LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Disease: Mad Cow Disease
built 642 days ago
It appears that Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease ensues when a certain protein in the brain, known as prion protein, changes into an abnormal form. As to what causes that change, scientists remain in the dark. The disease attacks about one of a million people worldwide, and victims are typically about 50-75 years of age. During the 1990s something strange happened: the disease began affecting relatively large numbers of young people in the United Kingdom. A 1996 report of British medical experts... linked the surge in Creutzfeldt-Jakob cases to what might be considered a dietary condition: bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease, contracted from eating cattle with a form of prion disease. The only way to contract such a condition, however, is by eating the brain or spinal cord of an affected cow, something that could only happen in the case of hamburger or sausage, in which one does not always know what one is getting.
Source:
The company is renowned for revealing the extent of the mad cow disease spread in Europe with their BSE tests. The company has evolved into the worlds leading centre of competence for prion diagnostics.
Source:
There is currently no available cure for this fatal disease. Mad Cow Disease entered the human food chain in 1996 leading to a collapse of the entire United Kingdom beef trade at the time.
Source:
MORE ABOUT
Mad Cow Disease