Mad Cow Disease (BSE)

[aommaster]

I would like to know a few things about BSE

 

1.What causes BSE

 

2.What are the symptoms of BSE to the cow and the human

 

3.What parts are affected by BSE? Is the milk affected?

 

 

 

Thanx guys!

[Skye]

1. The most accepted theory is proteins that are the same amino sequence, but with a different shape to one naturally produced in your cells. The variant form is thought to aid in converting the normal form into another variant. Variants aggregate to form large clumps that cause cellular damage and cell death.

 

2. It's a degenerative neurological disease. It mainly affects the brain where visibles holes are formed (hence spongiform encephelopathy, basically = brain like a sponge). It causes a progressive loss of all neurological functions, things like lack of co-ordination, muscle twitching, behavioural changes (aggressiveness), loss of weight, coma, death. It usually stays dormant for years before the symptoms arise.

 

3. The central nervous system mainly. Other cells carry the proteins during infection, but it is essentially a neurological disease

[YT2095]

someththing to do with Prion Proteins, might be worth a google search for more data

 

(that`s all I remember)

[aommaster]

and does the milk produced by those cows contain any of these prions?

[YT2095]

no idea? but I don`t think it does, I`m fairly sure it binds only to certain types of aminal cell not present in milk.

[aommaster]

That's what i was thinking also, I always thought that only the meat was affected by it. But then, someone told me no!

 

Thanx alot guys!

[wolfson]

No evidence has been found from animal and human encephalopathies to suggest that milk can transmit the disease.

[Hades]

great thread! as said before these abnormally shaped prions are easily recognized by the cells that compose the brain, and flow into the spinal cord and ive heard some liver cells.

Its said that since these proteins, only recognized by those previously mentioned cells, are the reason u cannot get mad cow disease from say, a sirloin steak. Those that became infected were due to hastiness on behalf of the meat packing plants that grind organs in with trim and chuck to add more weight to the chopmeat; it also contaminates anything the meat touches in effect causing the meat plant to shut down and then having the herd of catle the meat came from be slaughtered. I think the number was a million or so cattle were put down as a result in canada recently.

The worst part about this is how long it can take before we know about either being infected or whether weve been exposed

[aommaster]

oh ok. thanx alot guys!

[Sayonara]

aommaster said in post # :

2.What are the symptoms of BSE to the cow and the human

Humans don't get BSE as such - the human form is CJD:

http://www.cjd.ed.ac.uk/intro.htm

[aommaster]

oh. I didn;t know that Thanx!

[MishMish]

Sayonara:

 

"

Humans don't get BSE as such - the human form is CJD:

http://www.cjd.ed.ac.uk/intro.htm "

 

I have wondered about that, and can't say your link answered it for me

 

If people are getting it from infected cows, why would it not be considered the same

 

For some diseases I know the symptoms may be different depending on age for example with the same underlying cause so have different names, but do not understand the classification for TSE's in use

[Sayonara]

It's not really "my" link. I simply provided a generic page giving details on CJD, which is clearly one of the pieces of the puzzle aommaster is missing.

 

I don't go around asking myself "now what will MishMish want from this thread?" before I post replies

 

BSE is BOVINE Spongiform Encephalopathy. Humans don't get it by definition, even if the infectious agent does come from cows.

[YT2095]

if I`m not mistaken BSE goes further back that, to Sheep, apparently the sheep version called Scrapey(sp?) crossed species to cows, and from them to us. since it`s only a protein and not a virus or bacterial agent, the disease it creates in a being will be somewhat different and so would get it own name

I`m fairly sure it`s also called "Variant CJD" also, as it`s similar but not identical to

 

[Sayonara]

They would seem to be related:

 

Prion diseases occur in sheep, goats, mink, mule deer, elk, cats and cows. The disease is transmitted to cows from sheep with Scrapie by feeding sheep carcasses to cows. This was banned in Britain in 1988. Scrapie causes intense itching of the skin and loss of wool, hence its name, and was first noticed in Scottish border flocks.

 

In humans, prion diseases are Kuru in New Guinea transmitted by honoring the dead by eating the brains of ancestors. Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease described in 1920 and 1921 is a spontaneous disease and variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease is produced by eating meat from animals with mad cow disease or by injecting growth hormone or tissue derived from infected animals. Other human diseases that might be caused by prions are Alzheimer's disease (4 million cases in the United States), Parkinson's disease (1 million), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or Lou Gherig's disease, and possibly others. They all have dementia, uncoordinated movements (ataxia), sleeplessness, paraplegia, paraesthesias, deviant behavior and they have a material called amyloid in their brains that resembles a breakdown product of PrPSc.

 

http://www.vh.org/adult/patient/internalmedicine/aba30/2001/madcow.html

[Diesel]

can any one tell me the abbrevation of BSE ?

[Sayonara]

If you mean "what is BSE the abbreviation for", I already said in post #13:

 

Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy.

[aommaster]

Isn't it Bovine Spongiform encephalitis?

Sorry about my spelling

[wolfson]

Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy aka Mad Cows disease