Some good posts indeed...

I recall hearing about a law that made it illegal to feed animals of a same species to each other. To get around this, farmers then would feed say pigs to cows then cows to pigs, and therefore the risk is reduced, but still present.

However wild animals can still eat just about anything they want...

John-

I believe it was a tribe of natives on Papa New Guinea that were eating their dead relatives. I have seen several documentaries on such tribes and to this day they are still thousands of years behind us, but thats their way of life. Anyways I believe once this was pointed out to them, the cannibalism stopped primarily.

What do you think the risk of a male lion eating cubs? I assume the risk is there also, but I have no knowledge of this type of disease in lions. But it could happen, no?