What is Mad Cow Disease?
MAD COW DISEASE ALSO KNOWN AS BOVINE SPONGIFORM ENCEPHALOPATHY IN CATTLE (BSE) OR CREUTZFELDT-JAKOB DISEASE (CJD) IN HUMANS ARE DISEASES CAUSED BY PRIONS BSE (sometimes referred to as “mad cow disease“) and CJD belong to the unusual group of progressively degenerative neurological diseases known as transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs). These diseases are characterized by an incubation period of several months (among mink) to several years, during which there is no visible indication of the disease. The incubation period for BSE among cattle ranges from three to eight...
Read MoreWhat Are Prions?
What are prions? The word prion was coined in 1982 by neurologist Dr Stanley Prusiner, and is used to describe a proteinaceous infectious agent that is not inactivated or destroyed by procedures that modify nucleic acids such as deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) or ribonucleicacid (RNA) Prions differ from other pathogens such as viruses, bacteria, fungi and parasites in that they do not contain deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) or ribonucleic acid (RNA). They are also non-immunogenic – that is they do not elicit an immune response because the host has been rendered tolerant to the prion by the...
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