Judith, what a fascinating article. Thank you for posting it. If I read this right, then adding copper to the diet might be a protection against this disease. Would adding copper to the body, reverse any of the effects? suzy
> " If Purdey is right, he deserves a Nobel Prize for medicine. > Instead he has been shot at, his phone lines have been cut, > and his house has been burned down. " > > Sustainable Agriculture Network Discussion Group > <[email protected]> > Date: Mon, 4 Dec 2000 23:29:29 +0900 > Subject: Copper-bottomed answer to mad cow disease? > > > The Guardian Weekly 30-11-2000 > > Copper-bottomed answer to mad cow disease? > > There may be a simple explanation for BSE, argues George Monbiot > > The most interesting aspect of France's BSE scandal is that it makes > no sense at all. Britain stopped exporting contaminated cattle feed > to Europe in 1991 (though it continued sending it to the third world > until 1996). In most other European Union countries cases have > already peaked and declined, as expected. But in France the number of > infected animals has doubled in the past year. It is impossible to > see how this pattern could result from the export of British bone > meal. > > The transmission of BSE has never been satisfactorily explained by > the prevailing theory. The consumption of meat and bone meal from > infected cows has doubtless played an important role. Yet this alone > fails to account for the huge numbers ofcattle in Britain that > continued to become infected after most contaminated feed had been > removed from the food chain. The latest research on the human form of > the disease, vCJD, published four weeks ago, failed to find any link > with the consumption of infected beef. > > You might imagine that when its theory isn't working, a government > would wish to test the alternatives. But the British government has > so far sought only to attack a hypothesis that does appear to fit the > facts. Since 1988 a Somerset farmer, Mark Purdey, has been arguing > that scientists have overlooked the root causes of BSE. Self-taught > and self-financed, he has studied the brain's complex biochemical > pathways, and this year published a groundbreaking paper in a > respected medical journal. His reward is to have been reviled, > misrepresented and physically attacked. > > Prions, the brain proteins whose alteration seems to be responsible > for BSE, are designed to protect the brain from the oxidising > properties of chemicals activated by dangerous agents such as > ultraviolet light, Purdey argues. When, he suggests, the prion > proteins are exposed to too little copper and too much manganese, the > manganese takes the place of the copper that the prion normally binds > to. The protein becomes distorted and loses its function. > > BSE arose in British herds in the 80s, Purdey asserts, because the > Ministry of Agriculture started forcing all cattle farmers to treat > their animals with an organophosphate pesticide called phosmet, at > far higher doses than are used elsewhere in the world. The pesticide > had to be poured along the line of the spinal cord. Phosmet, Purdey > has shown, captures copper. At the same time cattle feed was being > supplemented with chicken manure, from birds dosed with manganese to > increase their egg yield. The prion proteins in the cows' brains were > both deprived of copper and dosed with manganese. In France the use > of phosmet first became mandatory in Brittany. Twenty of France's > initial 28 cases of BSE emerged there. BSE's subsequent spread, > Purdey maintains, mirrors the use of the pesticide. > > Poisoning by similar means may explain the distribution of the human > form of the disease. Of the two main clusters of vCJD in Britain one, > in Kent, is in the middle of a fruit- and hop-growing area where huge > quantities of organophosphates and manganese-based fungicides are > used. The other is in Queniborough in Leicestershire, whose dyeworks > (until they caught fire a few years ago, spraying chemicals over the > village) used to dump some of their residues into the sewerage > system, Purdey alleges. The sewage was spread over the fields. > Dyeworks use shedloads of manganese. > > Purdey has tested his theory on BSE and CJD clusters in Iceland, the > United States, Slovakia and Sardinia. He found that people and > animals had been exposed to deficiencies of copper and surfeits of > manganese. Most of the clusters, intriguingly, are in mountainous > areas, where levels of ultraviolet light are high. > > But the most compelling evidence in support of his hypothesis comes > from a paper published by a team of biochemists at Cambridge > University this year. They found that when copper was substituted by > manganese in prion proteins, the prions adopted precisely the > distinguishing features that identify the infective agent in BSE. > > If Purdey is right, he deserves a Nobel Prize for medicine. Instead > he has been shot at, his phone lines have been cut, and his house has > been burned down. The Ministry of Agriculture, which for 50 years has > had a dangerously close relationship with the agrochemical industry, > has repeatedly sought to discredit him. Suddenly, however, its tone > has changed, and it has now promised to start funding his research. > The families of the French victims of CJD are threatening to sue the > British government, and it desperately needs an alternative > transmission theory. > > With funding on its way, and new evidence accumulating every month, a > self-educated dairy farmer may be about to overturn the entire body > of scientific research on the biggest public health scandal of modern > times. >
