Definition and introduction of mad cow disease
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BSE or commonly known as Mad Cow Disease is an interesting disease from a medical standpoint because of the causative agent which it prions.Prion disease may develop sporadically,for no apparent reason an with no organized or systematic pattern. A prion is an infectious protein that is similiar to a virus,but not a typical virus.Prions are not alive,so they cannot be killed with the usual disinfectants. The body of the living organisms(human and animals)does not mount a typical virus immune system against prions.Although prions proteins can be denatured,but only at extremly high temperatureor with very strong chemicals.Either way,it is not consistent with human & animal life,so these are not treatment options. So now the questions is: How Do Prions Infect Cow?The most common moe of infection is via feeding cows contaminated feed that contains animal proteins(from sheeps or cows).When farmers feed cattle with products made from other cattle or sheep,such as ruminant feed,they are actually recycling diseased animal protein in feed containing meat and bone meal,thus causing the disease in cow. Researchers are still studying modes of transmission and if heredity/genetics plays a role in an individual animals of this disease. |