Epidemiology and Treatment of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy Essay

The Epidemiology and Treatment of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) Bovine Spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) is a serious disease found mainly in the U.K. that effects cows and humans alike. Humans can get the new variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease by eating beef contaminated with BSE. The exact cause of BSE has yet to be discovered, but there are many theories that suggest that the infectious agent of scrapie and mutated prions have something to do with it. Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy, more commonly known as Mad Cow Disease, is a Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy (TSE). A TSE is a progressive disease believed to be caused by the folding (mutating) of prion proteins found in the brain and causing brain deterioration. Other forms of TSEs are scrapie, Kuru and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. TSEs are contracted either sporadically or by inheritance. In order for an animal or human to contract a TSE sporadically, they must not have had the mutant prion protein allele in their body prior to an infection of the said protein. When the prion enters the body, it causes a chain re...