Definition:
Mad Cow Disease, otherwise known as Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) is a neurodegenerative diseases in cattle that cause a spongy degeneration in the brain and in the spinal cord.
Diagnosis:
Laboratory testing that detect prions in blood or tissues may be used to detect this kind of disease.
Treatment:
As of the moment there is no known cure for mad cow disease.
Symptoms and Signs:
Symptoms are mostly neurological. It starts out with myoclonus or the involuntary and irregular jerking movements of a person, changes in behavior and difficulty in coordination and sight.
Causes:
It is said to be caused by a specific type of misfolded protein called prion. BSE or mad cow disease is a type of transmissible spongiform encephalopathy which causes previously normal protein to contort from an alpa helical arrangement to a disease-causing shape called beta-pleasted sheet. Inquiry on the disease shows that its may be caused by cattle being fed with the remains of other cattle with mad cow disease (BSE: Disease control & eradication - Causes of BSE", Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs, March 2007).
