What is mad cow disease?


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Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy, or BSE, is a chronic, degenerative disease affecting the central nervous system of cattle. It has no cure or treatment.

The disease was first discovered in 1986 in the United Kingdom, where more than 95 percent of all BSE cases have occurred.

Outside Europe, Japan discovered its first case in September 2001, followed by Canada in May 2003 and Mabton in December 2003.

In 1996, UK scientists announced a suspected link between BSE in cattle and variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD) in humans. As of May 28, 2006, 155 deaths attributed to vCJD had been reported in the United Kingdom.

About 10 cases of vCJD have been found in other countries, of which six were linked to exposure in the United Kingdom. Many scientists suspect humans contract vCJD by ingesting brain, spinal cord or other infected tissues from BSE-infected cattle.

BSE is transmitted maternally and through feed containing meat scraps from other cows. There's no evidence that BSE is contagious. It's not known to spread through contact between cattle within a herd or from cattle to other species by contact.


-- Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture



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