Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy

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Term Paper Title	Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy
# of Words	2140
# of Pages (250 words per page double spaced)	8.56

Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy

Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy

     Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) is a relatively new disease found
primarily in cattle.  This disease of the bovine breed was first seen in the
United Kingdom in November 1986 by histopathological examination of affected
brains (Kimberlin, 1993) .  From the first discovery in 1986 to 1990 this
disease developed into a large-scale epidemic in most of the United Kingdom,
with very serious economic consequences (Moore, 1996).
        BSE primarily occurs in adult cattle of both male and female genders.
The most common age at which cows may be affected is between the ages of four
and five (Blowey, 1991).  Due to the fact that BSE is a neurological disease, it
is characterized by many distinct symptoms: changes in mental state 'mad-cow',
abnormalities of posture, movement, and sensation (Hunter, 1993).  The duration
of the clinical disease varies with each case, but most commonly lasts for
several weeks.  BSE continues to progress and is usually considered fatal
(Blowey, 1991).
     After extensive research, the pathology of BSE was finally determined.
Microscopic lesions in the central nervous system that consist of a bilaterally
symmetrical, non-inflammatory vacuolation of neuronal perikarya and grey-matter
neuropil was the scientists' overall conclusion (Stadthalle, 1993).  These
lesions are consistent with the diseases of the more common scrapie family.
Without further investigation, the conclusion was made that BSE was a new member
of the scrapie family (Westgarth, 1994).
     Transmission of BSE is rather common throughout the cattle industry.
After the incubation period of one to two years, experimental transmission was
found possible by the injection of brain homogenates from clinical cases
(Swanson, 1990).  This only confirmed that BSE is caused by a scrapie-like
infectious agent.
     How does the transmission become so readily available among the entire
United Kingdom feedlot population?  Studies showed that the mode of infection
was meat and bone meal that had been incorporated into concentrated feedstuffs
as a protein-rich supplement (Glausiusz, 1996).  It is thought that the outbreak
was started by a scrapie infection of cattle, but the subsequent course of the
epidemic was driven by the recycling of infected cattle material within the
cattle population (Lyall, 1996).  Although the average rate of infection is very
low, the reason why this led to such a large number of BSE cases is th...

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