What is Mad Cow Disease?

Mad Cow Disease is the common term for Bovine Spongiform Encepholopathy (BSE), a progressive neurological disorder of cattle which can be transmitted to other species, including humans. In humans, it is called Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, after the two doctors who first described the symptoms of the disease.

The disease in cattle is called Bovine Spongiform Encepholopathy because this form of the disease occurs in cows (therefore, the term bovine), it causes a sponge-like destruction of the brain (therefore, the term spongiform encepholopathy - enceph means brain and pathy means pathology - meaning an abnormality).

What are the symptoms of Mad Cow Disease?

Symptoms include an excitable or nervous temperament to external stimuli such as touch to the skin, a progressive unsteadiness of gait resulting eventually in the inability to stand up. The disease is virtually 100% fatal.

The human equivalent of Mad Cow Disease, Cruetzfeldt-Jakob Disease, causes memory loss, emotional instability including inappropriate outbursts, an unsteady gait, progressing to marked weakness, severe rapidly progressive dementia and death, often within a year of the onset of symptoms.

What is the cause of Mad Cow Disease?

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