Mad cow disease is an illness due to progressive neurological disorder. It is also known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy or BSE and is caused by is caused by an infectious transmissible agent termed a prion.
Mad cow disease also known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), is a slowly progressive, degenerative, transmissible, and fatal disease affecting the central nervous system of adult cattle. A recent study showed that ‘The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)’ has tested hundreds of thousands of cattle for BSE. According to our research, researchers believe that the infectious agent that causes mad cow disease is an abnormal version of a protein normally found on cell surfaces known as prion. This protein becomes altered and destroys nervous system tissue — the brain and spinal cord.
A cow with BSE develops these problems because it has developed an infection and this infection causes its brain to waste away and become spongy. According to our research it is not completely sure how cows get this kind of infection, but researchers believe it comes from certain kinds of food given to cows. This food contains the remains of dead cows that had the infection and these remains may contain BSE.
Our extensive research as www.newspsychology.com shows that if a person eats meat from a BSE-infected cow, then that person is at risk for getting a human form of the disease that is called variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. It’s a very serious disease that affects the brain. However, this disease is very rare in the United States. According to our research only three people in the United States have ever gotten it. It is not contagious that means a person can’t catch it from someone who has it.