Mad Cow Disease

Mad cow disease kills many and is spreading rapidly throughout Britain and is slowly affecting the United States. Mad cow disease is a serious disease that affects many different species. There are different forms of the disease. This disease has occurred in Britain and can occur in the United States as well. Mad cow disease can be prevented.

Mad cow disease has several different names. It is called Bovine Spongiform encephalopathy or BSE. Other names are New Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease or vCJD (Morris). Transmittable Spongiform encephalopathy or TSE is another name. Spongiform encephalopathies are nervous system disorders which nerve cells of the brain die, causing the brain to assume a sponge-like appearance (Montague, Part 1). In 1985 a veterinarian found odd symptoms in a cattle (Morris). Cows in Britain began to die of mysterious ailments (Montague, Part 1). German physicians Hans Gerhard Creutzfeldt and Alfons Jakob first discovered vCJD in its natural form in the 1920’s (Shell, Part 2). In 1996 British government conceded that people were falling victim to a degenerate new brain disease linked to BSE (Morris).

Some cows in the United States may already have mad cow disease. It is also very possible that people in the United States may have the human form of the disease. Cows are vegetarians by nature. They can be infected when they are forced to eat parts of other infected animals. When animals are slaughtered for human food at least half of the carcass-hide, hooves, entrails, etc can not be sold for human consumption. It’s then sent to a “rendering” plant where it’s ground up, boiled down and driven into the consistency of brown sugar. Now, it’s sold for feed for cows, pigs, chickens and pets. Eating infected animals transmits mad cow disease or eating animal parts especially brains and spinal cords (Montague, Part 3). Cattle, sheep, pigs and poultry that are exposed to BSE via animal food can secretly harbour the disease (Morris). Scrapie is a disease that has affected sheep for at least 200 years. Sheep infected with Scrapie rub up against fences or barns until they scrape away their wool, leaving raw wounds, then they die. Scrapie infected sheep are sometimes fed to cows (Montague). Humans can get the human form of mad cow disease by eating infected meat.

Mad cow disease has a severe effect on animals. The infamous disease has increased 23 percent a year in Britain since 1994 (ABC News).