In response to the concern about hide glue and "mad cow" disease (BSE), I decided to do a little research. American rendering plants use solvent-based extraction processes, and hide glue is made by additionally cooking the connective tissues, horn, hooves, and of course hide for long times at relatively high heat. This combination is particularly effective against the prions that cause BSE-type diseases in humans. British processing plants stopped using solvent-based extraction methods during the 1990s, leading to several deaths among gardeners who handled bone meal from infected animals. The other, later deaths appear to have been due to eating meat from infected animals. See http://cac.uvi.edu/staff/rc3/garden/madcow.html for more information. I also ran across this very lucid article on the virtues of hide glue v PVA glue and thought it might be useful to others, as well -- http://www.inthewoodshop.org/2005/hideglue.shtml Annie Grieshop (who has gone through severe metal poisoning and takes these things pretty seriously -- but also believes in verifying....)
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