Mad Cow Disease/ BSE
The Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy is a disease that is infectious, slowly progressive, deteriorating, and deadly disease distressing the central nervous system of mature cattle. According to various studies conducted by researchers, the infectious agent that causes the mad cow disease is an abnormal version of a protein found on the prion that is on the surface of the cells. This paper will discuss the various case studies that are related to the Mad Cow Disease, and then present a conclusion that will explain the contents of the disease how it affects the cows and also a conclusion of the case studies that are discussed in the paper.
Case studies
In the 1980s, the British Beef industry experienced an outbreak of the BSE. After conducting various studies, researchers learned that the prions were being spread to the cattle through the meat- and- bone meal. The MBM meal was a dietary complement that was prepared from portions of cattle, sheep, chicken, and pigs that are processed for industrial use. During that time, a cow that was infected becomes food for the other cattle. In 1992, the disease began to spread in the population of the cattle in the UK, reaching approximately 37, 300 cases. The disease was brought under control after the British authorities imposed a strict ban on cannibalistic findings, leading to 612 cases in 2004. Overall, there were nearly 180,000 cases identified in the UK. However, various models of epidemiology advocate that there were other 1.9 million cases of Mad Cow Diseases that were not detected. Mad come disease also become transmissible to humans- Nearly twelve British teenagers and young adults lost their lives due to the disease (Maheshwari, Atul, et al. 750) In an attempt to eliminate the infection, officials in the United Kingdom destroyed the infected cattle, their birth associates and the cattle that had had considerable interaction with those who had established the mad cow disease. The British government put no restrictions or warnings on beef consumptions because it was not aware of the risk it had to human health. When the human risk was revealed, there were controls put on slaughterhouses. The slaughterhouses were asked to separate and dispose of the extremely infectious parts of the cadaver. The government also banned the stated risk in the feed for all ruminants like cattle and sheep. The British officials eventually prohibited the inclusion of animals that were more thirty years of age in the animals and human food chains, basing on their risk assessment infectivity. They also began extinguishing all animals that showed signs of mad cow disease, as well as other animals at high risk of mounting the disease, like the downer cows. In 1996 the officials also decided to issue passports to all cattle born later than first July of the same year. This was to help in the tracking of all animals, from the farm to the dinner table. In total, the United Kingdom shattered close to five million head of cattle that cost up to US$4.3 billion (Bradley and Wilesmith 940).
Other cases of the mad cow disease were also reported in Canada and the United States of America. In 2003, BSE was reported in Canada by Canadian officials. The disease was found in an eight-year-oldeight-year-old cow that has spent its life in Saskatchewan and Alberta. The animal had been slaughtered four months earlier but the officials had conducted slow processing, which means that they failed to test the cow’s remnants in April. Because of the slow processing, the remains had been turned into pet food and spread to the USA. The first case in the USA was announced in December 2003 by the Department of Agriculture. At the age of four, a six-year-old dairy cow had entered into the USA.
Many Canadian farmers used large scale and intensive feeding operations whereby cattle were raised and fattened with a petite period. The farmers added grains and animal proteins to the animal feeds, which was a fast and low-cost means to yield larger and plumper animals in a short period. The increasing desire and need for beef paralleled the rising information on the importance of totaling animal spin-offs to animal feed. In the 1980s, Scientists exposed that if the mad cow disease prion existed in these materials, it will not be sterilized at low-slung infections and can, therefore, feast over the population of the cattle. According to the various tests done in Europe and the United States, the prionic agent assembles in specific body areas that were highly utilized in the translation process. The degree of infectivity of the tissues was high in the backbone and brain, thus, the BSE is not found in the milk and meat muscle meat (Walravens, 70). The incapability to extinguish the prion agent was the first step in the propagation of the mad cow disease. The second was the spread of BSE-laden merchandise through the cattle and animal feed chains. Cows infected with BSE, neither identified nor acknowledged, were then being condensed and fed back to other cattle. The cattle infected with the BSE were also being served back to other animals like hogs and chickens. The rogue protein that causes mad cow disease rises progressively all through most of the life of the animals. The disease takes numerous years before it starts to kill the animals. The more communicable prion agent that consumed by a cow, the prior the signs begin to display. Cows that are as fresh as twenty-one months have industrialized signs of mad cow disease. The massive mainstream of cases have been in cattle over four years old. After BSE was discovered in animals, scientists learned that the prion agent could easily be transmitted to humans through consuming contaminated meat- which causes a new variant disease called the variant Creutzfeldt-Jacob Disease. The United States accounts for up to 300 cases each year.
Conclusion
The BSE, also known as the mad cow disease is a transmissible and deadly disease that impacts on the chief nervous system of cattle. Various studies conducted show receives that a a common method of eliminating the disease initiating organisms in food. For instance, heat does not affect the priton agents because the agents mainly live in the nervous system. In humans, BSE is called the variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, which is caused by eating beef products that are dirtied with crucial nervous system tissue like the spinal code and the brains of cows that have been infected with the BSE. According to the case studies discussed in this paper, we can conclude that the rate of infectivity of the tissues was high in the spinal cord and brain, thus, the mad cow disease has not been found in the milk and meat muscle meat. We also learn that the inability to extinguish the prion agent was the first of two steps in the propagation of the mad cow disease (Smith, Peter and Ray Bradley 190). Cows infected with BSE, neither diagnosed nor known about, were then being condensed and fed back to other cattle. BSE cattle were also being fed back to other animals like hogs and chickens. The The BSE-tainted feed can come from two causes- rendered cattle-to-cattle transfer, or reduced cattle-to-other animals, some of whose offal then yields to cattle feed. The rogue protein that causes mad cow disease rises progressively through most of the life of the animal. The disease takes many years before it starts to kill the animals.
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