Mad cow disease is the common name for a progressive neurological disorder of cattle, also known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy. It's caused by abnormal proteins called prions that bore sponge-like holes in the brain and eventually destroyed it. Prions have become, you might say, the consumer alert of the season, All of a sudden people are hearing this word the first time and it's quickly becoming a household word. The cases in England are very, very troubling in that the road that people have to travel when they get sick is very disconcerting; it couldn't be much worse. It's a deterioration of your mind and body. It's a very serious disease, and though it's very rare it causes great concern. The cattle contract the disease by eating the recycled remains of other BSE infected animals. Once it gets into the system it can appear again, and that is another reason for concern and for necessary government action. In 1997 the United States Department of Agriculture did ban the use of ground up ruminants (cattle, goats, sheep, and deer) in cattle feed. The reason for this is when an animal does get BSE the prions are found in the brain, spinal cord, eyes, lymph nodes, marrow, and spleen, so it's of utmost importance that these ruminants not be recycled, so to speak, in the feed of other cattle, because that is how the disease is passed along. Eventually, as it's passed from cattle to cattle it could be passed to humans unless the necessary protections in food are in place.
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