i.e. Kuru
no, they ate there own, rubbed blood, tissue, organs all over their bodies as part of a burial ritual, nothing more than a crude inoculation. it's origin, is now thought to be that from a case of bad meat, they ate someone with sporadic CJD. THEY PICKED ON THE WRONG DUDE...
*** These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that kuru originated from chance consumption of an individual with sporadic CJD.
Kuru prions and sporadic Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease prions have equivalent transmission properties in transgenic and wild-type mice
Jonathan D. F. Wadsworth, Susan Joiner, Jacqueline M. Linehan, Melanie Desbruslais, Katie Fox, Sharon Cooper, Sabrina Cronier, Emmanuel A. Asante, Simon Mead, Sebastian Brandner, Andrew F. Hill *, and John Collinge † Author Affiliations
Medical Research Council Prion Unit and Department of Neurodegenerative Disease, University College London Institute of Neurology, National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, Queen Square, London WC1N 3BG, United Kingdom Communicated by Charles Weissmann, The Scripps Research Institute, Jupiter, FL, January 10, 2008 (received for review October 10, 2007)
Abstract Kuru provides our principal experience of an epidemic human prion disease and primarily affected the Fore linguistic group of the Eastern Highlands of Papua New Guinea. Kuru was transmitted by the practice of consuming dead relatives as a mark of respect and mourning (transumption). To date, detailed information of the prion strain type propagated in kuru has been lacking. Here, we directly compare the transmission properties of kuru prions with sporadic, iatrogenic, and variant Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease (CJD) prions in Prnp-null transgenic mice expressing human prion protein and in wild-type mice. Molecular and neuropathological data from these transmissions show that kuru prions are distinct from variant CJD and have transmission properties equivalent to those of classical (sporadic) CJD prions.
*** These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that kuru originated from chance consumption of an individual with sporadic CJD.
http://www.pnas.org/content/105/10/3885
1: J Infect Dis 1980 Aug;142(2):205-8
Oral transmission of kuru, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, and scrapie to nonhuman primates.
Gibbs CJ Jr, Amyx HL, Bacote A, Masters CL, Gajdusek DC.
Kuru and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease of humans and scrapie disease of sheep and goats were transmitted to squirrel monkeys (Saimiri sciureus) that were exposed to the infectious agents only by their nonforced consumption of known infectious tissues. The asymptomatic incubation period in the one monkey exposed to the virus of kuru was 36 months; that in the two monkeys exposed to the virus of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease was 23 and 27 months, respectively; and that in the two monkeys exposed to the virus of scrapie was 25 and 32 months, respectively. Careful physical examination of the buccal cavities of all of the monkeys failed to reveal signs or oral lesions. One additional monkey similarly exposed to kuru has remained asymptomatic during the 39 months that it has been under observation.
snip...
The successful transmission of kuru, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, and scrapie by natural feeding to squirrel monkeys that we have reported provides further grounds for concern that scrapie-infected meat may occasionally give rise in humans to Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.
PMID: 6997404
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=6997404&dopt=Abstract
kind regards,
terry
