Is it possible to have a form of mad cow from sweet meat (cow organ) eaten in the 1960's and 1970's?

Question

My grandfather was a butcher in a packing house. He became demented at an early age (not blood grandpa). He had a strange gait, difficult speech, ataxia, tremors similar to parkinsons, sleep difficulties, loss of balance and could not take care of himself by age 70. Grandma ate the same crud from the packing house. She acts just like he did and she has not had a stroke. It is uncanny how similar their symptoms are.

Answer 1

The very vertrabre of the cow is used in Gelatin, which is in lots n lots of things,...If your granpa was eating meat at that time yes it is posiable..!
CJD does not discriminate...!

unless your Veggie...:)

Answer 2

Interestingly enough, the organs of a cow house more bacteria than the muscle. I did a research paper on this very subject for college last year.

Also, not much info was available regarding mad cow in the 60's and 70's, so my guess is that the possibility of your grandparents contracting the disease could very well be.

Answer 3

CJD (mad cow disease) is a prion based disease and is more liekly to be transmitted in high-fat parts of a cow such as hamburger than in muscle or organs. I would think that it is unlikely that your grandparents contracted Cruetzfeld-Jakob Disease. As pp mentioned, there are many degenerative diseases. We don't really have a good understanding of how prions and degenerative brain diseases work at this point in time.

Answer 4

nervous disorders can probably be caused by a lot of things like shell shock,lack of vitamins etc...etc...some people are born with a weaker nervous system too,it's good to take vitamins but have to be carefull of the non water soluble minerals as they can collect in the organs,vitamins promote a healthy nervous system and might help repair a damaged one,if they're weren't any cows falling down dead in that time period though it's probably unlikely.

Answer 5

haha, probally not its like the bird flu. you cant get it