The thing about TSEs is that in cattle derived foods anyway, the practice now is to remove the brain and spinal tissues before they are ground up. However, this "ex-neuration" is performed by a simple butcher's knife by a butcher. The containment of the agent is not assured by any means, and the thing is, nothing at the slaughter-house could destroy this agent. Not that I want to stir things up about this. It's just another reason to take Dr. Neal Barnard's advice and go vegetarian.
Date: Sat, 25 Jul 1998 00:15:02 -0800
From: Robert Cathey Research Source
No Chymotrypsin in Pancreatin?
I'm sure there may be some truth to the extraction of chymotrypsin from some sources of pancreatin, since it is of higher value as a research enzyme than as an inclusion in pancreatin for over-the-counter sales, but pancreatin to be pancreatin should have trypsin, chymotrypsin, elastase, RNase, carboxypeptidase, amylase, and several others...in other words anything that is synthesized by the pancrease of the animal being slaughtered, usually a pig.
I'm not sure if any enzymes are marketed derived from cows, but it appears we should have concern about some products so derived... derived from brain and spinal tissue primarily. There is a letter-comment about this by Dr. Giovanni Di Guardo in The Sciences, July/August 1998, published by the New York Academy of Sciences, on pages 55-6, regarding transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs). These "unconventional" biological agent/proteins have been known to jump species amongst animals quite easily. This was covered really well by a Nova Special, The Brain Eater, I think it was called. The case of the death of a young man Steven Churchill in Britain who developed Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) was linked to Bovine spongiform encephalopathy. This passage (pass-ahj) from animal-to-animal to man of this infectious protein lead to the provisional recognition of a new disease: new-variant CJD (nvCJD). A case has shown up in France. George Armelagos delineated on this topic in reply to Di Guardo, he wrote:
"In part, the spread of CJD within and between North American and European populations can be linked to iatrogenic sources, or in other words, to contaminations caused by medical intervention. TSE-contaminated corneal transplants, growth hormones, dura mater grafts and brain-probe instrumentation have all contributed to the spread of CJD in those populations."
He goes on to state:
"Sheep scrapie (a TSE) is not directly transmissible
to people, but it can infect other sheep, goats and mink. To infect people,
sheep TSEs must first pass through cattle. The agricultural practice of
feeding infected sheep or other infected cattle to cattle can thus become
the vector for human infection. Given the worldwide trade in beef and the
incubation period for TSEs, the global spread of those diseases remains
a possibility. The emergency blood supply, HIB (influenza B) vaccine grown
in bovine neural tissue, and even gelatin all remain potential carriers."
Di Guardo states the incubation period is unknown. In the Nova report Paul Brown of the NIH described in their analysis that the TSE agent was subjected to alcohol, boiling, hospital detergents, and nothing phased them. They subjected them to carbonizing temperatures, and this did not entirely destroy their infectivity. Radiation has little effect on them. The buried scrapie brain in soil and found the agent active after 3 years...apparently not having changed. It does not proliferate on its own, it is not alive, has no DNA, no organelles. It is simply a specially shaped protein that can convert other proteins to it's own form.
Wobe-enzyme, the most commonly used enzyme formulation
in cancer therapy in Europe for many years has chymotrypsin in it. The
Mucos company was the offspring of Max Wolff and others. The enzymes are
available in the US now.
http://www.mucos.de/uk/wiss/pharmako.htm
There is good literature on this site, the above
being the major example. This link is only one evidence that it is getting
into the country OK apparently:
http://www.win.bright.net/~cherbal/enzymes.html
Roger Cathey
ROBERT CATHEY RESEARCH SOURCE
113 S.E. 61ST AVENUE
PORTLAND, OREGON 97215-1234
(503)238-0469 FAX
Internet: rcrs@navi.net
URL: http://www.navi.net/~rsc