Insecticide
Causes Mad Cow Disease
by Fintan Dunne
Research
by Kathy McMahon
Reprinted from eionews.com
Pharmaceutical interests in the UK are
ignoring new scientific research that shows the insecticide
used in the UK government's own warble-fly campaigns triggered
the UK surge of 'Mad Cow' disease.
Latest experiments by Cambridge University
prion specialist, David R. Brown, have shown that manganese
bonds with prions. Other researchers work shows that prions in
the bovine spine -- along which insecticides are applied --
can be damaged by ICI's Phosmet organophosphate(OP)
insecticide -causing the disease.
British
scientists have led the current theory that an infectious
prion in bonemeal fed to cattle causes bovine spongiform
disease (BSE).
Infectious prions are also claimed to
cause new variant Creutzfeld-Jakob Disease (CJD) in humans
-from ingesting beef. But the infectious prion theory serves
to obscure a tragic chemical poisoning scandal behind the
majority of BSE cases.
The new work proves that the prions can
bond with manganese in animal feeds or mineral licks. These
manganese prions cause the neurological degeneration seen in
BSE. By a similar process, prions in human brains are
damaged by lice lotions containing organophosphate. This can
result in neurological diseases like CJD and Alzheimers -later
in life.
Many might be surprised to hear that
organophosphates were developed by Nazi chemists during the
course World War Two,
as a chemical weapon nerve agent. One
formulation of the insecticide -- Maneb, or Mancozeb --
actually contains manganese in addition to organophosphate.
The marginalized research has devestating
financial implications for ICI. It would provide a firm basis
for litigants -who could include CJD sufferers, farmers across
the world and families of the many British farmers who
committed suicide during this BSE debacle.
Phosmet organophosphate has been used at
high doses in British warble fly campaigns. In 1996, ICI
subsidiary Zeneca sold the phosmet patent to a PO Box company
in Arizona called Gowan -just one week before the UK
government admitted to a link between BSE and
nvCJD.
The politically well-connected British
pharmaceuticals group, ICI has the financial and political
clout to block research into any cause other than the
infective model. Indeed no substantive alternative research
has been done. British BSE disease management and research
bodies have taken decisions that do not seem guided by
spirited scientific enquiry. Mysterious prions that jump
species is the preferred research arena.
Scientist and organic farmer, Mark Purdey
gave evidence to the UK BSE inquiry, that warble fly
insecticide was the cause of the disease. The scientist
wheeled out to rubbish Purdy's evidence -Dr. David Ray, later
turned out to have been receiving funding from the insecticide
manufacturer ICI.
A lobby group that includes Bayer,
Monsanto, Novartis, Pfizer, Roche and Schering-Plough was
behind the effort to discredit Purdey. In December 1999, the
same David Ray was appointed to the UK Veterinary Products
Committee (VPC) -a government body that licences animal
medicines.
Purdey has been consistently denied even
exploratory funding to extend his privately supported
research. Yet the Purdey/Brown chemical poisoning model
matches with the epidermiological spread of CJD clusters in
humans. It also predicts the incidence of BSE-type diseases in
animals. The accepted infectious model fits
neither.
The
pharmaceutical industry is all the more determined to hide the
chemical source of BSE and CJD, because a spotlight on
chemicals would expose the role the insecticides in
Alzheimer's -- another neurodegenerative disease -- that might
lead to claims which would dwarf those from BSE and CJD
litigants. In fact, two leading brain
researchers into CJD and Alzheimers have died in suspicious
circumstances in recent years.
In the United States, the Environmental
Protection Agency is already reviewing Phosmet's safety. The
Centers for Disease Control in the US has recently conducted
experiments on mice that confirm the organophosphate
risk.
Not only is the EC beef slaughter campaign
futile -because BSE disease is mostly non-infectious, but
unless the underlying chemical cause is addressed, BSE will
simply reappear from chemical causes. A new warble fly
campaign is already underway in France using the
organophosphate insecticide.
Of greater concern is that some lotions
for scabies and head lice are now priming children and adults,
for CJD and Alzheimers in later life.
Bonding The
Prion
Cambridge University prion biochemist,
David R. Brown is dismissive of the science behind the
infectious model of BSE. He terms it "a very limited amount of
science by a few assumed- reputable scientists." He insists
there is "no evidence an infectious agent is present in either
meat or milk."
"Simple tests on udder walls of
cows -- which could easily detect an infectious prion --
have not been done, why I don't understand."
A number of researchers have found that
organophosphate(OP) in systemic warble fly insecticide can
deform the prion molecule, rendering it ineffective at
buffering free radical effects in the body. Worse still, the
prion is then partial to bond with manganese and become a
'rogue' prion. A chain reaction whereby rogue prions turn
others to rogues also, can explain the bovine spongiform
disease mechanism.
Brown showed how prion protein bonds
benignly with copper, but lethally with manganese. Even
natural variations in relative environmental availability of
manganese versus copper can trigger prion degradation.
The CJD and BSE symptoms mirror 'manganese madness', an irreversible
fatal neuro-psychiatric degenerative syndrome that plagued
manganese miners in the first half of the last
century
Shining a
Light on Spongiform
Organic dairy farmer and
peer-review-published independent scientist, Mark Purdey, says
the accepted theory of transmission from BSE-infected cattle
to human CJD -by bonemeal or meat, is dependent on a mutant
prion that has never been isolated under the scientific
protocol called Koch's postulates.
Purdey's insistence on sticking to the
letter of this scientific law earned him the condemnation of
UK officialdom when he first mooted his theory. But Purdey
pointed to CJD clusters downwind of a British Phosmet
production plant to back his case.
He gave evidence to the UK Government BSE
inquiry and was supported by Conservative MP, Thessa Gorman.
His views were discounted, but his subsequent research and the
new Cambridge prion work have confirmed the alternative
theory. Despite this, and the backing of a British peer, he is
denied even exploratory funding.
Speaking from his rural English Somerset
farm yesterday -as plans forge ahead for the European cattle
cull, he asks:
"Why does CJD degeneration in
humans begin in the retina, and why are CJD disease clusters
found in high altitude locations?"
The question is rhetorical, and Purdey has
an eye-opening answer. He argues that the
prion
molecule has a known natural role as a shock adsorber of
damaging energy from ultraviolet rays and other oxidizing
agents.
Once this prion defence system is rendered
ineffective by organophosphates - for example in human head
lice lotions, these oxidizing effects have an unmediated
impact on tissues. Eventually, UV radiation damages the retina
and oxidative stress destroys the brain tissues of CJD
patients. This theory would expect to find higher CJD
incidence in mountain regions -where UV radiation levels are
elevated. That prediction holds true.
A similar but accelerated mechanism could
be driving BSE. ICI's Phosmet organophosphate warble fly
insecticide -applied on the backs of animals along the spinal
column, similarly degrades prions. "Systemic versions of the
insecticide are designed to make the entire cow carcass toxic
to warble fly," explains Purdey. "Unfortunately it's toxic to
prions too -especially those prions located just millimeters
from the point of application."
The damaged prions are then ready to react
with manganese in animal feed, or manganese sprayed on land or
in mineral licks -to become the driving force of BSE
neurodegeneration. Purdey says manganese-tipped prions set off
lethal chain reactions that neurologically burn through the
animal.
Chickens notoriously excrete most of the
supplements fed to them -including manganese. And their
manganese-rich excreta have been blended into cattle feed in
the UK. Natural variations in the relative environmental
availability of copper and manganese can also spur prion
degeneration says Purdey.
From this research, any prudent person
would conclude there is a significant risk attaching to the
use of organophosphate in humans. Preparations for head lice and scabies are known to be
overused in practice and might be priming users for CJ
disease.
Purdey believes his bias for field work is
the key to his success. He bemoans the "reductionism" of much
lab-centered science. "I have traveled the world to
investigate known clusters of spongiform disease -something
mainstream researchers don't seem remotely interested in
doing."
Since first postulating an environmental
-rather than infectious- theory of spongiform diseases, Purdey
has built evidence from around the world that explains and
predicts the incidence in humans and animals: a cluster of CJD
in Slovakia, Eastern Europe -around a manganese plant; Rocky
Mountain deer with Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD), who were
found to be eating pine needles rich in manganese; the futile
slaughter of sheep in Cyprus -only for BSE to reemerge within
years.
"The reappearance of BSE in Cyprus
obviously points to an environmental cause," says Purdey, who
is sanguine when reflecting on the condemnation of him by
mainstream scientists.
"I suppose they have mortgages and kids
who need to go to university," he muses. "Privately, some were
agreeing with me, but then they would denounce me publicly. It
was quite strange really."
The Money
Trail
Critical scientists like Purdey are
unlikely to prevail. The pharmaceutical industry holds most
research purse strings, and would hardly energetically explore
an avenue of research that could expose them to litigation for
causing BSE. The official theory is lavishly funded,
alternative theories rarely, if at all.
There are more explosive implications to
his -and other's latest research. Purdey says similar
organophosphate-induced protein deformation could also
underlie Alzheimer's disease. If that were true, the
litigation fallout would destroy some pharmaceutical giants,
and a lot of very influential noses would be out of
joint.
Disturbingly, Purdey and other brain
researchers seem to have had an undue share of unfortunate
accidents. Purdey's house was burned down and his lawyer who
was working with him on Mad Cow Disease was driven off the
road by another vehicle and subsequently died. The
veterinarian on the case also died in a car crash -locally
reported as: 'Mystery Vet Death Riddle.'
Dr. C. Bruton, a CJD specialist -- who had
just produced a paper on a new strain of CJD -- was killed in
a car crash before his work was announced to the public.
Purdey speculates that Bruton might have known more than what
was revealed in his last scientific paper.
In 1996, leading Alzheimer's researcher
Tsunao Saitoh, 46 and his 13 -year-old daughter were killed in
La Jolla, California, in what a Reuters report described as a
"very professionally done" shooting.
What Alzheimer's Disease, Mad Cow Disease,
and CJ Disease have in common, is abnormal brain proteins and
a putative link to organophosphates. Even Gulf War syndrome
among returning veterans has been attributed, in part to the
insecticide. But the sidelined scientists' suspicions are
still largely ignored.
In their favour at the moment, is a
growing unease on the part of the public. As BSE forges on and
Governments panic, Science may be out to lunch on BSE,
compromised by bovine spongythinking myopathy.
Do Not Use
Systemic Organophosphate Insecticides
Do NOT treat children with OP head lice
products - they may cause CJD and Alzheimer's
Do NOT treat your pets with OP anti-flea
products
Do NOT treat
cattle or animals with OP products - they may cause
BSE
Do NOT give
manganese to cattle previously dosed with a systemic
OP
The relative
availability of the metals copper and manganese in you local
environment is a major factor in BSE &
CJD
DR. MERCOLA'S COMMENT:
Fascinating information about the truly
horrible things that pesticides can do and the travesty of Mad
Cow Disease. Be sure to read the other article in this week's
newsletter on this topic, which is entitled "Animal
Pharm" and written by Mark Purdey himself, the originator
of this theory.
Related article
Suspected
Link Between Head Lice Treatments & Mad Cow Disease
From The Lancet Volume 353, Number 9162
- Posted April 24, 1999
