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Foreign Body

Forensic Files

Run Time: 23 mins

Air Date: Thu, 22 Oct 1998

Average Rating: ⭐ 0 (0 votes)

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Season 3 - Episode 4

Foreign Body

Average Rating: ⭐ 0 (0)

Between 1986 and 1989, a disease swept through British cattle herds, which came to be known as Mad Cow disease. Scientists began to suspect that this was somehow related to some human illness. A California neurologist said both humans and animals were suffering from a mutated prion. When defective prions are transmitted from an infected host to a new host, they convert any normal prions they come across into copies of themselves so it is possible for a mutated prion to be transmitted from a cow to a person by eating beef. Dr. Stanley B. Prusiner received a Nobel prize for his work with prion.

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