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Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE, the scientific name for mad cow disease) is caused by a misfolded protein called a prion. The outbreak of BSE in the late 1980s and early 1990s was caused by the feeding of rendered cattle carcasses back to cattle as a feed supplement. It was thought at the time that the rendering process (which cooks tissues to a high temperature) would destroy any pathogens; unfortunately heat does not degrade the infectious prion. When cattle with the prion died and were sent to rendering, the animal feed made from their carcass also had the prion and the disease spread rapidly through the cattle herd in England.
Since at least 1995, this practice has been strictly banned in the United States; Canada instituted the ban around this time as well but found some producers had stockpiled reserves to Dodge the ban. Canada's rendered feed ban was considered effective starting in 1999. Europe, including England, also instituted this feed ban in the 1990s, and the cases of infectious BSE have dropped dramatically since. In 2011 there were only 29 cases of BSE in the entire world, and most of these were atypical (non-infectious) BSE.
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∙ 11y ago
Wiki User
∙ 10y agoMad cow disease ( bovine spongiform encephalitis, BSE) may hve been with us since the time of the ancient Greeks. It it caused by the miscoding of amino acid sequences resulting in a prion ( an infectious agent made of protein) that causes body proteins to fold incorrrectly.
Wiki User
∙ 11y agoYes, bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE, the scientific name for mad cow disease) was in Europe during the epidemic in the 1980s and 1990s.
Wiki User
∙ 12y agoThe first animal to fall ill from BSE was in 1984, although it wasn't officially declared as a new disease by the Ministry of Agriculture until November 1986.
Wiki User
∙ 12y agoThey get to meet their Maker. Their bodies are then burned and buried to prevent further contamination to other ruminants including other cattle.
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What happens to cows that have mad cow disease?
they go mad
Where did mad cow disease come from?
Researchers are not completely sure how cows get mad cow disease, but they believe it comes from certain food that was given to cows. Some of this food contains the remains of dead cows that had the infection causing the cows that are eating it to get the infection. Mad cow disease affects the cows brain causing them to go "mad."
What type of beast has Mad Cow Disease?
Cows.
How do cows get mad cow disease?
Mad cow disease happens when the proteins in the brain of cow become misfolded. This is called prion. In simple words all proteins have to be folded before they can function and when some proteins in the brain become misfolded, such a state is called prions (misfolding of proteins) and it results in mad cow disease.
What is sad cow disease?
It's not sad cow disease, it's MAD cow disease. Its a brain disease that can cause irrational behavior in cows.
What was a cause mad cow disease?
yeh when you had a poo ate it then pooed it back out in a cows mouth which made the cow mad so its madcow disease lols :)
How many cows were affected by the latest case 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.
How many cows are affected with mad cow disease?
Nobody really knows.
What was the food called that mad cow disease cows ate?
Contaminated feed.
Evidence that prions were responsible for mad cow disease?
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.
Why is mad cow disease newsworhty?
it is newsworthy because it tells you about what would happen if you eat cows
What is the relationship between Mad Cow Disease and Creutzfeldt-Jakob Syndrome?
mad cow disease is when cows get it. when the disease is passed on 2 humans, it's called the Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease. so technically its the same thing, just in different species
