Mad Cow

Disease
By: Heather Robinson
 What is Mad Cow Disease?
‐ In Cattle?
‐ Bovine spongiform
encephalopathy (BSE)
‐ In Humans?
‐ Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob
disease (vCJD)
‐ Why?
‐ The infectious agent that causes
mad cow disease is an abnormal
version of a protein normally
found on cell surfaces, called
2
a
prion
What is Mad Cow Disease
Symptoms?
How it affects
‐ Rapid mental deterioration
humans?
‐ Anxiety, depression, memory
‐ Caused by eating loss, impaired thinking, blurred
beef products with vision or blindness, insomnia,
contaminated central trouble speaking, trouble
nervous system tissue, swallowing, sudden jerky
such as the brain or movements, can also result into
spinal cord. a coma, heart failure, respiratory
3
failure (MRI)
Who does this affect?
‐ Since 1996, there has been 231 cases of CJD around the
world
‐ None living to this day
‐ Anyone can get this disease from eating beef
‐ This disease can be inherited and transmitted
‐ Blood and tissue transfusions
‐ Pregnancy
‐ There has never been a reported case of CJD that did not have
a history of BSE in that same country
‐ The median age at death from vCJD in the United Kingdom has
been 28 years and almost all 4cases have been in persons
under age 55 years.
 Where does this disease occur?
‐ This disease is prevalent in 12 countries around the
world
‐ Of the 57 cases outside of the UK 14 of them
reported visiting the UK for 6 months between
1980-1996
‐ Researchers say the disease originated from the U.K.
‐ It is known to have affected 160,000 cattle so far
just in the UK
‐ In the early 1980’s the rendering process, by
which livestock carcasses
5 are converted to
various products including livestock feed was
 When did this disease take
place?
‐ Mad Cow disease was first ‐ The first known report of (vCJD
found in cows in the late was know to have been in 199
1980’s in the UK
‐ 1995 Britain banned the ‐ 1999 was reported as the
feeding of cow products to highest number of (vCJD) cases
other animals as well as in the UK reaching 30 in one
fertilizer and they began year which included 30 deaths
testing any cow over 30 ‐ 2014 was the last know case of
months (vCJD) in humans but BSE was
‐ Between 1996-1999 Europe 6 found in cattle in 2016
banned the selling of British
7
 Risk Management
‐ USDA requires that all brain and spinal cord materials be removed
from high-risk cattle
‐ USDA also requires all cattle traveling across state lines be checked
and documented for BSE
‐ The possibility of transfusion transmission of vCJD had prompted the
US Food and Drug Administration to publish guidance in 1999 and
2002 outlining a geography-based donor deferral policy to reduce the
risk of such transmission in the United States.
‐ French researchers report that they have created a blood test that
can detect vCJD in humans and animals during the early stages of
infection 8
 References
https://www.webmd.com/brain/mad-cow-disease-basics#1-1

https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/creutzfeldt-jakob-disease/symptoms-
causes/syc-20371226
https://www.fda.gov/animalveterinary/resourcesforyou/animalhealthliteracy/ucm1362
22.htm Place your screenshot here
https://familydoctor.org/condition/mad-cow-disease/
https://www.healthline.com/health-news/blood-test-detects-human-form-of-mad-cow-
disease-061214
https://www.cnn.com/2013/07/02/health/mad-cow-disease-fast-facts/index.html (time
when)
https://www.centerforfoodsafety.org/issues/1040/mad-cow-disease/mad-cow-
disease-q-and-a
http://mad-cow.org/~tom/vet_interview.html
https://ecdc.europa.eu/en/vcjd/facts
https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn9926-timeline-bse-and-vcjd/
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/creutzfeldt-jakob-disease-cjd/prevention/
9