Mad Cow Disease
Mad cow disease is important today, not just as a deadly food-borne illness, but also as a powerful symbol of all that is wrong about the industrialization of farm animals - Eric Schlosser, Fast Food Nation
HWN Suggests
Mad-Cow Disease May Hold Clues To Other Neurological Disorders
Scientists believe new ways to treat Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and Lou Gehrig's disease could emerge from research into another neurodegenerative disorder: mad-cow disease.
The rare bovine disorder, which infects cattle, and the human form, called Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, both fall into a category of so-called prion diseases, caused by aberrant proteins that spread aggressively from cell to cell.
While the human variant of mad-cow disease isn't normally lumped together with Alzheimer's, Parkinson's or Lou Gehrig's disease, which affect millions of mostly older people world-wide, the conditions share the ability to spread and wreak havoc through the body.…
Featured
Apocalypse Cow: The Mad Cow Story
A cautionary two-part tale about mad cow disease from how it began as a brain disorder of cattle to how it jumped to humans. The show maps the origin of the disease from when it first appeared in cattle in Britain in the 1980s to becoming an epidemic that has reached 80 countries and infected hundreds of people.
Is Mad Cow Testing Good Enough?
Out of the 90 million cattle in the U.S., just 40,000 cows are tested for mad cow disease each year. Should the USDA do more to protect consumers?
Articles of Interest
Analysis: U.S. mad cow find: lucky break or triumph of science?
The discovery this week of the fourth U.S. case of mad cow disease was one of two things for food safety experts: a validation of a decade-long focused surveillance regime or a lucky break that highlights the need to revisit previously scrapped efforts for more comprehensive surveillance.
As the Horsemeat Hysteria Spreads, E.U. Opens a Mad-Cow Can of Worms
On Feb. 14, members of the E.U.’s executive body took a break from Europe’s horsemeat-impersonating-beef scandal to reauthorize a type of animal feed that was banned in 1997 to battle mad-cow disease – an illness that infected nearly 500,000 animals in Europe and killed around 200 people.
Brazil's First Case of Mad Cow Disease Hidden for Months
This time lag allowed Brazil to export roughly 67 million pounds of beef to the United States since the suspect Brazilian cow was identified. Mad cow disease is transmissible to humans who eat beef contaminated with the prions that cause the disease, which is invariably fatal.
Mad Cow Disease, What the Government Isn't Telling You!
The Government says there is no problem with Mad Cow Disease in the U.S. However, they admit that cows in this country have already been diagnosed with Mad Cow Disease. And there are alsoTHOUSANDS of "Downer Cows" in this country, cows that are well one day and dead the next. When these "Downer Cows" are ground up and fed to other animals, the other animals develop the equivalent of Mad Cow Disease.
Mad Cow Disease: What You Need To Know Now
It's caused by prions, weird mutant proteins that are found in brain and spinal tissue. They're responsible for other diseases in animals, and the human version of mad cow, called Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. All these diseases slowly destroy brain tissue, and are fatal. There's no treatment.
Mark Purdey's Organophosphate Model of Mad Cow Disease
Mark Purdey's organophosphate model of mad cow disease.
Understanding Mad-Cow Disease: Here Are the ABCs About BSE
It's a fatal disease in cattle that causes their brains to degenerate, leading to tell-tale symptoms such as staggering and weight-loss. The technical name is bovine spongiform encephalopathy. Scientists aren't sure where BSE originated, but they know feeding the rendered remains of sick animals to other cattle has spread it. Such feeding practices are blamed for a major outbreak of mad cow in British herds during the 1980s.
What You Need to Know About Mad Cow Disease
Now that the disease has been detected in an American cow, Marion Nestle takes stock of what we know about bovine spongiform encephalopathy.
Resources
Mad Cow USA
Before there was Fast Food Nation, there was Mad Cow USA. Those who read this book when it first appeared in 1997 were shocked but not surprised on December 23, 2003, when the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture announced that mad cow disease had been found in America.
The Brain Eater
This program retraces the scientific sleuthing that linked mad cow disease in cattle to a related brain disease in humans.
CDC
There exists strong epidemiologic and laboratory evidence for a causal association between a new human prion disease called variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) that was first reported from the United Kingdom in 1996 and the BSE outbreak in cattle.
CIDRAP
Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy and Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease latest news
ScienceDaily
Your source for the latest research news on mad cow disease
What Really Caused the Last Mad Cow Disease Outbreak in Canada
In all likelihood, the two Black Angus cows in this case would have eaten contaminated feed at their birth farm.
