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Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), commonly known as mad cow disease, is an incurable and invariably fatal neurodegenerative disease of cattle. [2] Symptoms include abnormal behavior, trouble walking, and weight loss. [1] Later in the course of the disease, the cow becomes unable to function normally. [1]
TSEs in non-human mammals include scrapie in sheep, bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in cattle – popularly known as "mad cow disease" – and chronic wasting disease (CWD) in deer and elk. The variant form of Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease in humans is caused by exposure to bovine spongiform encephalopathy prions. [4] [5] [6]
The United Kingdom was afflicted with an outbreak of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE, also known as "mad cow disease"), and its human equivalent variant Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease (vCJD), in the 1980s and 1990s. Over four million head of cattle were slaughtered in an effort to contain the outbreak, and 178 people died after contracting ...
Cow infected with BSE. The mad cow crisis is a health and socio-economic crisis characterized by the collapse of beef consumption in the 1990s, as consumers became concerned about the transmission of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) to humans through the ingestion of this type of meat.
CJD is a type of transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE), which are caused by prions. [8] Prions are misfolded proteins that occur in the neurons of the central nervous system (CNS). They are thought to affect signaling processes, damaging neurons and resulting in degeneration that causes the spongiform appearance in the affected brain. [19]
John Mark Purdey (25 December 1953 – 12 November 2006) was an English organic farmer who came to public attention in the 1980s, when he began to circulate his own theories regarding the causes of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE or "mad cow disease").
Transmissible spongiform encephalopathy: A collection of diseases all caused by prions, and characterized by "spongy" brain tissue (riddled with holes), impaired locomotion or coordination, and a 100% mortality rate. Includes bovine spongiform encephalopathy (mad cow disease), scrapie, and kuru among others.
Chronic wasting disease (CWD), sometimes called zombie deer disease, is a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE) affecting deer.TSEs are a family of diseases thought to be caused by misfolded proteins called prions and include similar diseases such as BSE (mad cow disease) in cattle, Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease (CJD) in humans, and scrapie in sheep. [2]