Mad Cow found in Alabama

A cow from an Alabama farm that had tested "inconclusive" over the weeked for Mad Cow Disease was today confirmed positive for the illness.

"We received a positive result from a Western Blot Confirmatory test conducted at our USDA laboratories in Ames, Iowa, on samples from an animal that had tested inconclusive on a rapid screening test performed on Friday, March 10," said John Clifford, chief veterinary officer of the U.S. Agriculture Department's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.

Wikipedia says Mad Cow Disease, or Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), is a fatal, neurodegenerative disease of cattle, which infects by a mechanism that surprised biologists on its discovery in late 20th century. The disease is not spread by microbes as are most diseases, but by a protein. People can contract the disease; it is thought to be the cause of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD), sometimes called new variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (nvCJD), a human brain-wasting disease.

Transmission can occur when healthy animals consume tainted tissues from others with the disease. In the brain these proteins cause native cellular prion protein to deform into the infectious state which then goes on to deform further prion protein in an exponential cascade. These aggregate to form dense plaque fibers, which lead to the microscopic appearance of "holes" in the brain, degeneration of physical and mental abilities and ultimately death.

Mad Cow Disease | Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy
Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease | Alabama | Prion | Brain Disease