Oooh, ty for the question! You know, the neat thing about diseases is that most of us don't go away. Even the "old-fashioned" ones are still around - sometimes they've got a new identity, but they're still here. It's just that they're not often issues for people with stable housing, running water, access to healthcare, etc.

The one exception re: longevity is smallpox, RIP ✊🪦 But Miss Variola was somewhat atypical in that humans were her only reservoir - she put all her eggs in that basket, and suffered the consequences. Measles is like that too, but thankfully people have woken up to the COORDINATED HATE CAMPAIGN of vaccination, and she's been able to make a comeback to places that had been rudely excluding her.

To answer your question:

We always have a soft spot for tuberculosis. An OG who moves slowly and steadily

Influenza A is extremely adaptable and continues to go on killing sprees every year - and society has agreed to just be ok with that 😇

Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) has a creepy factor that is unmatched by other disease types

Mad Cow Disease was thing in the late 80′s and the entire 90′s, all the way to early 00′s and it was an international scare. Like, we had disinfecting stations on international airports because of it.

It was a virus passed from animals to humans and this didn’t happen somewhere random in Asia, where, idk, bats and pigs interact and infect the food chain, but in Europe. In UK to be precise.

It affected only cows at first and only agriculture paid any attention, since any animal infected needed to be put down. Like no shit, those animals couldn’t even walk with how bad they were shaking and if you want to google this, be prepared. It doesn’t look nice, it looks ugly and horrifying and it will likely traumatize someone.

And the mode of transfer was not evident. There are videos and photos, showing cow carcasses being burned and someone trying to claim that was early days but that was very much not the reality in the beginning. In fact, all the research showed it is not possible for Mad Cow Disease to infect humans. In fact2, a similar disease was already known in lambs for decades and that one could not infect humans, so it was a no brainer to say, a similar disease in cows can also NEVER infect humans, so no precautions with the carcass needed.

But the thing is, how we processed meat had changed drastically between the lambs being a stable, grown at home meat, and then cows, or beef, becoming dominant with supermarkets. This is basically the “you see this, this is animal paste from a teletubby machine” video, except the paste wasn’t fed to humans. It’s known as meat and bone meal and it was all the leftover stuff from abattoirs, ground up and fed back to the animals as valuable protein.

You might see where this is going.

So let’s talk about prion diseases.

Well, as much as I, a random person know about them. Prions are proteins and proteins are not DNA or RNA, which are most likely familiar to anyone who has googled Covid, or any novel corona viruses in general. They’re the viruses a vaccine is made for.

Prion diseases are, in fact, mostly known because of cannibalism. Kuru is a famous disease among one specific tribe on Pacific Islands, caused by their tradition of consuming their relatives flesh after death. In fact, I just fact checked on which ocean and was told that the Kuru was mainly affecting kids and women because the men ate limbs and muscles and women and kids got the brain and basically all the best, fatty parts. Which, ironically, carried the disease.

And yes, in any survivalist culture fat, innards, and cartilage and the “bad parts” are the best because they contain the most nutrients so no, you do no get to twist this into the men taking the best, so fuck of terfs. This post is not for you.

Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease was already known by the time of Mad Cow Disease, it was a brain destroying disease affecting the elderly population. Mad Cow became variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, or vCJD and was picked up because it mainly affected the young.

And in case you didn’t get it already, the link was infected cow carcasses being processed to meat and bone meal to be fed back to cows, because infected prion diseases spread through cannibalism. Or more specifically, spine and brain stem.

(so you’re relatively safe eating just the thigh or any muscle tbh)

So in the end, Mad Cow Disease didn’t kill that many people, only few hundreds, if I recall correctly.

But the thing that was found out about the prion diseases because of Kuru was that while some people exhibited symptoms and died really early, most had an incubation period of DECADES, aka 50 years. So the inevitable conclusion about vCJD is that it has only claimed it’s first victims and that majority are still waiting to appear and die.

As of January, there were 186 counties in 22 states that had reported the disease in free-ranging animals like deer and elk. — CDC

Researchers Are Worried That A Brain Illness Known As "Zombie Deer" Disease May Start Infecting Humans http://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/researchers-worried-that-a-brain-illness-known-as-zombie-deer-disease-may-start-infecting-humans/all/

From the article:

Chronic wasting disease was discovered in the 1950s when researchers observed deer in Colorado behaving like zombies, staggering around blindly as they starved to death.

The disease, caused by the spread of proteins called prions, has since been reported in Canada and some US states, including Michigan and Wisconsin.

No human has caught the disease, but a recent study suggests it could get into a person's brain if they were to eat meat from an infected animal.

When a deer gets infected with chronic wasting disease, it can take up to two years before signs of the illness become visible.

At some point, the animal will lose weight, stop interacting with other deer, and lose its fear of humans, and it may start drinking and salivating more. It winds up staring vacantly as it starves to death, which is why the illness is also known as "zombie deer" disease.

As far as we know, though, no human has ever been infected with the disease, caused by the spread of misfolded proteins called prions.

But Canadian researchers have recently expressed concerns that the disease could infect people who eat deer, elk, moose, or others that carry the proteins.

Preliminary results from an ongoing study by a branch of Health Canada show that macaques, the primates most similar to humans that can be used in research, can catch the disease after regularly consuming infected meat.

Because of that, "the potential for CWD to be transmitted to humans cannot be excluded," Health Canada said in an advisory in April. "The most prudent approach is to consider that CWD has the potential to infect humans."

The rise of a strange illness

Researchers first noticed this disease about 50 years ago in Colorado. Since then, it has been reported in neighboring states, those around the Great Lakes, including Wisconsin and Michigan, and Canada.

Prion illnesses are often progressive and usually fatal, and scientists think they can adapt to infect different types of species — including, potentially, humans. But they're not well understood.

The similar illness mad cow disease became a problem after cattle ate bone meal from sheep with a neurodegenerative disease. It eventually made its way into the human food supply and caused a new type of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, which causes rapid brain deterioration.

Mark Zabel, an immunologist at Colorado State University, told Colorado Public Radio that because chronic wasting disease is still a newly discovered condition, it may evolve rapidly, "which leads us to believe that it's only a matter of time before a CWD prion emerges that can do the same thing and infect a human."

In the case that you do see this, thank you. You don't know what relief this gives me, from a person in the US. Me and my sister had heard about the disease. When I did some surface level research, I kept on getting conflicting answers, like:

"Your risk of getting vCJD from animal rennet is extremely low" and "Animal rennet is a risk if it comes from a BSE infected animal".

I just needed an answer on whether or not I should tread carefully for the rest of my life. Thank you so much for your response.

I do see this. You're very welcome darling.

Although both statements are true, they are missing critical information about the processing of the rennet and the realistic incidence of BSE infected animals (in modern farming, virtually 0). Always think big picture.

You have to understand that BSE happens naturally only in older individuals. Sadly or fortunately depending on how you look at it, no farm animal lives long enough to naturally develop it 😔😔

Also. Piece of advice. If you worry about some sanitary/health issue. Don't do surface research. You'll only find alarming titles. Reach out to appropriate professionals and health systems. We are here to answer questions.

If you have the education/training to do so, do go in depth. Don't stick to surface research. Best option is to talk to a specialist if possible but second best is to read scientific papers IN DEPTH. Understand the data. Focusing on epidemiology and transmission (look at the dates. VERY IMPORTANT. if the issue was 40 years ago, why worry?).

You don't need to read papers about the disease itself. It might create distress from lack of full understanding (unless you're a biologist in the infectious field).

Simple headlines can be misleading. Us scientists write for each other. We need catchy titles. But we also know to take them with a grain of salt. Nothing is black and white.

I learned about it this year, and at first it was just not eating any red meat. Then it started to manifest onto chicken, then sweets like sugar cookies (the frosted ones like Lofthouse or storebought).

It's gotten really bad to the point that I can't eat anything with gelatin in it, and the only "safe food" I can probably eat with no worry is macaroni and cheese, and any food that's dairy, since vCJD doesn't spread in dairy products. Often it's about cross-contamination.

It's nice to actually talk to someone who is knowledgeable about the disease. I tried to talk to my parents about it, but they looked at me like I was making stuff up.

I read that vCJD affects younger people, on average at 28 years old. I just turned 23 and I don't want to wake up and just... Slowly decline.

Of course we all have to die someday, but you know what I mean lmao

No worries, darling. I know it's a crazy disease and it's very scary.

I looked it up and mechanically separated meat is illegal in the US as it is in France. Which is good because this was the main cause for contamination. So all meat is safe to eat regarding vMCJ.

It's easy to overthink cross contamination but like I said, it's not an easy feat. CJD is really not very infectious. Frankly. Since the crisis in the 80s, the only cases we have had of vCJD are very very few of the people who handle the prion daily in a secure lab. No real proven cross contamination in food.

You're really young. You were not around to have eaten contaminated meat or have had the tainted human growth hormones. Plus! You're from the US. The vCJD crisis was really mostly in the UK and France.

You take all the time you need but with a bit of background check on origin of products and reassurance that vCJD is very largely eradicated, I reckon you can manage to work some meat back into your diet if you so desire.