As if the animal rights backlash wasn’t enough.
Here we report that commercially available duck- or goose-derived foie gras contains [plaque precursors] composed of serum amyloid A-related protein that acted as a potent [amyloid enhancing factor] in a transgenic murine model of secondary (amyloid A protein) amyloidosis. When such mice were injected with or fed amyloid extracted from foie gras, the animals developed extensive systemic pathological deposits. These experimental data provide evidence that an amyloid-containing food product hastened the development of amyloid protein A amyloidosis in a susceptible population.
Amyloid A plaques are a hallmark of rheumatoid arthritis and other types of chronic inflammation. While we already know that brain-wasting prion diseases can be transmitted from animal to animal like an infectious agent, this is the first time someone has shown that other forms of protein plaque disease can be passed on the same way.
However time: to my knowledge nobody has connected foie gras and arthritis in an epidemiological study. More of a concern for me is that prions and amyloid diseases critically turn on small details of protein folding, which means that any small change in the amyloid precursors during the extraction process could have pushed the protein used in this study towards becoming more pathogenic.
As with all such studies, treat as interesting but (1) needs to be repeated, and (2) needs to be backed up with epidemiology.
BIRDZILLA
Screw PETA and tell them to take ahike and the same to CHICAGO why dont we just feed those PETA jerks to the carniverous geese and ducks
The Other Steve
BIRDZILLA – Where is your compassion? Don’t you care about God’s beloved creatures?
Mr Furious
Not that I was ever going to eat foie gras anyway, but just glancing at the words in that blockquote more or less cinched it…
Bubblegum Tate
Let’s not forget the biggest reason to not eat foie gras: It’s fucking disgusting.
AliceandBob
Right on, BIRDZILLA. Damn Peter Cetera to hell!
Comrade Mattski
Actually I friggin love foie gras. Hands down it is my favortite thing to eat in the world. yep there’s a big fat guy waiting to get out of my skinny body.
James F. Elliott
The real travesty of foie gras is that it tastes like crap.
James F. Elliott
The real travesty of foie gras is that it tastes like crap.
The Other Steve
Considering I like neither goose, nor duck meat… I can understand that foie gras would probably taste like crap.
Krista
Mmmm…serum amyloid A-related protein…(drool).
AliceandBob
Oh, and because I’m the only 12-year-old in the room,
heheh “PNAS.”
grumpy realist
Considering how much they probably shot into the mice, it was probably the equivalent of chowing down on 10 lbs of fois gras each meal.
I think eating a 4oz tin once or twice a year isn’t going to cause as NEARLY the amount of problems.
“Moderation in everything”–Epicetus
Tlaloc
I love karma.
Seth Aragorn
Hey guys. The stuff in a can is awful. But fresh? It’s great. Better than chicken livers. Chill out.