Unbelievable Facts About Mad Cow Disease And Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease

Mad cow disease, discovered in the 1980s, sparks a frenzy among meat eaters all over the world every time a new case is discovered. This condition was an epidemic among cows in the United Kingdom from 1986 to 2001. From 1993 to 2015 in the United States, there were twenty-four cases of bovine spongiform encephalopathy in cows and twenty in Canada. Statistics for humans with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a similar condition from 1996 to 2014 recorded 229 cases in twelve countries, with the majority, 177, in the United Kingdom. France came second highest with twenty-seven cases, followed by Spain with five and the United States with four.

Several facts go unnoticed when the scare is heightened, but instead of adding to the fear factor, we are here to explain some myths and reveal the truth.

Humans Cannot Get Mad Cow Disease

Mad cow disease, which is also known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), is quite often confused with the off-shoot of the disease contracted by cows called Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD). It is vital to note while mad cow disease cannot be contracted by humans, vCJD can. The fatal disease in both cows and humans affects the nervous system, and in humans, serious symptoms include depression, loss of coordination, and dementia. A patient with this condition usually lives only thirteen months, and it is not until the later stages when brain abnormalities are detected.

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Steak Is Safe

Since we know humans cannot contract mad cow disease, they will not get this condition from eating steak from a diseased cow. There are other risks involved in doing this, however, which is why red meat is pulled from grocery store shelves when an outbreak of mad cow disease does occur in cows. However, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease can infect an individual if they consume the nerve tissue from the brain or spinal cord of an infected cow, but generally, those products are not widely available on grocery store shelves.

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Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease Symptoms Are Delayed

Even if an individual has Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and is somehow able to survive the thirteen-month timeframe, they probably would not know they had this condition until many years after the fact. The reason for this is because it can take as long as fifteen years for clear and serious symptoms of this condition to show up fully, and the initial ones of tingling body parts and difficulty moving are typical of many other conditions. The disease is progressive, and an infected person will gradually show signs of brain damage, psychotic behavior, and dementia.

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Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease Is Hereditary

Despite the small percentage of individuals who contract Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease from eating the tissue of an infected cow, there are two other versions of this condition more easily targeted to humans. About ten percent of all cases of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease are linked to the hereditary version of the condition, and the majority of those individuals have no known risk factors. Fewer than one percent of cases are transmitted from an acquired version, which has happened after an individual was contaminated during a surgical procedure.

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Mad Cow Dates Back To 1986

The first reported case of mad cow disease was unraveled in Great Britain in 1986. It’s possible it may not have occurred in cattle prior to then, but it came from the scrapie agent which had been discovered in sheep from the United Kingdom for two hundred years prior. Once word of this first case was known, cattle were rapidly infected across the country and about one thousand new cases of mad cow disease were being reported per week by 1993. Bans were placed on protein supplements around this time.

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Mad Cow Disease Is Rare In The United States

The outbreak of mad cow disease was much more prominent in the United Kingdom, and by 2001, the United Kingdom was affected by the death of about 180,000 cows and one hundred fifty humans due to this condition and its human counterpart. In the United States, however, before some of the main infestations of mad cow disease in 2003, 2005, and 2006, there were only three reported cases of this condition throughout the country. Americans who contracted the human version, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, were those who had traveled to other countries.

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A Cow Was Struck By Random Mutation

In 2012, a cow in California almost slipped the radar since it did not display any immediate warning signs of being infected with mad cow disease. Instead of contracting this disease from eating contaminated feed, a protein in this Holstein cow mutated into an abnormal shape, affecting its brain cells. The cow in question was destined for a rendering plant for its ‘leftover parts’ not meant to be eaten by humans, but was euthanized when it became lame.

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Mad Cow Cannot Be Cooked Out Of Meat

When a cow contracts mad cow disease, it is sometimes caused by a mutated protein called a prion. This protein changes shape and affects the cow’s cognitive function. If a human had access to the meat of such cattle, no amount of searing, barbecuing, nor roasting would kill the prion and would not protect against the human strain, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. The protein can survive astronomical temperatures, and typical means of sterilization would not successfully kill it. This is one of the major reasons why red meat is pulled from grocery store shelves when an outbreak is detected.

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Treatment

Unfortunately, there are currently no known successful treatments for humans with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, and it is considered a terminal illness. Life expectancy for patients ranges from eight months after symptoms develop to sixty months. Initially, a doctor might send patients to a neurologist to help with symptoms related to the nervous system and may prescribe drugs to improve their quality of life. It is worth noting there is also no cure for cattle infected with mad cow disease, and the focus remains on prevention methods. This includes getting rid of infected cattle and preventing older cows from entering the food supply. Prevention also involves monitoring the cattle, adhering to feeding regulations, and controlling imported cattle and cattle meat. Further research has been undertaken to prevent the disease in animals.