A Man Contracted a Rare, Fatal Disease From Eating Squirrel Brains

Popular Mechanics ^ | October 17, 2018 | Avery Thompson

[ExpatCanuck]

It’s dumb to eat brains when you have steak and pork. I ate goat brain curry in 1988. I was on a business trip in the Far East and it would have been impolite to refuse at an important dinner where it was considered a delicacy reserved for special guests. I declined a second serving with the excuse that I was full.

[tuffydoodle]

There used to be a tv show called Diagnosis: Dead or Alive, that told stories of people with hard to diagnosis illnesses. One lady died of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and this was in the U.S. so I’m surprised they are saying this is the first time someone has contracted it in this country. She might have gone out of the country and gotten it but I don’t remember if they said that in the tv show. They were fixing to do brain surgery on her and at the last minute, they realized what was going on. Said if they had of opened up her head, it would have turned into a Hazmat situation.

[dfwgator]

[miss marmelstein]

Which used to be called Staggers - at least in Great Britain.

[Blood of Tyrants]

Used to hunt them as a teen. Haven’t eaten a squirrel in 30 years.

[WinMod70]

So you’re saying this is along the lines of fake news; headline should read “....From Undercooked Squirrel Brains”

[miss marmelstein]

I collect cookbooks - especially older ones from the south. Many squirrel recipes. Brunswick stew often included it. Poor people food.

[EQAndyBuzz]

Squirrel sushi

[Varda]

“creutzfeldt-jakob “ is thought to be caused by a prion and it can’t be cooked out.They’ve survived autoclaves!

Moral of the story, cook your squirrel without the head.

[Professional]

People are born with a conscience. We know right and wrong.

To defile a dead animal or another human by eating their brains is simply...evil.

So, the punishment for this sin, this evil...is Death.

[JimRed]

Undercooked?

[Carriage Hill]

Don’t eat organ meat. Period.

[dead]

Seems like an easy disease to avoid.

[Berlin_Freeper]

End Times [a little bad language]

[mewzilla]

Folks were warned about Rocky’s Revenge back in 1997.

[Big Red Badger]

Cow,
Monkey
and now Squirrel Brains.

Hello Mickey Ds’!

[Campion]

You wont get creutzfeldt-jakob or Mad cow (I thought these were different btw) if you thoroughly cook your ‘food’.

Not true. Works for parasites or bacteria, but not for prions.

[mosesdapoet]

Get the print edition didn’t see that in it. But PM does have a feature in it about land line phone service changing a requirement to keep a phone working and offer a immediate repair if a line is down and how congress (while the dems had it ) now allows the carriers grace time of weeks if a phone goes out to fix it because of change over to fiber optic cable.

[z3n]

I don't a lot about them, but prions are proteins and proteins are supposed to degenerate under heat. Maybe there is something about the reason/cause for the proteins to fold that's much less complex and can survive cooking.

You're all right though. The problem seems to come from consumption of CNS tissue, whether cooked or not. Seems like an important lesson. You had better be awfully desperate to eat if brains are going to be on the menu.

[mass55th]

Must have been acting squirrelly.