals, one experiment showed that heating BSE positive brain tissue at 134-138 °C (273-280 °F) for 18 minutes resulted in only a 2.5 log decrease in prion infectivity. (The initial BSE concentration in the tissue was relatively low). For a significant margin of safety, cleaning should reduce infectivity by 4 logs, and the sterilization method should reduce it a further 5 logs.

Nirvana, not to pick a fight, but what about "downer" cows in the US? I remember there was quite a fight about that a few years back.

[Nirvana]

Hi Pie! There has not been a downer cow in the USA that has tested positive for mad cow.[ two cows that were on diagnosed on their farms here in the USA not at a processor, that were born and raised in Canada and Mexico] One of the biggest reasons a cow cannot stand is because the nerve in the pelvic rim was damaged during calving. Other reasons are old age and pneumonia. It is also illegal to process downer cows for anything even dog food. Has been that way for at least 6 years. That's why that California processing plant was in such big trouble.