Anyone ever "pick" Dennis's brain? I did https://www.livescience.com/63831-squirrel-brains-rare-disorder-creutzfeldt-jakob-disease.html
There are several spongiform encephalopathies that affect a variety of animals...chronic wasting disease in deer, scrapie in sheep, BSE/“mad cow”, CJD/Kuru/et al in people... it’s generally not a good idea to eat brains, even if zoonotic transmission is rare/not well defined or understood. CJD is scary as hell...have seen 2 cases, both undiagnosed and previously suspected to be Alzheimer’s until we looked at the brain at autopsy...the infective particles (prions) are extremely hardy and not killed/deactivated with routine sterilization or cleaning techniques (nitric acid is needed) so ingesting them wouldn’t be advised [hence the scare with UK beef several years ago]...though usually it’s something that takes years if not decades to manifest. ..can’t speak for Dennis