Reply #23: Actually its NOT genetically linked

[TZ]

There is an awful lot about prions (which cause Mad Cow and Creutsfeld-Jacobs disease) that we don't understand. They behave a little like viri but are NOT viri. They are proteins that don't have the viral capsid. There is an AWFUL lot of research in this area because biologists don't understand it that well. Oh and because Creutsfeld-Jacobs disease has about a 20-30 incubation span we really don't know how prevalent it is yet. However there are DIRECT links to natives of Papua/New Guinea getting this disease on a fairly frequent basis because they ate the brains of their dead as a ritual.

To the OP, is NIH just a propaganda scare machine..THey take it VERY seriously:
http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/tse/tse.htm