Mad Cow-Resistant Bovine Developed

AP ^ | May 31, 2004

[nuconvert]

Mad Cow-Resistant Bovine Developed

May 31, 9:00 AM EDT

KENJI HALL/Associated Press

TOKYO (AP) -- Japanese and U.S. scientists have genetically engineered a bovine embryo that is resistant to the deadly mad cow disease and they plan to breed several of the cows to use them to make medicines to treat human diseases, an official said Monday.

The embryo was implanted in a cow and is expected be born early next year, said Kumi Nakano, spokeswoman for Kirin Brewery, which diversified recently into pharmaceuticals and jointly conducted the research with U.S.-based biotechnology company Hematech.

The cows will not be bred to produce mad-cow-free meat. Instead, blood and milk extracted from them will be used in drugs to fight pneumonia, hepatitis C and rheumatic diseases such as arthritis, for the U.S. market by 2013, Nakano said.

While drugs can be safely produced from cattle infected with mad cow disease, the companies decided to develop cows with immunity because consumers may believe that medicines made from extracts of the animals will be safer to use, Nakano said.

Nakano declined to specify sales targets. But she said the company expects the market for such drugs - estimated at 19 billion yen (US$173.5 million) in recent years - to grow in coming years.

The announcement follows a report by South Korean researchers in December describing their success at cloning calves resistant to the brain-wasting disease, formally known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy.

While teams in the United States and South Korea are racing to clone mad cow-free cattle, breeding genetically engineered animals for meat is seen as too costly.

[The Scourge of Yazid]

This is just the first step.

Now we've got cattle that are BSE resistant.

The next thing you know, we're all going to have Creutzfeld-Jacob Syndrome and the cows are going to be the ones running the joint!

C'mon, haven't you ever read Crichton?

[Servant of the 9]

This is just the first step.

Now we've got cattle that are BSE resistant.

The next thing you know, we're all going to have Creutzfeld-Jacob Syndrome and the cows are going to be the ones running the joint!

There is already a C-J, Kuru, BSE resistant gene in humans.
About 60% of all people carry it.

It is considered pretty solid proof that canibalism was common among all primitive peoples, because exposure to Kuru through canibalism is the only reason that the gene wold be widespread.

Kuru and BSE are thought now to be naturally occuring, but rare, mutations. Far too rare to account for the widespread presence of the gene unless spread by canibalism.

So9

[nuconvert]

"The next thing you know, we're all going to have Creutzfeld-Jacob Syndrome and the cows are going to be the ones running the joint!"

LoL!

[Gator113]

Hmmmmmmm.....I wonder if this stuff will work on the DemocRATS??? Hmmmmmm.....nah, it would cost too much, we can let the terrorists finish them off.

[philetus]

Now, if they can develop a mad islam resistant muslim.....

[Graybeard58]

Confessing my ignorance and asking a question:

Does mad cow disease affect the milk from dairy cows?

[nuconvert]

It's a disease of the central nervous system. So, my guess is no. However, there are still many questions unanswered regarding BSE. Since Servant of the 9 seems to be knowledgable on this subject, let's ask.......

[The Scourge of Yazid]

The strange thing is that this disease is widespread enough to force nurses or volunteers to question you about it before they draw blood for lab work or donations to a blood-bank respectively.

It's a scary thought to ponder; anyone who's eaten beef imported from Great Britain within the past two decades is a candidate for exposure to this illness.

[The Scourge of Yazid]

It's too bad "The Far Side" didn't survive long enough to cover this topic.

Something tells me that Gary Larson would have had quite a few hilarious strips covering the current irrational bovine crisis we find ourselves trapped in.

[Servant of the 9]

BSE is not a disease in the conventional sense of the word.
It is not caused by any organism, but by a Prion, which is a malformed natural protein. It can happen by chance, or by ingestion of a Prion in central nervous system tissue in food. the Prion then acts as a catalyst to slowly convert all the rest of the similar proteins in the nervous system to Prions.

Prions are not present in milk, or in normal muscle tissue.

The Blood Banks are going over the top to avoid litigation. They are still twitchey about the AIDs fiasco.
Despite all the publicity, BSE has killed less than 200 people. You have a much greater chance of being killed by Malaria, even here.

So9

[nuconvert]

LOL. I think you're right.

[nuconvert]

Thanks. I have a little knowledge of prions.
What I don't understand, and what's very scary, is that it can't be destroyed by heat and normal antiseptic chemicals.
So, how do they dispose of the the carcasses? I mean, burning them and burying them seems to mean it will get into the soil. That's not good.......

[Servant of the 9]

What I don't understand, and what's very scary, is that it can't be destroyed by heat and normal antiseptic chemicals.
So, how do they dispose of the the carcasses? I mean, burning them and burying them seems to mean it will get into the soil. That's not good.......

You can't destroy them by cooking.
Heat above 800*F does destroy them, but that would be a very charred steak.

So9

[TBall]

Serologicals Corporation (symbol SERO) today was issued patent for a process that inactivates `Mad Cow' prions.

[nuconvert]

That's interesting. Thanx.

[The Scourge of Yazid]

Well, the last time that I went to donate blood, I had to fill out a questionnaire that ran the length of my arm.

Most of the questions related in one way or another to preexisting conditions, family history, and travel history.

Even though I have a passport, I've never been outside the country, so it wasn't too difficult for me to fill out. Some of the questions were a little bit odd though.