Mad Cow Disease

1. Mad Cow Disease Nathan Blessum Advanced Animal Science Instructor: Randall A. Cale 12-18-01 Modified by Georgia Agricultural Education Curriculum Office June 2002

2. Mad Cow Disease • Scientific Name: Bovine Spongiform Encepalopathy • It is found on any type of animal that is cloven hoofed such as: pigs, sheep, and cattle • Sheep: Scrapie Spongiform Encepalopathy. • There is a Humans form: Creutzfeldt-Jakobs Disease

3. Cause: • Feeding cattle animal bi-products such as meat-n-bone mill that has an infected prion in it. • Prion-an infected cell with no nucleus that gets in an animals brain and destroys it by eating away at the brain causing small holes. It doesn’t have any lifelike functions

4. Symptoms: • Loss of balance • Staggering • Loss of appetite • Animals tend to become aggressive • Foaming at the mouth

5. Cures: • Don’t feed cattle animal bi-products • Watch to make sure you are feeding your animals safe feeds • Always vaccinate cattle properly

6. Preventions: • USDA requires all imported meat to be inspected • US will not import cattle from Britian • Animals suspected of the disease are quarantined

7. Effects On the U.S. • caused great worries for many beef consumers • caused cattle ranchers to take many precautionary steps • Although this disease has been found in the Eastern world, it has not been known to be in the US, and chances are it never will because the US has so many safety standards.

8. Working Bibliography • Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy. 2001. Health and Human Services Dept. • Rampton, Sheldon Mad Cow USA. Monroe: Common Courage Press, 1997. • Straiton, Eddie. Cattle Ailments. Ramsbury: The Crowood Press, 1997.