On: Doctors investigate mystery brain disease in Canad...

[colechristensen]

If you took affected neural tissue and burned it to ash on a wood fire, there remains (although low) infective potential but probably only if you were trying in a lab. It takes 1000 C incineration to defeat infectivity and even then they’re still detectable.

Composting so the proteins are broken down biologically is also an alternative.

No amount of cooking prions that leave anything you want to eat makes infected material safe.

[giantg2 → colechristensen]

Agree that cooking is not an option.

You can actually get that 1000C down to 600C if you also soak the tissue in acid prior to burning.

[FredPret → giantg2]

That pretty much describes how I cook my steaks, a nice H2SO4 marinade followed by ten minutes in a bonfire

[shoemakersteve → FredPret]

As long as you don't put ketchup on it.

[robbiep → colechristensen]

I’m not so sure about the composting - the breakdown of organic material (well, protein in this case) in soils is largely brought about by proteases and proteases are largely ineffective

[jonnycomputer → colechristensen]

I thought 200C for an hour was enough.