Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE)

1. Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) • Commonly referred to as ‘Mad Cow Disease’. • First recognized in Great Britain in 1986. Sense then it has occurred in several European countries and some Asian. Currently not in the United States or Canada.

2. How to identify if your cow has MADCOW disease ……… If your cow sounds like this, then fire up the barbecue. If your cow sounds like this, then may we suggest the fish. Click Click

3. One of several diseases caused by a natural protein called a prion which when folded in the wrong configuration causes other similar proteins to change to the same configuration or shape. • Piron diseases, all fatal, are referred to as spongiform encephalopathies. This is due to the fact that they cause the brain to become riddled with holes.

4. Other Prion Diseases: • Scrapie (in sheep) • Transmissible mink encephalopathy • Chronic wasting disease of elk and mule deer • Feline spongiform encephalopathy • Kuru disease (human) • Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (human) • Gerstmann-Straussler-Scheinker disease (human) • Fatal familial insomnia (human)

5. There is no evidence that BSE can be transmitted other than by eating contaminated animal feed, which contains the prion (abnormal form of a protein). • BSE has an incubation period of about 5 years.

6. No treatment, all animals exposed must be killed and the carcasses incinerated. • Feeding of animal protein to other animals has been banned in many countries to try to control or eradicate the disease. • For additional information see http://www.aphis.usda.gov/oa/bse/ - signs