• Usernameblankface@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      3
      arrow-down
      3
      ·
      1 year ago

      Does prion disease affect pigs who eat other pigs? Is it one of the reasons we are extra careful to cook pork thoroughly?

      • Drusas@kbin.social
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        5
        ·
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        No. The reason that we used to be advised to cook pork thoroughly was because of trichinosis. That is no longer common, so it is no longer necessary to thoroughly cook pork to the degree that it used to be.

    • Drusas@kbin.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      5
      arrow-down
      6
      ·
      1 year ago

      You mean those diseases which have never been found to occur in pigs? Yeah. Delicious. I’m not defending this practice, but your reason to be against it is based on a falsehood.

      • clobubba@kbin.social
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        6
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        1 year ago

        You’re right. So far we only know about transmissible spongiform encephalopathies in sheep, goats, mink, elk, deer, cattle, cats, antelope, camels, and humans, they can incubate for decades, and we can only reliably detect prions post-mortem. It’ll never turn up in any other animal, nope!