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Factory Farms > Mad Cow
Mad Cow Disease Mad Deer Disease
Articles on Articles regarding Mad Cow Disease / Mad Deer Disease (Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy, Chronic Wasting Disease) reviewed/commented upon by Michael Greger, MD
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Detailed Information:
* Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy (TSE): A family of progressive, incurable, fatal diseases caused by prions. Characterized by dementia, and holes in the brain on autopsy. Can be transmitted between mammals when one mammal eats parts of the nervous system (e.g., brain, spinal cord) of another mammal.
* Prion: Prion: (pronounced pree-on) Novel infectious agent common to these diseases. Not a virus or bacterium, but an infectious protein which can set off a chain reaction which destroys nerve cells. They cannot be inactivated by most sterilization methods.
* Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE): The technical name for Mad Cow Disease - the TSE found in cattle. The form of BSE found in European cattle is probably not the same as that in US cattle.
* Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD): A human TSE. The classic form of CJD appears to arise spontaneously, but the so-called "new variant" of CJD (nvCJD) is now known to be the human equivalent of mad cow disease thought to be contracted by eating contaminated beef.
* Kuru: Another human TSE, found in Pacific Islanders who ate human brains.
* Scrapie: The TSE found in sheep. The probable source of all other animal TSEs.
* Downer cow: US industry term for an animal who falls down and dies without an apparent disease. Some people speculate that some US downer cows have a form of BSE with different symptoms from the British form of BSE.
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