began to cause brain disease in the cattle.
Humans are not susceptible to sheep
scrapie. But there’s a mainly hereditary
human brain disease similar to scrapie and
caused by a similar prion; it is called
Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), typically
strikes old people with loss of coordination
and then dementia, and eventually kills them.
In 1995 and 1996, ten relatively young Britons
died from a new variant of CJD, and the prion
agent found in their bodies was closely related
to the BSE prion. This strongly suggests that
humans can contract a devastating disease by
eating meat from BSE-infected cattle. The
cattle brain, spinal cord, and retina are
thought to be the tissues in which prions are
concentrated, but a 2004 report suggests that
they may also be found in muscles and thus in
common cuts of beef.
BSE appears to have been eliminated in
Britain thanks to the culling of affected herds,
changes in feeding, and surveillance. But
barry
(Barry)
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