Rat-arsed?

The European horse meat scandal pales into relative insignificance with a report from China where it is claimed that rogue meat traders have disguised meat from rats, foxes and mink as mutton (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/may/03/china-meat-offence-rat-mutton?INTCMP=SRCH). They apparently did this by using gelatin and colouring agents. This action, of course, has the same origins as the European scandal namely the ability to make big profits by avoiding any of the normal public safety controls associated with foods. Substitution of one species for another is clearly big business and takes some time to detect. One of the issues that people have not dwelt on to a great extent are the possibilities that the substitutions may well introduce viruses, bacteria and worm parasites into the the human populations that consume them. They may even play a role in generating new pandemic diseases as some of these agents change in their new hosts. And what about the possibility that warfarin could be added to the human diet in this way?