Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy
BSE is also known as “mad cow” disease. The cattle become aggressive, ataxic, and eventually die.
Cattle acquire BSE (Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy) by eating feed supplement with organs, e.g. brains, obtained from sheep infected with scrapie prions.
It is also possible that BSE arose in cattle by a mutation in the gene encoding the prion protein.
BSE is endemic in Great Britain. Supplementation of feed with sheep organs was banned in Great Britain in 1988 and thousands of cattle were destroyed, two measures that have led to a marked decline in the number of new cases of BSE.
BSE has been found on cattle in other European countries such France, Germany, Italy and Spain and there is significant concern in those countries that variant CJD (Creutzfeldt Jakob disease) may emerge in the humans.
In 1996, several cases of CJD (Creutzfeldt Jakob disease) occurred in Great Britain that are attributed to the ingestion of beef.
These cases are a new variant of CJD (vCJD) also called nvCJD, because they occurred in much younger people than usual and had certain clinical and pathological findings difference from those found in the typical form of the disease.
None of those affected had consumed cattle or sheep brains, but brain material may have been admixed into processed meats such as sausages.
Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy
