Mad Cow

MOOOOOOOO! We all know the sound a cow makes. But what about the sound of a human with the mad cow disease? Everyone always hears the tales of someone getting the "mad cow" by eating bad meat from a fast food restaurant, such as; McDonalds, Burger King, or even Wendy's. I can honestly say that I was one of these few people that believed it. For many years I wouldn't touch a hamburger or anything with beef in it. I was scared that the impossible would happen. But the truth behind this myth is somewhat true. What actually causes this to take place or to infect someone's body is caused by an infectious protein called a prion. These prion proteins are spread when the body of an infected cow or human is eaten by another being. Scary to think about, you don't even know it’s happening, the disease breeds plaque fibers, which slowly just eat away at the victim’s brain.

The symptoms are not only interesting but extremely fatal. The mad cow is known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (pronounced: BO-vine SPUN-jih-form en-seh-fah-LA-puh-thee), BSE for short. In cattle or different animals the symptoms come slowly. The first symptoms are a change in attitude and activity. The infected animal will begin to become uncoordinated in several way, such as; walking and even standing. They will then experience a noticeable decrease in their weight, without any loss of appetite. Cows will even begin to lag in the milk production. The symptoms eventually become worse and worse until the animal dies. The symptoms of BSE are similar as well in the humans. People who have variant Creutzfeldt-Jacob Disease (kroits'fělt-yä'kôp) also known as vCJD. Humans usually begin to lose their ability to remember, concentrate, and judge things and situations. Now there are two different variant Creutzfeldt-Jacob Diseases, we don't want to get those confused as one of them doesn't have anything to do with the BSE. Some citizens who fall ill to this disease, experience a definite change in