BSE: Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy

The bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), commonly known as “Mad Cow Disease”, is a fatal neurodegenerative disease that affects cattle.

Transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE) is a condition affecting mainly, the brain and central nervous system of many animals, eg:

Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease (CJD), Gerstmann–Straussler–Scheinker disease (GSS), fatal familial insomnia (FFI), kuru, and variant CJD (vCJD) affect humans; scrapie in sheep; chronic wasting disease (CWD) in deer and transmissible encephalopathy in mink (TME).

IMAGE SOURCE: http://www.defra.gov.uk/vla/science/sci_tse_rl.htm

The etiologic agent of these infectious conditions is an abnormal isoform (PrPSc) of the normal prion protein (PrPC). PrPSc deposition in the central nervous system (CNS) is closely associated with the disease.

Prions might cross species barriers in some cases, such as BSE, which was first recognized in the United Kingdom in 1986 and drew significant worldwide public attention. In 1996, it was discovered to be linked with the human vCJD.

As transmission occurred via food products and gave rise to serious concerns regarding food safety. The EU Council of Ministers (Agriculture) agreed that from 2001, meat and other products derived from cattle would be banned from entering the food chain (unless they had tested negative for BSE).

IMAGE SOURCE: http://www.oie.int/Eng/info/en_esbcarte.htm

RELEVANT SITES:

http://www.oie.int

http://www.who.int

http://www.defra.gov.uk/vla/science/sci_tse_rl_video.htm#cattle

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/genomes/FLU/SwineFlu.html