Mad Cow Disease

Mad cow disease is a neurodegenerative disease of cattle. it is caused by prions. priors are the misfolded proteins . their normal form is present in the cells. abnormal misfolded form becomes infectious and is called prion. a prion converts same kind of normal protein into abnormally folded protein.these abnormally folded proteins aggregate to form plaques which are toxic to nerve cells and cause death of nerve cells.
the cases of this disease  were reported in UK and Canada in 1990s.at present this disease is near eradication .
cause of spread of this disease was feeding the cattle on meat and bone meal. if this meat and bone bone has come from infected cattle it can cause mad cow disease in the fed cattle.the chances are high if the cattle feeds on brain or spinal cord of infected cattle   .
the appearance of symptoms may take several months or some years.the symptoms include abnormal walking of cattle due to less of muscle control.abnormal behavior of cattle, cattle goes into coma and ultimately dies. this disease is also called bovine spongiform encephalopathy.
man can also get infected by eating meat of infected cattle. man gets variant Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease by the prions that cause mad cow disease in  cows. mad cow disease does not spread by consuming milk of infected cows.

By:Ashwani,bio-teacher ,Phagwara.