spongiform encephalopathy in young humans

[Jorg Kirberg]

In article <47v112$b5p at mserv1.dl.ac.uk>, jcosta at pen.gulbenkian.pt
(Vasconcelos Costa 385) wrote:

> > From: kirberg at bii.ch (Jorg Kirberg)
> > To: "bionet.virology mail newsgroup" <bionet-news at dl.ac.uk>
> > Subject: Re: spongiform encephalopathy in young humans
> > 
> > * how can it make sense if man never got it from sheep before ? I would
> > think that one still has to wait for more cases before a link between BSE
> > and humans eating whatever from the U.K. cattles can be made.
> > jorg
> > 
> Weak argument! The agent of BSE is no longer the scrapie agent, though it
> probably originated from scrapie. Therefore, the modifications from scrapie
> to BSE may have made it infectious for man, even if the scrapie agent is not.
> 
> Joao
Well, I think my argument is at least stronger than the one that was made before
and was erased from the thread. There was no 'sense', just a guess - that's all
what I complained against.

I fully agree to your statement 'the modifications from scrapie to BSE may
have made it infectious for man, even if the scrapie agent is not.'
But one needs to wait a bit more; just with two cases I would not like
to rely on, scientifically spoken.

-- 
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Joerg Kirberg                     EMAIL: kirberg at bii.ch
Basel Institute for Immunology    FAX:   41-61-605 13 72
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