Mad-Cow-Facts.com offers info & resources on bovine spongiform encephalopathy
Title
Mad Cow Disease - Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy: BSE Facts
Description
Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) is the scientific term for a disease which affects the brains of cattle. Soon after BSE was first discovered in the United Kingdom, it became more commonly known as "mad cow disease," most likely because of the emotional response it generated with the public. Unlike most livestock diseases, BSE is not caused by a bacterial or viral infection, but rather is the result of infectious prions. These are unique proteins that may bond with a cow's brain cells, altering their composition and ultimately leading to the animal's death. Mad cow disease is believed to be transferred to cattle when they eat these infectious proteins, yet science has shown the disease can only affect those cows that are genetically susceptible.
A similar disease, scrapie, has affected sheep in the United Kingdom since at least the mid- 18th century. Scientists believe that through centuries of close contact in rural England, the disease managed to transfer to cattle, where it was first identified in 1985. In the years that followed, more than 180,000 cows became infected in the U.K. The British practice of processing central nervous tissue into animal feed allowed the prions to spread rapidly through their herds. As the British exported feed and live animals to various regions of the world, cases of BSE began to appear in other countries.
In 1997 the United States banned materials that can possibly contain prions from cattle feed, while also eliminating these specified risk materials from the human food supply. This firewall feed ban, in place now for nearly seven years, ensures that BSE cannot spread through American herds the way it did in Europe, where such a feed ban did not occur until after mad cow disease had reached epidemic proportions.
