• TranscendentalEmpire@lemmy.todayEnglish
      4·
      8 days ago

      The hope with burial is that they followed proper procedure and prepped the bodies before burying them. You’re supposed to stuff any orifices with sterilizing and absorbent cloth so the bacteria doesn’t gain exposure to oxygen.

      Anthrax in its vegetative state lacks the protective spore that makes it hardy and resistant to sterilization or natural breakdown. Without the protective spore it’s susceptible to environmental factors and will die out like any other bacteria.

      • MalReynolds@slrpnk.netEnglish
        1·
        8 days ago

        There’s some sense in that, but it sounds like cheaping out to me, kill it with fire. Unless, of course, you’re in a situation where you can’t, then do what you can I suppose.

        • TranscendentalEmpire@lemmy.todayEnglish
          3·
          8 days ago

          Burn pit is probably the easier option in most scenarios. In most cases it’s a lot easier to dig a hole deep enough to bury the ashes of a bunch of cows than to have to prep the bodies of all the cows, bury them under 6 ft of soil, and then sanitize the soil around it.

          I imagine the only time you wouldn’t go with the burn pit is if it’s too windy, or in a location where you’d be worried about starting a wild fire on top of a biohazard.

    • khannie@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      8 days ago

      When the mad cows disease was in the UK they were burned. Feels like that was about 25 years ago.

      • bedwyr@piefed.caEnglish
        2·
        8 days ago

        I wouldn’t be surprised if those prions even all die in fire, they are otherwise indestructable. That chronic wasting disease is scary, and spreading.

        • OwOarchist@pawb.socialEnglish
          2·
          8 days ago

          I wouldn’t be surprised if those prions even all die in fire, they are otherwise indestructable.

          Prions are mis-folded proteins.

          All proteins will be denatured at high enough temperatures. When a protein is ‘denatured’ it just means that it breaks apart into its fundamental building blocks – into amino acids or just into much smaller chunks of protein. And a protein can’t be mis-folded if it isn’t folded at all anymore.

          As long as you get the temperature high enough, all prions will be completely destroyed and rendered safe. Hell, if you get the temperature high enough, you’ll even separate the amino acid molecules into their component atoms, especially tearing the carbon atoms out of them to create carbon dioxide as the ‘fuel’ oxidizes.

          If the people disposing of those bodies knew what they were dealing with, I’m sure they took great care to ensure the temperatures were plenty high. I wouldn’t worry about it. Prions are scary because they’re not ‘alive’, even in the sense viruses are. They’re smaller and more resilient than any virus and have no metabolism to feed, so they can theoretically last indefinitely. But high temperatures are an effective way to permanently destroy them.