It is thought that humans can contract the disease by consuming material from animals infected with the bovine form of the disease. The only suspected cases to arise thus far have been vCJD, although there are fears — based on animal studies — that consuming beef or beef products containing prion particles can also cause the development of classic CJD.
Cannibalism has also been implicated as a transmission mechanism for abnormal prions, causing the disease known as kuru, found primarily among women and children of the Fore tribe in Papua New Guinea. While the men of the tribe ate the body of the deceased and were not affected, the women and children ate the brain and contracted the disease from infected brain tissue. —Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease
