Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE)

 

Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE)

Spongiform encephalopathies (SEs) are degenerative disorders of the brain that occur in a number of species. They are recognized by the clinical appearance of the affected animal and the characteristic histological changes they produce in the brain.  One of the common Spongiform encephalopathy is Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE),which mainly affect cattle. Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE), widely referred to as “mad cow disease,” is a progressive and fatal neurologic disease of cattle. It is caused by an unconventional transmissible agent, an abnormal prion protein. "Bovine" means that the disease affects cows, "spongiform" refers to the way the brain from a sick cow looks spongy under a microscope, and "encephalopathy" indicates that it is a disease of the brain. The infection spreads to cattle by the practice of feeding them abattoir waste and offal which may have contained scrapie infected meat.  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.”    Incubation period is usually four to six years .  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.  A cow becomes infected with  contaminated feed  that contains  abnormal prion. People can get a version of BSE called variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD). 

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