Healthy Cow Brain And Mad Cow Disease Brain
Mad Cow Disease is an incurable fatal brain disease. It is called mad cow disease because it affects a cow’s nervous system, causing the animal to act strangely and lose control of its ability to do normal things, such as walk.
BSE is diagnosed by examining the brain tissue of the deceased animal and finding characteristic “moth eaten” appearance of the brain tissue.
Only certain animals can get BSE — people don’t actually get mad cow disease. However, experts have found a link between BSE and a rare brain condition that affects people called variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD). Researchers believe that people who eat products from cows that have BSE are at risk of developing a form of CJD.
CJD is caused by an abnormal type of protein in the brain called a prion. When people have CJD, cells in the brain die until the brain eventually has a “sponge-like” appearance. During this time, people with the disease gradually lose control of their mental and physical capabilities.
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