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MAD COW DISEASE
What it means, how it is caused, the misconceptions, and its terrible effects
WHAT IS THIS THING?
• By its definition, mad cow disease, which is known to doctors, scientists,
and other health professionals as bovine spongiform encephalopathy
(BSE), is a transmissible, slowly progressive, degenerative, and fatal
disease affecting the central nervous system of adult cattle. (Hence
the name)
• To most others, mad cow disease is characterized by
the formation of vacuoles (holes) in the animal's brain,
giving the brain a "spongy” appearance. As the disease
progresses, the animal tremors, displays abnormal and
sometimes aggressive behaviors, and then begins to
lose muscle control eventually leading to death.
HOW IT’S CAUSED
• Researchers believe that the infectious agent that causes
mad cow disease is an abnormal version of a protein that is
normally found on cell surfaces called a “prion.”
• For reasons that are still unknown, this protein becomes
altered and progressively destroys nervous system tissue
such as the brain and spinal cord.
To the direct right
Contagious prion
proteins in the brain
multiply. (fuzzy
purple blobs in this
micrograph) that
causes the BSE
disease.
MISCONCEPTIONS
• There are a lot of misconceptions about mad cow disease, such as if it attacks
humans, can lead to cannibalism, that it is spreadable simply by touching a
cow with BSE, and even that mad cow disease, because it is incurable,
cannot be stopped from infecting us all.
• Although a lot of these myths were idealized during older
times, with no medical theories, these three are still
commonly believed today. First off, although the disease
attacks the mind, it would never create an acute need for
the consumption of human flesh. Next, being that BSE goes
on with macromolecules, contained in the body, touching
an infected animal would never lead to an infection of the
disease. Finally, although BSE is so far incurable, like HIV,
there are still ways to prevent contraction, such as wiping
out the animals infected, or sanitizing utilities where these
potentially infected animals could roam.
THE EFFECTS
• The symptoms that BSE causes include loss of memory,
unpredictable emotion, such as unexpected outbursts of
mooing or groaning, severe and rapidly progressive
dementia, excitable, anxious, and sometimes nervous
reactions to external stimuli such as the touch of another
animal, progressive unsteadiness of body and limb control,
and the eventual inability to get up and move about. The
disease so far has been 100% fatal.
SOURCES
• http://www.webmd.com/brain/mad-cow-disease-basics
• http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvrd/bse/
• http://www.emedicinehealth.com/mad_cow_disease_and_variant_creutzfel
dt-jakob/article_em.htm
• http://www.fda.gov/AnimalVeterinary/ResourcesforYou/AnimalHealthLiterac
y/ucm136222.htm