Meat!!

[mortaine]

Kuru, Mad Cow Disease, Scrappie (sheep), and variant Creutzfeld-Jacob disease are all variations of a similar diseased that is spread by cannibalism.

Here's the basics of what happens:

In nature, a natural mutation of a protein occurs that twists the protein into something called a "prion." The prion replicates in the brain, twisting brain matter and leaving little holes in the brain and causing a bunch of neurological problems that are the symptom of the disease.

The prion is nearly impossible to kill-- it survives very nicely outside the body forever, because it is not really alive. It's just a protein. Thus, when another being of the same species eats the prion, it invades the neurological system and makes a happy home inside the brain.

This is the main reason why cannibalism in humans is a Bad Idea.

These diseases have a very long gestation period, usually only showing up in humans in the sixties. As I said, this is a naturally-occurring mutation that occurs in a small percentage of all affected species, but which only *spreads* when the afflicted animal parts are consumed. Typically, prions are only found in the brain and spinal column of an animal until late in the stages of the disease. However, since nerves can be found all over the body, it's important to realize that the prions can also be found anywhere late in the stages of the disease.

The recent epidemic of these diseases is believed to be caused by the practice of feeding "downer" cows to other cows (and downer sheep to food sheep). Essentially, human agricultural practices have taken to forcing cows and sheep and other food animals into cannibalism.

Most normal diseases do not spread between species; it's impossible to catch the chicken pox from your dog, for instance, though there are some diseases that are zoonotic, mostly caused by bacteria.

However, these variants of the twisted prion disease have been shown to spread almost as easily between species as they do within a species. However, short-lived animals, like squirrels, do not have a long enough lifespan for the prion disease to affect anyone eating them.

One study, which I find dubious, suggests that a very tiny amount of infected meat can cause the disease.

The result of our cannibalistic farming practices is that humans have been getting vCJ at a much younger age than before. The US recently outlawed feeding downer cows to other cattle, but still permits downer sheep and downer pigs to be fed. Given how easy it is for the prions to jump to another species, this seems short-sighted to me.

There is hope. In isolated communities that used to practice regular cannibalism, there is some evidence that members may have anti-prions (which may also be hereditary), a protein that combats the twisted prions that cause the illness. This would explain why cannibalistic societies are able to survive at all.

Disclaimer: I am not a biologist. I had to research all this for a short story on cannibalism, and consulted with a biologist and a doctor for veracity of my information.

[Snake_byte]

Do these prion occur only in cannibalistic situations?

[colonel]

*Holds his mouth as his cheeks puff out*

[AngelSpice]

*Holds his mouth as his cheeks puff out*

So does that mean you're changing your bucket of chicken for a bucket of veggies?

[PRUT]

Snake_byte:

Do these prion occur only in cannibalistic situations?

No, prions are just proteins. You can eat them elsewhere. But if You eat animal's proteins, the possibility of eating "bad proteins" (those which have aninfluence on ours) is lower than when you eat human proteins (which have an influence of ours for sure). That's why eating other people is dangerous!

[colonel]

*Holds his mouth as his cheeks puff out*

So does that mean you're changing your bucket of chicken for a bucket of veggies?

Never!

[mortaine]

Not exactly. The cross-over between species hasn't been thoroughly studied. For obvious reasons, there is immense pressure by the ag industries NOT to study it (a lot of grant money for animal research comes from the ag industry), and since vCJD is a long-gestation disease, it's very difficult to do a short-range study (less expensive) and get usable results.

As I said, the prions occur naturally in a very small percentage of the animal population, regardless of diet.

However, when the diseased portion is eaten by another animal, the prions take up residence in the consumer's brain, and infect it as well.

Imagine you have a herd of 100 cows. 1 cow is infected through natural mutation. That cow gets sick and dies. It is fed to the other 99 cows. Now you have 99 infected cows. That part is known and knowable; if you feed prions to a member of the same species, it becomes infected.

Feed those 99 infected cows to 1000 people.... now you have, worst-case scenario, 1000 infected people who will develop vCJD later in their lifetimes. Again, I have to stress that, while it hasn't been proven, there's a lot of evidence that vCJD crosses over between species fairly easily, so sheep can infect cattle, which can infect humans.

Again, short-lived species, like squirrels and chickens and rabbits (well, rabbits aren't really short-lived, but they stop being good food meat after a year or two) don't pass on the disease because, presumably, the prions don't have long enough to spread as thoroughly through the body. We see it most in cows because cows don't become decent food animals until they are several years old (yes, I realize that's an argument in favor of veal, but I'll let it pass).

The obvious solution, of course, is to feed to cattle and sheep only the things that they are biologically adapted to eating-- these are, after all, ruminant herbivores, and ought to be fed grain and grass, not each other!

[kinvoya]

Prions are awesomely creeptastic. I think something should have to be alive in order to reproduce!

That's totally a rl CR Breach, if you ask me. Someone ban those prions for grabbing all our brain notes and running off with them!

[mortaine]

*Holds his mouth as his cheeks puff out*

So does that mean you're changing your bucket of chicken for a bucket of veggies?

Never!

Worry not, Colonel! Unless you're eating some very old, gamey chicken, you're safe enough from the prion diseases!

[Pie]

like, prime rib? and normal pork? or beef jurky?






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PIE! its wats for dinner.

[Oops_used_it_in_game]

Just a question I didn`t think fit anywhere.Shouldn`t there be different types? I would think the meat from a mountain goat would be different from the meat of a horse,nutritionally anyways....Also is there any chance that cantrians dead bodies could produce meat? I have a character very interested in this prospect

I call them cantrians because I don`t know what else to call them...Humans? thats another question,Do I just refer to them as characters?

on this note: Why don't dead Player Bodies drop meat and bones? What are we made out of, Numbers?!


... holditwait ...

[Augery]

I like the idea of cannabilism, and getting bones from corpses.

[Antichrist_Online]

Rather than add canablism at the moment. How about adding the ability to skin the bodies of the dead and get the resource Human/Cantriian Skin, this can be used with a curing tub to produce Cured Cantriian/human Skin which can be used to make clothing. Some of the more savage and evil characters would adorn themselves with this, maybe some kinds of priests could do it with venerated people (like the bits of saint that turn up). Anyway what's your thoughts on this as well as the canablism?

[kinvoya]

I think most people will be horrified by this but I would like to encourage everyone to look past imposing our rl, modern day morals and ideas on Cantr. I would like to see a lot more items like this made available that would encourage players to rp their chars a little more outlandishly.

Everyone complains about Cantr being a little dull right now. Let's lively up ourselves by wearing dead people's skins! Why the heck not? And I also think cannabalism would be happening in areas with high rates of starvation. If you are American you've probably heard about the Donner Party and who doesn't love a good soccar team?

Therefore, even though I am officially anti-cannabalism and I never wear human skin suits in rl (well, only on very special occasions), I would like to see this suggestion accepted.

No one in tailoring will see it here, though. You should put it in clothing suggestions with a link to this page.

[Lumin]

I don't know about that...Silence of the Lambs aside, I'm not sure how realistic it would be to peel an person's entire skin off...it's a lot thinner than an animal hide. And even people who want to literally hang on to a part of their loved one might find the skin just a little bit creepy.

But in keeping with the general morbid turn this thread has been taking, how about scalps? Seriously, scalps would be awesome. They shouldn't just show up when somebody dies though, there should be a project involved. (Yet another use for the wonderfully versatile bone knife. *grin*)