"The code is RIGHT THERE, Doc!"
Posted on 01/03/2012 2:39:34 PM PST by decimon
EAST LANSING, Mich. — Two teams of Michigan State University researchers – one working at a medieval burial site in Albania, the other at a DNA lab in East Lansing – have shown how modern science can unlock the mysteries of the past.
The scientists are the first to confirm the existence of brucellosis, an infectious disease still prevalent today, in ancient skeletal remains.
The findings, which appear in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology, suggest brucellosis has been endemic to Albania since at least the Middle Ages.
Although rare in the United States, brucellosis remains a major problem in the Mediterranean region and other parts of the world. Characterized by chronic respiratory illness and fever, brucellosis is acquired by eating infected meat or unpasteurized dairy products or by coming into contact with animals carrying the brucella bacteria.
Todd Fenton, associate professor of anthropology, said advanced DNA testing at MSU allowed the researchers to confirm the existence of the disease in skeletons that were about 1,000 years old.
“For years, we had to hypothesize the cause of pathological conditions like this,” Fenton said. “The era of DNA testing and the contributions that DNA can make to my work are really exciting.”
Here’s how the discovery came about.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.msu.edu ...
Day with the animals ping.
They cracked the Bulldog Code yesterday.
"The code is RIGHT THERE, Doc!"
Cattle with brucellosis are perfectly safe to eat. Cattle that “bang out” are branded on the jaw with a B and sent to slaughter for meat.
The effects on many of my fellow vets were wide and varied. One big fat chap faded away to a skeleton with undulant fever and was ill for years, others developed crippling arthritis and some went down with psychiatric conditions. One man wrote in The Veterinary Record that as part of his own syndrome he came home one night and decided it would be a good idea to murder his wife. He never got round to actually doing it, but recorded the impulse as an interesting example of what Brucella abortus could do to a man.
Full Disclosure: I just found out while looking for the quote that "James Herriot" was a nom-de-plume for Alf Wight.
Cheers!
That doesn't jibe with what I'm reading.
***Cattle with brucellosis are perfectly safe to eat.
That doesn’t jibe with what I’m reading. ***
Years ago a neighbor’s cattle herd banged out. The cattle were immediately branded with a B on the jaw and SENT TO THE SLAUGHTER HOUSE by agricultural authorities.
Buffalo that wander out of Yellowstone are shot, and are ok to eat even though they also have “Bang’s Disease”. It is the fear of infecting clean herds of cattle that gets them shot.
Bang’s disease..
Brucellosis
Undulant fever...
all the same.
Buffalo that wander out of Yellowstone are shot, and are ok to eat even though they also have “Bang’s Disease”. It is the fear of infecting clean herds of cattle that gets them shot.
What you are writing does not jibe with what is in this PDF: USDA
Remember, this isn't the usual jagoff argument here. This amounts to health advice you are giving to FReepers.
MANUAL ON MEAT INSPECTION FOR DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
http://www.fao.org/docrep/003/t0756e/T0756E03.htm
BRUCELLOSIS...
Judgement: Cattle and horse carcasses affected with brucellosis are approved (after removal of affected parts), as Brucella bacteria remain viable for only a short period in the muscles after slaughter. In acute abortive form (after the miscarriage), cattle carcasses are condemned. Pig, sheep, goat and buffalo carcasses require total condemnation. Heat treatment may be recommended in some areas for these species due to economic reasons. Affected part of the carcass, udder, genital organs and corresponding lymph nodes must be condemned.
In other words, Brucellosis infected meat is ok to eat, unless it is in the abortive phase. Then the meat can still be eaten if it is completely cooked.
Is the United States a developing country?
Irrelevant point. The meat can be eaten, and if you are over 40 years old you have probably eaten it.
Somehow my last post got posted before I finished.
40 years ago it was common to find banged out cows going to slaughter for meat. Now, most states are Brucellosis free. I hope they can stay that way. I have been in the beef industry off an on for most of my life, and brucellosis is nasty.
I had family members years ago that got undulant fever from milk from an infected cow.
LOL!
sidebar on tuberculosis:
This Ancient, Deadly Disease Is Still Killing In Europe
TBI | 12-30-3011 | John Donnelly
Posted on 12/30/2011 3:33:45 PM PST by blam
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2826949/posts
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Thanks decimon.The findings... suggest brucellosis has been endemic to Albania since at least the Middle Ages... advanced DNA testing at MSU allowed the researchers to confirm the existence of the disease in skeletons that were about 1,000 years old.In before the obligatory research grant snark. |
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Wild buffalo have it in the US. This is one reason why ranchers are concerned when they move over the boundary at Yellowstone. Also concerned when they talk about relocating surplus herd members throughout the west. Brucellosis could transfer to domestic cattle herds.
FReepmail me if you want on or off my combined microbiology/immunology ping list.
In 1989 I married a dairy farmer. One afternoon I went out to check the maternity pen to see if there was anything going on. A 3rd calf cow named Jean had three legs sticking out. It was a set of tangled twins. I called the vet as this was a job for him. The only one available was the one that had been in jail for tax fraud, but he came right away.
I was standing there watching him as he opened his vet case and muttered to himself that he did not have a new syringe. We didn't have any handy either and so he used the one in the brucellosis vaccination kit. I was horrified and said something to him at the time as he rinsed it out with Nolvasan, a blue colored disinfectant and squirted that into the straw I had just laid down. It was late afternoon and the sun was shinning on the straw. He said the sunlight would kill everything.
He then proceeded to give her a shot to relax the contractions and push the twins back in, turn them around and delivered them safely. I named them Daryl and Dipstick.
About 3 months later we get a letter from the state vets office that we had failed a ring test. That is a test on the milk for Bangs. Since there was a stream going through the property, I wondered if deer, often seen in the yard, were bringing it in. All the stock had been vaccinated.
I told new hubby, you will get a state guy and possibly a federal guy on the doorstep any day now. Next morning there they were. They don't take this stuff lightly. We were ordered to test all milk cows a.s.a.p. Which we did. They were all negative.
So they ran another ring test. Still positive. They concluded that we had something that was still incubating in the animal(s), but shedding in the milk.
So wait a week and then test again. Well, on the third test they came up with one cow named Jean. Then, and only then, did I remember the incident with the dirty syringe. I recounted the story to state vets whose mouths dropped open. But me with a squeaky clean reputation, they had to do something.
So they tested Jean's blood for the exact type of bangs and even back then in 1989 they could do that. There is only one very special kind that is used in making the vaccine, I think it is Strain 19.
If it was Strain 19 then I was telling the truth and if not I would be sued for slander by the vet.
It WAS Strain 19 and the state and federal boys reamed his heiny a new one I guess. I was assigned the dubious responsibility of hauling Jean to the butcher as soon as we got those results.
It was sort of interesting when I got her there. They knew I was coming and they cleared out a place and Jean walked off the trailer and into the plant and I have no idea what happened after that. I was handed paperwork and I went home.
They followed up with a clear ring test.
When I unloaded her I noticed a knot under her skin on her back side just above the udder. That's about where he gave her that shot to stop the contractions.
Just thought it would be interesting since we were discussing this.
BA
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