Beef farming isn’t all gravy: producer (The Sault Star) TARBUTT — The future for Algoma District beef farmers continues to deteriorate. And if things don't start picking up soon, smaller Ontario beef farmers fear they will go the way of the dinosaur, says a local producer.[...] [News Source]

Beef farming isn’t all gravy: producer (The Sault Star) TARBUTT — The future for Algoma District beef farmers continues to deteriorate. And if things don't start picking up soon, smaller Ontario beef farmers fear they will go the way of the dinosaur, says a local producer.[...] [News Source]

Prions show evolution without DNA: study (CBC.ca) Infectious proteins that cause brain-wasting diseases such as BSE can evolve, even though they contain no genetic information, researchers say. [News Source]

Prions show evolution without DNA: study (CBC via Yahoo! Canada News) Infectious proteins that cause brain-wasting diseases such as BSE can evolve, even though they contain no genetic information, researchers say. [News Source]

Brief: Prions evolve without the benefit of DNA (Ars Technica) Prions, which cause diseases such as Creutzfeldt-Jakob and BSE (commonly called mad cow), are pretty scary stuff. They don't have any genetic material; instead, they're made from a protein that's normally produced by the brain. Like something out of science fiction, they adopt a distinct conformation, and then induce all the other proteins around them to adopt the same structure, gradually ... [News Source]

Testing for Chronic Wasting Disease in Early Stages (Kansas City InfoZine) Several presumptive positives detected, CWD possibly found in new counties [News Source]

‘Lifeless’ Prions Capable Of Evolutionary Change And Adaptation Shown By Scripps Florida Scientists (Medical News Today) Scientists from The Scripps Research Institute have determined for the first time that prions, bits of infectious protein devoid of DNA or RNA that can cause fatal neurodegenerative disease, are capable of Darwinian evolution. The study from Scripps Florida in Jupiter shows that prions can develop large numbers of mutations at the protein level and, through natural selection, these mutations can ... [News Source]

Research may point to more effective therapeutic targets for prion diseases (News-Medical-Net) Scientists from The Scripps Research Institute have determined for the first time that prions, bits of infectious protein devoid of DNA or RNA that can cause fatal neurodegenerative disease, are capable of Darwinian evolution. [News Source]