Geese get revenge

[Guest guest]

Shame about the mice experiments.

 

Jo

 

 

WASHINGTON (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.

 

The researchers used mice genetically engineered to be susceptible to

amyloidosis, which can be inherited.

 

" When such mice were injected with or fed amyloid extracted from foie

gras, the animals developed extensive systemic pathological

deposits, " Solomon's team reported in the Proceedings of the

National Academy of Sciences.

 

Sometimes Alzheimer's disease, the most common form of dementia, is

described as a type of amyloidosis as well.

 

Symptoms are often vague and range from fatigue and weight loss to

swelling and kidney damage.

 

Like CJD, mad cow disease, scrapie and related diseases, amyloidosis

is marked by abnormal protein fragments. In the case of CJD, the

proteins are called prions.

 

" On this basis, we posit that this and perhaps other forms of

amyloidosis may be transmissible, akin to the infectious nature of

prion-related illnesses, " the researchers added.

 

" In addition to foie gras, meat derived from sheep and seemingly

healthy cattle may represent other dietary sources of this material. "