Mad Cow Disease: Know the Risks

Mad Cow Disease: Know the Risks

Years after it was supposedly vanquished, the brain-eating disease that kills cows and some people who eat them is on a comeback. Today, the mad cow disease or bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) is again breaking headlines and is stirring a lot of havoc and public fear all around the globe. Here are some of the most frequently asked questions and answers regarding BSE.

Q. What exactly is BSE?
A. BSE or mad cow disease is one of the several fatal brain diseases called transmisshible sponfigorm encephalopathies (TSEs). BSE is a progressive lethal central nervous system disease of cattle. The brain looks like a sponge hence the term spongiform because the brain contains vacuoles. In 1982, Stanley Prusiner, a biochemist at the University of California suggested a radical idea- that various encephalopathies were caused by a rouge protein- a prion.

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