AR-News: (US NY) With diseased animals, disposal isn't simple

[Animalara2003 at aol.com]

By DENISE GRADY
NY Times News Service 
Whatever causes mad-cow disease is practically indestructible. Even after 
being steamed, frozen, disinfected, zapped with ultraviolet light or bombarded 
with x-rays, tissue from sick animals can still spread the illness. Though 
scientists argue over whether the infectious agent is a bit of protein known as a 
prion or a mysterious virus-like particle, they agree it is devilishly hard to 
destroy. 
And that gives rise to a queasy thought: given that animals and people can 
contract mad-cow disease by ingesting infected tissue, is there a safe way to 
dispose of diseased carcasses? 
The question may seem premature, since only one case of madcow disease has 
been reported in the United States. But mad-cow disease is one of several brain 
diseases known as spongiform encephalopathies, and there are hundreds of cases 
of other such diseases in this country: scrapie in sheep and chronic wasting 
disease in deer and elk. 
Health officials have fretted about how to get rid of the dead animals. 
Carcasses have been rendered and incinerated, but those processes may not destroy 
prions. Rendered animal flesh added to feed is suspected of having started the 
mad-cow epidemic in Britain. 




full story:
http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/NewsStory.aspx?section=SCIENCE&oid=44402 

"The world is a dangerous place,
not because of those who do evil,
but because of those who look on and do nothing.",
Albert Einstein
      /\   /\         
>' .' <   
                              
There is no justice, just us!  










    
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