From: Randall Parker 

And Prusiner himself says that it is unclear whether cattle prions are a
risk to humans:

   Animals that eat infected tissues can contract the disease, setting off an
epidemic as animals eat each other via rendered meats. But misfolded proteins can
also arise spontaneously in cattle and other animals, Dr. Prusiner said. It is not
known whether meat from animals with that form of the disease could pass the disease
to humans, he said, but it is a risk that greatly worries him.


Plus, the guy has a patent on a new test. Does he stand to make money if that test
goes into widespread use?

Randall Parker wrote:

> Nobel Prize winning prion expert Stanley Prusiner says all cattle should
> be tested for prions.
>
> But if prions are so common in cows and are a threat to humans then why
> aren't they causing more human disease? Or is there about to be a human
> outbreak in the US after gestation time from infections that started in
> the mid 90s? But even if so have feed practices now so reduced the risk
> of new infections that there is no point in testing?
>
> If current cow feeding practices are still a threat then doesn't a
> change in feeding practices make more sense than widespread testing? Why
> should cattle become a permanent threat to health as carriers of
> dangerous prions if they didn't used to be a threat in the past when
> human prion disease was rare?
>
> http://nytimes.com/2003/12/25/national/25WARN.html?pagewanted=2
>    Excerpt:
> Early this fall, Japanese surveillance found two new cases of the
> disease in young animals, aged 21 and 23 months. "Under no testing
> regime except Japan would these cases ever be found," he said.
>
> Randall Parker wrote:
>
>
>> It would be interesting to know the rate at which Japanese tests find
>> the disease.
>>
>

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