Mad Cow Disease

Mad Cow Disease Mad cow disease, also called Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD), is a fatal disease that slowly destroy What is mad cow disease, and does it infect people? Coma.

Mad cow disease is a fatal disease that slowly destroys the brain and spinal cord (central nervous system) in cattle. It also is known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE. People cannot get mad cow disease. But in rare cases they may get a human form of mad cow disease called variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD), which is fatal. This can happen if you eat nerve tissue (the brain and sp

inal cord) of cattle that were infected with mad cow disease. Over time, vCJD destroys the brain and spinal cord. There is no evidence that people can get mad cow disease or vCJD from eating muscle meat—which is used for ground beef, roasts, and steaks—or from consuming milk or milk products. People with vCJD cannot spread it to others through casual contact. People who have spent a lot of time (at least 3 months) in places where mad cow disease has been found are not allowed to give blood in Canada or the United States.footnote1, footnote2 This is to help prevent vCJD from spreading. What causes mad cow disease and variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD)? Experts are not sure what causes mad cow disease or vCJD. The leading theory is that the disease is caused by infectious proteins called prions (say "PREE-ons"). In affected cows, these proteins are found in the brain, spinal cord, and small intestine. There is no proof that prions are found in muscle meat (such as steak) or in milk. When a cow is slaughtered, parts of it are used for human food and other parts are used in animal feed. If an infected cow is slaughtered and its nerve tissue is used in cattle feed, other cows can become infected. People can get vCJD if they eat the brain or spinal cord tissue of infected cattle. How common are mad cow disease and vCJD? The first case of vCJD was reported in 1996. Since then, there have been a few cases of vCJD reported in the world. Most of the cases have been in countries that are part of the United Kingdom (England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland). Since May 2003, 19 cows suspected of having mad cow disease have tested positive for BSE in Canada. No meat from these cows entered the human food supply. For more information on BSE in Canada, contact the Canadian Food Inspection Agency or see the agency's website: www.inspection.gc.ca. What are the symptoms of vCJD? Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) causes the brain to become damaged over time. It is fatal. Symptoms include:

Tingling, burning, or prickling in the face, hands, feet, and legs. But there are much more common illnesses that cause these same symptoms. Having tingling in parts of your body does not mean you have vCJD. Dementia. Psychotic behaviour. Problems moving parts of the body. As the disease gets worse, a person is no longer able to walk. If a person does eat nerve tissue from an infected cow, he or she may not feel sick right away. The time it takes for symptoms to occur after you're exposed to the disease is not known for sure, but experts think it is years. How is vCJD diagnosed? There is no single test to diagnose vCJD. Doctors may think that a person has vCJD based on where the person has lived and the person's symptoms and past health. Imaging tests, such as an MRI, may be done to check for brain changes caused by vCJD. Researchers are now trying to develop a blood test that looks for vCJD. But no blood test is available at this time. A brain biopsy is the only way to confirm a diagnosis of vCJD. How is vCJD treated? There is no cure for vCJD. Treatment includes managing the symptoms that occur as the disease gets worse.

06/10/2022

Public health control measures, such as surveillance, culling sick animals, or banning specified risk materials, have been instituted in many countries, particularly in those with indigenous cases of confirmed BSE, in order to prevent potentially BSE-infected tissues from entering the human food supply.

What is the FDA Doing to Keep Your Food Safe?The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is doing many things to keep th...
06/10/2022

What is the FDA Doing to Keep Your Food Safe?
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is doing many things to keep the food in the U.S. safe for both people and cows. Since August 1997, the FDA has not allowed most parts from cows and certain other animals to be used to make food that is fed to cows. This protects healthy cows from getting BSE by making sure that the food they eat is not contaminated with the abnormal prion.
cows at feed trough
boxer eating from a pet dish
In April 2009, the FDA took additional steps to make sure the food in the U.S. stays safe. Certain high-risk cow parts are not allowed to be used to make any animal feed, including pet food. This prevents all animal feed from being accidentally contaminated with the abnormal prion. High-risk cow parts are those parts of the cow that have the highest chance of being infected with the abnormal prion, such as the brains and spinal cords from cows that are 30 months of age or older.
By keeping the food that is fed to cows safe, the FDA is protecting people by making sure that the food they eat comes from healthy cows.
meat
The FDA also works with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to keep cows in the U.S. healthy and free of BSE. The USDA prevents high-risk cows and cow products from entering the U.S. from other countries. The USDA also makes sure that high-risk cow parts, such as the brains and spinal cords, and cows that are unable to walk or that show other signs of disease are not used to make food for people.
The steps the FDA and USDA have taken to prevent cows in the U.S. from getting BSE are working very well. Only six cows with BSE have been found in the U.S. The first case was reported in 2003 and the most recent case was found in August 2018.
It is worth noting that there are two types of BSE, classical and atypical. Classical is caused by contaminated feed fed to cows. Atypical is rarer and happens spontaneously, usually in cows 8-years-old or older. Of the six U.S. cows found with BSE, five were atypical. The only case of classical BSE in the U.S. was the first one, in 2003, in a cow imported from Canada.

Can People Get BSE?People can get a version of BSE called variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD). As of 2019, 232 peo...
06/10/2022

Can People Get BSE?
People can get a version of BSE called variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD). As of 2019, 232 people worldwide are known to have become sick with vCJD, and unfortunately, they all have died. It is thought that they got the disease from eating food made from cows sick with BSE. Most of the people who have become sick with vCJD lived in the United Kingdom at some point in their lives. Only four lived in the U.S., and most likely, these four people became infected when they were living or traveling overseas.

Neither vCJD nor BSE is contagious. This means that it is not like catching a cold. A person (or a cow) cannot catch it from being near a sick person or cow. Also, research studies have shown that people cannot get BSE from drinking milk or eating dairy products, even if the milk came from a sick cow.

What are the Signs of BSE in Cows?A common sign of BSE in cows is incoordination. A sick cow has trouble walking and get...
06/10/2022

What are the Signs of BSE in Cows?
A common sign of BSE in cows is incoordination. A sick cow has trouble walking and getting up. A sick cow may also act very nervous or violent, which is why BSE is often called “mad cow disease.”
It usually takes four to six years from the time a cow is infected with the abnormal prion to when it first shows symptoms of BSE. This is called the incubation period. During the incubation period, there is no way to tell that a cow has BSE by looking at it. Once a cow starts to show symptoms, it gets sicker and sicker until it dies, usually within two weeks to six months. There is no treatment for BSE and no vaccine to prevent it.

Currently, there is no reliable way to test for BSE in a live cow. After a cow dies, scientists can tell if it had BSE by looking at its brain tissue under a microscope and seeing the spongy appearance. Scientists can also tell if a cow had BSE by using test kits that can detect the abnormal prion in the brain.

What Causes BSE?Most scientists think that BSE is caused by a protein called a prion. For reasons that are not complete...
06/10/2022

What Causes BSE?
Most scientists think that BSE is caused by a protein called a prion. For reasons that are not completely understood, the normal prion protein changes into an abnormal prion protein that is harmful. The body of a sick cow does not even know the abnormal prion is there. Without knowing it is there, the cow’s body cannot fight off the disease.

How Does a Cow Get BSE?baby calf lying downThe parts of a cow that are not eaten by people are cooked, dried, and ground...
06/10/2022

How Does a Cow Get BSE?
baby calf lying down
The parts of a cow that are not eaten by people are cooked, dried, and ground into a powder. The powder is then used for a variety of purposes, including as an ingredient in animal feed. A cow gets BSE by eating feed contaminated with parts that came from another cow that was sick with BSE. The contaminated feed contains the abnormal prion, and a cow becomes infected with the abnormal prion when it eats the feed. If a cow gets BSE, it most likely ate the contaminated feed during its first year of life. Remember, if a cow becomes infected with the abnormal prion when it is one-year-old, it usually will not show signs of BSE until it is five-years-old or older.

20/08/2022

Mad Cow Disease (Spongiform Encephalopathy or BSE)
Mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), is a disease that was first found in cattle. It's related to a disease in humans called variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD). Both disorders are universally fatal brain diseases caused by a prion. A prion is a protein particle that lacks DNA (nucleic acid). It's believed to be the cause of various infectious diseases of the nervous system. Eating infected cattle products, including beef, can cause a human to develop mad cow disease.
What is mad cow disease?
Mad cow disease is a progressive, fatal neurological disorder of cattle resulting from infection by a prion. It appears to be caused by contaminated cattle feed that contains the prion agent. Most mad cow disease has happened in cattle in the United Kingdom (U.K.), a few cases were found in cattle in the U.S. between 2003 and 2006. Feed regulations were then tightened.
In addition to the cases of mad cow reported in the U.K. (78% of all cases were reported there) and the U.S., cases have also been reported in other countries, including France, Spain, Netherlands, Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Saudi Arabia, and Canada. Public health control measures have been implemented in many of the countries to prevent potentially infected tissues from entering the human food chain. These preventative measures appear to have been effective.

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