Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) which has killed about one animals in the UK is causing increased public concern. A second dairy farmer has died of a related human brain disorder, Creutzfeld-Jacob disease (CJD) causing some to maintain that BSE can trigger CJD. BSE, CJD and scrapie, the ovine form of the disease, are all caused by an abnormal form of protein, the prion, that converts normal protein into its own abnormal form. BSE can be transmitted by injecting or eating large amounts of infected tissue, but no human is likely to be exposed to BSE in sufficient quantities to develop the disease.
Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) which has killed more than 100,000 animals in the UK is causing increased public concern. A second dairy farmer has died of a related human brain disorder, Creutzfeld-Jacob disease (CJD) causing some to maintain that BSE can trigger CJD. BSE, CJD and scrapie, the ovine form of the disease, are all caused by an abnormal form of protein, the prion, that converts normal protein into its own abnormal form. BSE can be transmitted by injecting or eating large amounts of infected tissue, but no human is likely to be exposed to BSE in sufficient quantities to develop the disease.