mad cow disease

Mad cow DiseaseBy

Alagu Paramesh Veerappan

And Grant Ellison

Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy

What is Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy? “It is a fatal disease of cattle that affects the

nervous system and makes the cow stagger about. Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) is sometimes known as 'Mad Cow Disease'.”

How the cow get the disease?

Usually proteins are folded to be used by any cell. Cows get Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy when the proteins get misfolded (prion) and used by the brain. Duration is probably 1 – 5 years

How do you get Creutzfeldt- Jakob Disease

Same thing would happen to us like it happened to the cow but it would be called Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease and affect our neuron tissues and our brain will turn into a sponge like structure and you will die after 1 year.

Symptoms for BSE and CJD

Symptoms for BSE in cows are they act in a weird way, they lose balance and coordination. It might happen one in 1 million cows. Symptoms for CJD in humans are that they seem to lose a lot memory.

Prevention for both Disease

There is no prevention for the BSE in cows but there is a prevention for Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, the prevention is by not eating the BSE infected cow.

Work Citied

“bovine spongiform encephalopathy.” Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online School Edition. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 2012. Web. 17 Sept. 2012.

“Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE).” Oxford English Dictionary for School. Ed. Allen Robert and Rennie Susan. 2nd ed. Oxford: Oxford University P, 2008. 107-07. Print.

The New Encyclopaedia Britannica. 15th ed. 15 vols. Chicago: Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2007. Print.

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