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You check for the disease and if you find it, you don’t eat the meat. Problem solved.
Prion disease is not something special to humans or cannibalism. It is however a disease that needs a long time to develop, which is why it’s rare is most animals we eat (because they don’t tend to live that long). With cannibalism, people often eat old people (and humans tend to get quite old), which have a much higher chance of having developed prion disease. That’s really the only reason why it’s associated with cannibalism.
So you can totally live on cannibalism and not get prion disease if you either apply normal food safety standards or focus on eating kids.
I would like to add that there is a reason we banned feeding cattle with animal by-products rather than solely relying on screening slaughtered animals. There are limitations in screening animals. False negatives, especially in young, early stage, asymptomatic cases of disease (they are still transmitting abnormal proteins). Screening every slaughtered individual would also be very costly. So we don’t.
You want a combination of preventative measures. Best to break the food chain transmission vector. Cannibals have a circular food chain and it’s not obvious who is a carrier. That is an issue.
If you wanna be sure to not get mad cows disease or whatever; don’t eat meat. And especially avoid eating things that have been engaging in cannibalism.
Then melt all your material because of prion disease. No biggie.
Edit: just to stop this sterile conversation, the dangers are ludicrous surrounding prions, that’s why nobody wants to come near even a potential threat. They (prions) don’t live so cannot be killed by normal means and hospitals melt any metal potentially have been in contact with them. A risk in a herd? Kill and burn the whole stock.
The danger of prions lies in their unique properties:
Resilience:
Prions resist standard sterilization methods, including autoclaving (high-temperature steam), chemical disinfectants, and radiation. This complicates decontamination of surgical tools or food processing equipment.
Silent Progression:
After exposure, prions can incubate for years, even decades, before symptoms emerge. Once neurological decline begins, death typically occurs within months.
It’s actually not that complicated.
You check for the disease and if you find it, you don’t eat the meat. Problem solved.
Prion disease is not something special to humans or cannibalism. It is however a disease that needs a long time to develop, which is why it’s rare is most animals we eat (because they don’t tend to live that long). With cannibalism, people often eat old people (and humans tend to get quite old), which have a much higher chance of having developed prion disease. That’s really the only reason why it’s associated with cannibalism.
So you can totally live on cannibalism and not get prion disease if you either apply normal food safety standards or focus on eating kids.
I would like to add that there is a reason we banned feeding cattle with animal by-products rather than solely relying on screening slaughtered animals. There are limitations in screening animals. False negatives, especially in young, early stage, asymptomatic cases of disease (they are still transmitting abnormal proteins). Screening every slaughtered individual would also be very costly. So we don’t.
You want a combination of preventative measures. Best to break the food chain transmission vector. Cannibals have a circular food chain and it’s not obvious who is a carrier. That is an issue.
If you wanna be sure to not get mad cows disease or whatever; don’t eat meat. And especially avoid eating things that have been engaging in cannibalism.
Ooh you just, … checks notes … “Check for the disease”.
Aah that sounds so simple!
“Just check the meat bro” “how hard can it be bro”
Lol
Yeah you’d need like … an average laboratory for that. Impossible, no one has those!
Then melt all your material because of prion disease. No biggie.
Edit: just to stop this sterile conversation, the dangers are ludicrous surrounding prions, that’s why nobody wants to come near even a potential threat. They (prions) don’t live so cannot be killed by normal means and hospitals melt any metal potentially have been in contact with them. A risk in a herd? Kill and burn the whole stock.
Resilience:
Prions resist standard sterilization methods, including autoclaving (high-temperature steam), chemical disinfectants, and radiation. This complicates decontamination of surgical tools or food processing equipment.
Silent Progression:
After exposure, prions can incubate for years, even decades, before symptoms emerge. Once neurological decline begins, death typically occurs within months.