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Mad cow disease, formally known as Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE), is a fatal neurodegenerative disease in cattle caused by a prion.
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It's not contagious but can spread through contaminated feed, primarily by feeding cattle meat-and-bone meal containing the prion.
While it's rare, it can pose a public health concern due to its link to variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) in humans.
Here's a more detailed explanation:
What it is:
BSE is a progressive, fatal disease that affects the central nervous system of cattle.
It's characterized by the deterioration of brain tissue, leading to symptoms like incoordination, abnormal behavior, and difficulty walking.
How it spreads:
BSE is caused by a prion, which is a misfolded protein that can trigger a chain reaction, causing normal prion proteins to misfold as well.
Cattle are believed to become infected by consuming contaminated feed, often meat-and-bone meal containing prions from scrapie-infected sheep or BSE-affected cattle.
Symptoms in cattle:
Symptoms typically appear within a few years after infection and include changes in temperament, difficulty walking, incoordination, and weight loss.
Link to vCJD:
The human form of BSE is called variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD), which is also a fatal brain disease.
vCJD is linked to consuming beef from cattle infected with BSE.
Prevention and control:
Measures to prevent BSE in cattle include banning the use of animal protein in feed, and strict testing of cattle over a certain age intended for human consumption.
Global impact:
BSE outbreaks have been reported in several countries, with the UK experiencing a major outbreak in the 1980s and 1990s.
While BSE is now considered to be nearly eradicated, the CDC notes that the disease was first identified in cows in the United Kingdom in 1986.
Current status:
Four cases of BSE were reported globally in 2017, and the disease is considered to be nearly eradicated.
The World Organisation for Animal Health upgraded the U.S. status for BSE to negligible risk in 2013.
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Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), commonly known as mad cow disease, is an incurable and invariably fatal neurodegenerative disease of cattle.
People also ask
What triggers Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease?
Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) is caused by an abnormal infectious protein in the brain called a prion. Proteins are molecules made up of amino acids that help the cells in our body function. They begin as a string of amino acids that then fold themselves into a 3-dimensional shape.
Bovine spongiform encephalopathy
Disease
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Bovine spongiform encephalopathy, commonly known as mad cow disease, is an incurable and invariably fatal neurodegenerative disease of cattle. Symptoms include abnormal behavior, trouble walking, and weight loss. Later in the course of the... Wikipedia
Other names: Mad cow disease
May 10, 2024 · Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) is a fatal brain disease in cows that is caused by a prion. BSE caused a major outbreak in the ...
Jul 23, 2020 · BSE is a progressive neurologic disease of cows. Progressive means that it gets worse over time. Neurologic means that it damages a cow's central nervous ...
BSE is a fatal degenerative disease affecting the central nervous system of adult cattle. Pathologic changes are confined to the central nervous system and ...