Geese get revenge: Pate may cause rare disease

[Placebo]

Source: Reuters

Geese force-fed and then slaughtered for their livers may get their final revenge on people who favor the delicacy known as foie gras: It may transmit a little-known disease known as amyloidosis, researchers reported on Monday.

Tests on mice suggest the liver, popular in French cuisine which uses it to make pate de foie gras and other dishes, may cause the condition in animals that have a genetic susceptibility to such diseases, Alan Solomon of the University of Tennessee and colleagues reported.

That would suggest that amyloidosis can be transmitted via food in a way akin to brain diseases such as
Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, or CJD, which can cause a rare version of mad cow disease in some people who eat affected meat products or brains.

Amyloidosis can affect various organ systems in the body, which accumulate damaging deposits of abnormal proteins known as amyloid. The heart, kidneys, nervous system and gastrointestinal tract are most often affected but amyloidosis can also cause a blood condition.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070619/od_nm/foiegras_disease1_dc

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Oh the irony. Revenge is a dish best served cold, no?

[emilyg]

1. LOL

It's at times like this that I believe in God.

[Renew Deal]

2. foie gras is delicious when done right.

[JoFerret]

19. Animal torture is great when it tastes good?

Is that a pic of you in the orange jump suit?

[Renew Deal]

22. No

That's Cheney.

[no_hypocrisy]

3. Wonder if it has anything to do with the spores that are inherent

in poultry. My father's a retired doctor and forbid us as kids to play in the chicken coop on our property because he said we would become "very ill" from just breathing the spores from the poultry. He wouldn't elaborate but I do recognize one or two conditions in the original post.

[kestrel91316]

6. WHAT "spores....inherent" in poultry, lol???

Microbiologist and veterinarian wants to know, 'cause this is news to me.....

[alfredo]

9. He might have been thinking of histoplasmosis.

I was raised on a chicken farm. I survived it.

[kestrel91316]

10. That's a regional disease, only certain climates will sustain the fungus.

Here you go:
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dbmd/diseaseinfo/histoplasmosis_g.htm

They do mention poultry litter. I had forgotten about that. I always think bat guano with Histo, for some reason......

[alfredo]

14. And I shoveled a lot of shit in my early years. The dust was

horrible. (White Leghorns and Rhode Island Red for egg production) They tasted good too. There was a big Leghorn Rooster that didn't like me hanging around. I wasn't much taller than him, but I could whoop him if he came at me.

[kestrel91316]

16. Those Leghorn roosters are FAMOUSLY nasty - my grandparents

had one on the ranch and eventually named him "Stew".

[alfredo]

18. There ain't nothing chicken about chicken, especially those big

roosters. Being a descendent of the T Rex, they have a lot to live up to.

[recoveringrepublican]

21. lmao, you brought up great memories for me of

my grandparent's farm. My brother thought it was funny one day to chase the hens. My grandmother just sat back and watched with a slight smile on her face. The rooster came around the corner and just started chasing after my brother. Oh damn the fear on his face was hilarious (come one he deserved it). I can remember how loud grandma and I were laughing. He left ALL the animals alone after that, but whenever he would go outside he would have to look for that rooster, as the rooster didn't seem to forget his face.

Now lets talk of geese and turkeys. wowza, run for you life if you get too close!

[alfredo]

24. Birds can be very nasty. My uncle worked for a veterinarian. He

said the meanest animal by far was the pelican.

[ChickMagic]

15. Either that

or sidicosis. That's more common in hookbills, though.

[ChickMagic]

17. I have histo now

Since it shows up on x-rays as little calcifications, I suppose someone might say, "Hmm. Spores".

[The Stranger]

4. Instant karma is going to get you . . .

[whistle]

5. My wife died of amyloidosis in 1993 just eight months after she

...began showing the bizaarr symptoms associated with the illness that at first baffled the doctors. It took a young cardiologist at the heart clinic to go against the conventional medical wisdom of that time and began tests for what he suspected was amyloidosis. He unfortunately turned out to be right. By that point in her disease progrestion it was too late to arrest it. She died 4 1/2 months after his diagnosis.

I am grateful for the post and I hope they finally are on a track to identify the cause or causes of this terrible disease.

For more infomation or support, these are some links which are available:

http://www.amyloidosis.org/

http://www.medicinenet.com/amyloidosis/article.htm

http://www.mayoclinic.org/amyloidosis/

[Auntie Bush]

11. I'm sorry your wife had to die from such a terrible disease and I'm

sorry you lost your wife. May she rest in peace!

[kestrel91316]

7. I wasn't aware that amyloidosis had an infectious cause......

I would be interested to see if anybody has any links to GOOD info about this.....

On edit: HOLY COW - look what I found in the first two minutes
http://www.nature.com/labinvest/journal/v81/n4/abs/3780257a.html

Uh oh. I think amyloid fibrils might just be ANOTHER form of "prion" disease........

Another uh oh. There is a form of BSE ("mad cow dz") known as bovine AMYLOIDOTIC spongoform encephalopathy. Which happens to cause the same sort of AMYLOID DEPOSITION that they see in ALZHEIMER'S patients. I am REALLY not liking where this is heading......

[Placebo]

8. UH OH.

:o :scared:

[TZ]

23. At one of my old labs I worked with someone

who developed a test for prions in biologics (tissues and cell cultures) a western blot, fyi. There was a big need for it. Its not unheard of for prions to be contaminents in biologics but this test is a good one. My boss there always said that he felt BSE (and prions) were a much bigger problem in this country than has been reported. The more I learn about prions the more I get scared of them. I saw this article and got very concerned....

[brentspeak]

12. Force-feeding of animals is a terrible thing, but no one deserves to get amyloidosis

Ideally, foie gras would merely induce a nasty bout of food poisoning in whoever eats it, NOT a lethal disease like amyloidosis.

[Mend]

20. it is lethal to them too...no one deserves to be a factory-farmed goose.

[crim son]

13. I don't eat that stuff.

Now I have one more reason.