Thus far, only about 160 people, mostly in Britain, have died of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, which humans get from cows that had bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease.
Worldwide, only 176 people have died of confirmed or probable vCJD (variant Creutzfeldt-Jakobs Disease, the human version of BSE) since it was first identified as an emergent public health issue in the early 1990s.
Very few; the epidemic peaked in the early 2000s and is now down to less than a dozen people around the world every year, with the number of cases dropping.
This is due primarily to the banning of feeding ruminant protein back to ruminants - the transmission of the infectious prion has been effectively interrupted. Also, every country that was affected by the BSE outbreak has put restrictions in place regarding the removal of certain tissues from edible beef.
Thus far, only about 160 people, mostly in Britain, have died of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, which humans get from cows that had bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease.
Currently only 176 people have died of confirmed or probable vCJD. This number is not likely to rise, as there are no people currently alive diagnosed with active vCJD.
The exact number is not really known.
Very few.
People do not get Mad Cow Disease. No human can get mad cow disease but humans can be infected by eating meat from a contaminated cow that has mad cow disease. The disease in people that has been associated with humans is called variant Creutzfeldt Jakob disease (vCJD) that is also a progressive fatal neurological disease.
december of 1994
There is no such thing as "cow disease" unless you are referring to MAD cow disease, which is something else entirely.
At one time, cattle were fed the unwanted parts of ground up sheep. Some of those cows became infected with mad cow disease. Mad cow disease spread to humans. Cattle were also fed parts of ground up cow parts, cows eating ground up cattle were infected with that disease. The breakthrough came in New Guinea. There, women and children would eat the brains of dead people. Men would not. Women and children would catch a disease similar to mad cow disease. Men would not. That made it obvious that the disease came from something common to women and children and not to men. Since they behaved the same as nearby groups except for eating the brains of dead people, that had to be the difference. The only difference in the brains of the dead people with mad cow disease and those without mad cow disease was the prions. This was then tested in England where mad cow disease was common. The only difference between cows with mad cow disease and those without mad cow disease were the same prions. The people with mad cow disease had the same prions in their brains.
It's not sad cow disease, it's MAD cow disease. Its a brain disease that can cause irrational behavior in cows.
Mad Cow is not a virus or bacterial infection like a cold or flu is that comes about as a seasonal thing. It is caused by a prion, and the chances that humans will contract Mad Cow is extremely low; there is no season that people can "start getting" Mad Cow disease.
The people who raise cattle, of course.
We are aware of mad cow disease
At this point, only one cow is known to be affected by Mad Cow Disease in the latest case (which was in April of 2012). The other cows from the same herd as the one known to be affected will be tested for the disease as well.
A cow that died at a dairy farm in California was randomly chosen to be tested by the USDA. After being tested, it was discovered that though the animal was asymptomatic (i.e. it showed no signs of the disease), it had BSE (also known as Mad Cow Disease). For more information, see the related link.
Nobody really knows.
Typically a cow with Johne's Disease (which is a disease where a cow has chronic diarrhea) is considered safe to be slaughtered for food.