Mad Cow Disease
About Mad Cow Disease
Mad cow disease. Making the headlines in recent years During a serious illness, it primarily affects cattle and
possibly other animals, such as goats and sheep. The medical name for mad cow disease BSE,
BSE or short.
BSE is a fatal incurable brain disease. It's called mad cow disease because it affects a cow's nervous system, causing
the animal to act strangely and lose control of their ability to ordinary things, how to do foot.
Only certain animals to BSE - people do not really get mad cow disease. However, experts have found a link between
BSE and a rare disease of the human brain called variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) is concerned. Researchers believe
that people who eat the products from cows that have BSE, are at risk of developing vCJD.
vCJD caused by a disturbance of the activity of the protein in the brain as a prion. When people have vCJD, cells die in the brain
until finally the brain has a "spongy" appearance. During this time, people with the disease gradually lose
Control of their mental and physical abilities.
To date, very few people have been diagnosed with the form of vCJD. By October 2009, only 217 cases of this rare
Condition had been reported worldwide. Most of them have been identified in the UK. Some of the people diagnosed with
the disease outside Britain - including two cases in the United States - a history of exposure in the UK.
Is it contagious?
Since the form of vCJD, the mad cow disease has been linked relatively new and extremely rare, experts are still
Learn about them. However, the researchers believe that the disease is not contagious among people - in other words,
can not get from someone else who has vCJD. There were a few cases of vCJD who have been probably
transmitted by blood transfusions. Currently, it seems that the main way people the disease by eating
contaminated meat.
Experts do not yet know exactly how long is the incubation period for CJD (in other words, how long does it take from the time
a person it takes place at the time that symptoms appear). However, they believe that it takes years, if not decades,
from the time someone gets the disease until the first symptoms occur. Once they do, the brain can deteriorate into a
Year. There is no known cure for the disease at this time.
What will you do about it
BSE does not naturally spread from cow to cow, it's probably by feeding cows animal meal to be transferred. However, the
U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) held a "feed" rule in 1997 prohibiting the feeding of most proteins
was fed to ruminant mammals (like cows, sheep, and goats) that what was thought to have started making the
BSE epidemic in the UK.
The type of protein that causes mad cow disease can not be removed or destroyed when cooked or processed beef. To
Therefore, the U.S. government has established several procedures to protect the public. One of these involves the removal of
Parts of the cow that are at the highest risk of BSE-causing proteins - to decrease - the brain and spinal cord
the chances of contamination of the meat people eat.
In 2009, the FDA has taken additional security measures to protect consumers against BSE. These prohibit the use of a
High risk cattle materials in the feed for each animal. In this way, goes the FDA, the already small decrease
Possibility of infection with BSE.
In addition, there is a system to be tested in the sample of animals. This is a way to prevent the contaminated meat
from reaching the shelves. The test system helped officials identify some contaminated meat in Washington State in
December 2003 - one of only three cases of mad cow disease found in the United States so far. The government also has a
recall policy in place for meat that is suspected of being contaminated.
If you are wondering if you are able to vCJD from cow's milk, the FDA says there is no evidence that the disease can
transmitted through milk and milk products. It is also very unlikely that a person is to contract CJD from
Consumption of beef.
vCJD itself is quite rare - there were only three people to die in the United States from the disease. And because
the control measures now in a position to the chance that you or someone in your family eating meat infected with BSE
extremely low.