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Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy
(Mad Cow Disease)
Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE), commonly known as Mad Cow Disease, has been identified in a single animal in an Alberta, Canada, beef herd. The federal government has had prevention and surveillance measures in place since the late 1980s.
Following is some brief information on the disease and what the federal and state government is doing to prevent the spread of BSE. Follow the links on the right for more detailed information on Mad Cow Disease.
- BSE is a chronic, fatal, degenerative neurological disorder of cattle. BSE was first recognized in the United Kingdom in 1986 and since then over 180,000 cattle in 23 countries have tested positive for the disease.
- Animal TSEs include scrapie in sheep and goats, Chronic Wasting Disease in deer and elk, Transmissible Mink Encephalopathy, and Feline Spongiform Encephalopathy.
- Human diseases include Classic Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease, German Strausser Skeinker, Fatal Familial Insomnia, and variant Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease (vCJD)
- Clinical signs of BSE in cattle include swaying gait, high stepping, separation from the herd, disorientation, and excessive licking of nose or flanks. The disease progresses with stumbling, falling, and eventual inability to stand. It ends with coma, seizures and death.
- Mad Cow Disease and Foot-and-Mouth disease are not the same disease.
- BSE is a food borne disease of cattle. There are different hypothesis regarding the origin of BSE. The prevailing theory suggests that the disease first appeared due to the recycling of scrapie infected sheep into ruminant feed. Regardless of the initial origin of BSE in cattle, it is clear that the epidemic was sustained by the recycling of BSE infected cattle material to other cattle from the mid 1980s onwards.
- Humans cannot contract the human form of BSE by being near cattle (including dairy cows) or visiting farms that keep cattle.
- BSE is not transmitted from one live cow to another, nor is it highly contagious like foot-and-mouth disease.
- No connection has been made between the human form of this disease and milk consumption.
- Epidemiological data and scientific studies show evidence that BSE is the causative agent of a new disease called vCJD recognized in England in 1996.
- This disorder is a fatal brain disease with an unusually long incubation period measured in years, and is caused by an unconventional transmissible agent (a prion).
- Since 1989, USDA has banned the importation of cattle and cattle products from BSE affected countries.
- USDA continues education efforts for farmers, veterinarians, and laboratory personnel to aid in prevention and identification of suspect cases.
- USDA continues surveillance efforts and works with every state on monitoring and testing.
- Since 1997, the FDA has prohibited feeding protein derived from the tissues of mammals to ruminant animals such as cattle, sheep, goats, deer, elk, bison and buffalo.
- MDAR’s Bureau of Farm Products assists in keeping prohibited materials out of the food supply through farmer education and monitoring livestock feed labels for compliance with the federal regulation.
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