Alternative Thinking Through Consumption

As Susan Lindquist noted the history of Mad Cow Disease in her video, my mind has wandered to the social occurrences which accompany diseases and plagues that have wiped out many peoples throughout history.  As I further questioned the origination and spread of this disease, I discovered that the disease initiated in the Sheep equivalent of the Prion Disease.  This was then passed to Cows as the Cows fed on the Sheep-meal, and ultimately to humans in the UK.  I do of course question whether or not this would have occurred in humans if we were a vegetarian society, or had let those cows die out before consuming meat again.  Of course, this caution would have taken much greater knowledge at the time, but I can’t help but to be curious if we have escaped other diseases by simply not consuming such plants or animals that have been effected.  Additionally, this statement can be spun the opposite way, in such reasoning that perhaps the consumption of some protein would have the capabilities to combat the Prion Disease.