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NEW YORK – A 61-year-old who experienced a severe cognitive decline before his death may have squirrel brains to blame.
A new report on the 2015 death in Rochester, New York, finds that he may have suffered from variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD), a rare brain condition you've heard of "mad cow disease."
That 's what it' s called when it 's targetted to consume contaminated beef, but in this case, doctors suspect a different culprit.
The man was a hunter, and it was reported that he had eaten squirrel brains, though it was not clear whether he was an entire brain or just squirrel meat contaminated with brains. He was brought to the hospital after losing touch with reality and losing consciousness, LiveScience reports. An MRI found that his brain scan looked similar to those seen in vCJD sufferers.
Dr. Tara Chen, a medical resident at Rochester Regional Health, left the case while writing a report on suspected cases of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease at the hospital over the past five years; she presented her findings this month.
There are three forms of CJD, and one form (which includes vCJD) is caused by exposure to an infected brain or nervous system. Infectious proteins, called prions, fold abnormally and cause lesions in the brain; there is no treatment or cure.
Only a few hundred cases of vCJD have been reported, most of them in the UK; just four cases have been confirmed in the US. So far, the hunter 's death is only considered a "probable" case of vCJD. It can only be confirmed after death, and doctors are waiting for medical records to be able to confirm the diagnosis.
(There have been alarming findings related to CJD in humans and a possible connection to deer.)
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