Mad Cow Disease Research Paper

Words: 635
Pages: 3

Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) commonly known as Mad-cow disease, is a very infectious disease occurring as a result of the abnormal proteins known as prions, know to commonly invade the cattle’s brain tissues. The abnormal proteins located in brain tissues, lead to the transmission of the disease from the infected cattle to other animals. It is characterized by tiny holes that appear in the brain tissues, resulting in an appearance that is spongy-like in the infected cattle. On the other end, if humans eat the diseased brain tissues from the infected animals, lead to a kind of disease known as the Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD). This is the human kind of mad cow disease in humans having similar characteristics like BSE. It mainly occurs in older people usually through inheritance. When occurring in younger people, it is mainly from eating of the diseased cattle’s’ meat. …show more content…
Unlike bacteria or viruses that cause other infections, prions are infectious abnormal proteins that induce abnormality in the process by which cellular proteins fold. (CDC, 2012) folding of the specific cellular proteins according to the CDC. According to the CDC, the signs and symptoms of the disease are as a result of the abnormally folded proteins in the brain tissues of the diseased cattle or humans. The common areas of the boy where the prions are found include; the brain, the nervous system, the eyes specifically the retina and the spinal in the affected humans or animals. Besides, prions are also capable of being found in bone marrows, lymph nodes and the spleen with some low levels being found in the