The Pathological Protein: Mad Cow, Chronic Wasting, and Other Deadly Prion Diseases

by Philip Yam

Prions are an entirely new class of pathogens, and scientists are just beginning to understand them. Although they have plagued humans and animals for 3 centuries, only in the last 2 decades have researchers linked them to diseases like Mad Cow. This book tells the strange story of their discovery, and the medical controversies that swirl around them. The author, Philip Yam, is a well-respected and connected journalist who is now an editor at Scientific American.

Genres: Science, Nonfiction, Biology, Medicine

304 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2003

Reviews

[Samichtime · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oddly enough this book did not calm me down! ☣️🙀
There’s an old adage “don’t worry about things that are out of your control”. It’s an interesting philosophy and I think the author does a good job at providing fixable problems in our society that put us at higher risk of, to put it bluntly, total devastation.
1. Capitalism’s inherent mandate to increase productivity extends the reach and scope of potential outbreaks. From gelatin capsules to sutures, animal products (beef specifically) find their way into a wide range of industries with varying levels of oversight. Food is highly regulated, medicine is very highly regulated, but the “wellness industry” is deregulated & anything goes in the name of “traditional medicine”. The scrap & problematic cuts of meat in terms of prion risk get used in these blends, including the cow brain.
2. Many industries including the beef industry fund studies on themselves, only ever coming to conclusions that help their company. This leaves a scientific blindspot as the only major sources of prion research are privately funded.

It pains me to say this as a cat owner, but the future looks like a dog future. By all accounts canines are immune to prions and this growing epidemic could spell the resurgence of endangered wolf species, snacking on sick caribou and thereby strengthening the herd. I won’t comment on dogs being man’s best friend, perhaps it’s the other way around!

The target audience of this book is clearly academics, being available on Springer and its 100+ page bibliography. The language is clear, funny at times, but I feel like it buried the lead for the first 120 pages by not addressing the elephant in the room: the risk factor. From a storytelling perspective I was on the edge of my seat, but at times I felt that level of tension was irresponsible. Prion related legislation grew following the September 11th terrorist attacks so I can understand the relevance this book must’ve had when it released, but now, especially in the age of crispr & Covid, I think it could really benefit from a second edition! (textbook companies foam at the mouth when you say this 😹)

[Selin Tuzlan-Mead · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was really interested in the topic and I really enjoyed the book up until when the author almost tried to protect Gajdusek by never mentioning the fact that he sexually abused more than fifty children under his care. Gajdusek literally adopted kids from various Polynesian islands and brought them over to the US to simply subject them to systematic sexual abuse. What he did was very hand in hand with his research as he chose his victims from those populations he was looking into while investigating kuru.

[Annie · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars. Rounded up because I was feeling generous and I'm interested in the subject. (Goodreads really does need a half star rating system though.) A good book, if perhaps a little dated. It's what, ten years old now? Some of this was new to me, some wasn't (Feline TSE, I found interesting in particular), but it was a nice read all the same.

A minor speedbump I encountered during the course of this book: when the writer mentioned the scientist Gajdusek being "obsessed with children" I got this funny, sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. Only heard of him in passing, so I decided to turn to Google. Yup, pedophile. Yuck. Nice of Yam to politely refer to Gajdusek's trial and imprisonment for being a child predator as "legal troubles." Cute. Double yuck.

[Infiniteknot · Rating 5 out of 5]

this book was excellent. I loved learning about CJD and how the US coped (rather didn't cope) with mad cow disease, the horrible response to mad cow disease in the UK and US, and the transmission of CJD. This book covered transmission of CJD via surgical instruments during brain surgery and I recall this happened recently (after publication of this book). This is a complete screw up since they knew that would happen. I'd like to read a more recent publication on prion disease.

[Greg · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was really interesting, though as it is now several years old, I was left wondering what progress has been made and if the gaps in the prion theory described had been filled

[Michelle Nieuw · Rating 1 out of 5]

unfortunately DNF. i was so excited to read this one because prions are so interesting and utterly terrifying, but this book reads like a textbook. i found it informative, but i was looking more for a book that had more real life stories of people who suffered from prions, not necessarily how they discovered prions.

[Wesley · Rating 4 out of 5]

fascinating and pretty good narrative flow for nonfiction. one star off for sweeping the Gajdusek atrocities under the rug.

[Alexis · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Pathological Protein: Mad Cow, Chronic Wasting, and Other Deadly Prion Diseases by Philip Yam (2003)

[Barbc]

12