"Dr. Evil" wrote:
I would not count on the 18th century cowpox/smallpox coupling to be valid today - viruses evolve, and that's not counting deliberate manipulations intended to produce more virulent strains.
I was thinking about this some more, and I wonder if cowpox still exists in the wild. I know that all livestock in developed countries receive certain vaccinations, and it would be logical for cowpox/smallpox to be one of them.
That's not true -- where the heck did you ever get the idea that "all livestock in developed countries receive certain vaccinations"??? I had livestock for years and never vaccinated them for anything, and I've know a lot of farmers who didn't either. We used to run a dog team, sometimes had 14-15 dogs which didn't even get rabies shots. Besides all the non-vaccinated domestic livestock, what about all the wild animals that could carry cowpox. Even cats and rats can carry it. http://www.stanford.edu/~jaguayo/cowpox_virus.html -- Harmon Seaver, MLIS CyberShamanix Work 920-203-9633 Home 920-233-5820 hseaver@cybershamanix.com http://www.cybershamanix.com/resume.html