A few years ago, I would not have even known what this term meant, but lately I have been hearing it everywhere. Mad cow disease, medical term bovine spongiform encephalopathy or BSE, is a malady that is wreaking havoc on Britain’s cattle herds. It is called mad cow disease because of the way infected cows act: wobbling all over as if drunk, drooling, and eventually dropping over dead. European cows first contracted the BSE in the late 1800s after they ate feed that contained slaughter-house leftovers that were infected with this disease. Since then, the disease has spread through-out England and the surrounding areas. In 1985, the disease was firstidentified by an English vet who was curious as to why cows were acting so oddly. Upon studying autopsies of dead cows, he found that they had holes in their brain: thus the name spongiform. Experts believe that the disease is caused by an indestructible infectious agent called a “prion” The prion is a mutated version of a normal protein cell found on the surface of nerve cells in the brain. Once a person is infected, the mutated prion uses electrical impulses to trigger healthy protein cells to change from their normal coiled shape into the mutated form: flat pleats. A chain reaction follows, resulting in a cluster of tanglednon-functional proteins called plaques. These plaques destroy brain cells, resulting in a type of disease collectively known as transmissible spongiform encephalophy. TSEs cause inflammation and spongelike holes in the delicate membranes surrounding brain cells. Usually, the prions attack the front lower section of the brain, the part that involves coordination and motor skills. 3 In recent years, British officials have disclosed that, contrary to what they originally thought, mad cow disease can be sprea...
