The Mad Cow Disease Epidemic

The Black Death, a horrible pandemic plague that spread through all of Europe, taking 25,000,000 people along with it. In 1347, a mysterious pandemic appeared in the city-states of Italy just as Europe was recovering from famine. The Epidemic did not end until 1351 partly due to the belief of the people that this plague was spread through the air and was gods way of punishing them for their sins. Although this plague killed many people, its effects led life to the way it is today. The three most important effects of the Black Death on Western Europe were the changing relationships between people and the church, the People beginning to express their faith and

Proteinaceous Infectious Particles, commonly known as Prions, are extremely rare misfolds of the protein PrPc, which cause fatally neurodegenerative diseases, and are theorized to be infectious only by the protein itself (U.S National Library of Medicine, 1998). This “protein-only theory” is still heavily debated today, as some scientists deny the theory, and there isn’t a significant amount of evidence on each side to qualify the theory or disprove it (Soto, C. 2011). The base “Prion” protein is encoded in the gene PRNP, while being non-infectious. Prions are most commonly found in human prion diseases, but they can also be in other animals in the form of Mad Cow Disease and Chronic Wasting Disease, classified as Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathies

Humans are susceptible to many different diseases and unfortunately, these transmissible spongiform encephalopathies have death written all over them.

     Mad Cow Disease, scientifically referred to as (BSE) Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy, is a disease that affects those humans who eat the meat from infected cows. Mad Cow Disease is one of several fatal brain diseases called (TSE) Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy. (USDA) There was evidence of a new illness resembling the sheep disease scrapie. It was technically named BSE but quickly acquired the mad cow tag because of the way infected cattle behave. (CNN) In 1997, there was an award given to Stanley Prusiner, for concluding that a distorted protein called a prion was responsible for Mad Cow Disease, noted the long incubation period made it difficult to distinguish (Bryant).

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BSE is a form of transmissible spongiform encephalopathy that is transmitted when cattle consume feed that contains other animal protein from infected animals such as scrapie in sheep (CDC,

Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) is a rare and fatal human neurodegenerative condition falling under the category of Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy (TSE) because of having characteristic of spongy degeneration of the brain that it causes and its ability to be transmitted. First it was described in the United Kingdom in March 1996 and it has been connected with exposure to a TSE of cattle known as Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) sometimes called Classical BSE, having been reported first in 1986 in the United Kingdom.

BSE can be transmitted from one human to another through cannibalism or through transplantation of infected tissue. Consequently, certain human blood products and blood donations are not accepted from people who have lived in areas of the world where BSE outbreaks have occurred in cattle. BSE has been shown to be transmissible by blood transfusion in an experimental model using sheep. The U.K. surveillance unit for vCJD has also reported three cases of vCJD that occurred as a result of blood transfusion

According to WebMD, Mad Cow Disease is fatal, resulting in the destruction of the brain and spinal cord*. Humans can get the human form of Mad Cow disease through eating nerve tissue of cows that had the disease*. However, the gelatin used in breath mints, if from cows, is comprised of cattle bones and hides, both of which have a low risk of transmitting the disease according to Clemson University**. So while it is possible, people should not live in fear of getting Mad Cow Disease from breath mints. This is due to how the FDA has guidelines in place to try to prevent spreading the disease. Again, Clemson University stated that the FDA suggests that no part of a cow with any neurological disease is used in production of gelatin**. To prevent

The biggest epidemic happened this weekend. A disease called cow pox spread and killed an estimate of 100,000 people. The doctors took test and found out that some person made this disease by mixing chicken pox, Ebola, and ringworm all together and purposely made it spread. So the doctors called the authorities for some help to find out who did it.

The effect on the cattle will take two to eight years from the time of infection to appear as a full case. The animals that are infected by this disease will resemble those that have rabies. Mad Cow disease will not spread as rapidly as rabies does, however. Symptoms of this infection will develop over a period of two to six months. As the disease sets in and the clinical signs are in place, the animal will deteriorate and either die or will be destroyed to prevent more instances of Mad Cow disease (www.cattle.com).

The discovery from the Scripps Research Institute in Florida shows promising results in tackling down the cause of Parkinson’s, and their outcomes led to a funding by the National Institutional Disorders and Stroke Research (NINDS). Research staff within the campus discovers that many diseases that relate in twisting a protein from its original structure will result in a cellular death but it isn’t due to the deformed shape. According to the article “Scripps Florida Scientists' 'Mad Cow' Discovery” (2015), one primal cause that leads to Parkinson’s is the lack of “NAD+” which later prohibits the proper energy function of the mitochondria. Researchers further delved into the study to find out this is preventable, by providing the misshaped protein

The following passage is from a research paper, and it’s the last body paragraph overseeing the history of mad cow disease. The topic sentence is located at the beginning; Although, I could’ve done a better job clearly stating the main topic: mad cow disease. Instead of stating what the cattle were fed, I could’ve said how many were infected by the mad cow disease or how the British government didn’t believe the disease was transmissible. Overall, the main issue that stood out to me was the way I introduced my quotes. For example, in my first quote, I didn’t introduce the quote before inserting it. Thus, my readers don’t have prior knowledge of what the quote is about. Hence a better way of writing this sentence could’ve been, “Britain decided

Mad Cow Disease Bovine spongiform encephalophathy ( BSE), which is mainly known as mad cow disease has infected the society and has put the lives of individuals at risk. This was very frightening to the people that ate meat during that time. The terrified people would not even want to eat hamburgers at MacDonald, steak at restaurant and much more. What also alarmed the people was the fact that there was a possibility of getting the human form of mad cow disease. This was called variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) which is through tainted blood, but this was only a theory which

Transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) are neurodegenerative diseases that are thought to be caused by the misfolding of prion proteins. Prions are able to replicate in the absence of nucleic acids. TSEs include: scrapie, bovine spongiform encephalopathy, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, kuru, Gerstmann-Straussler-Scheinker disease, and Fatal Familial Insomnia. They can affect many different animals, including humans. Currently, there are no ways to diagnose, treat, or cure TSEs, as much more research is needed before these diseases are completely understood.