Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy and its Relation With Creutzfeld Jakob Disease

Abstract

Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) is a fatal brain disease of cattle. It has long been stated to have been first observed on a farm in Kent in April 1985, and to have been identified by Central Veterinary Laboratory (CVL), UK in November 1986 (Wells et al, 1987.) Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), widely known as "mad cow disease," is a chronic, degenerative disease affecting the central nervous system of cattle. World wide there have been more than 200,000 cases since the disease was first diagnosed in 1986 in Great Britain. BSE has had a substantial impact on the livestock industry in the United Kingdom. The disease has also been confirmed in native-born cattle in Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, the Netherlands, Northern Ireland, Portugal, Spain and Switzerland. However, over 95% of all BSE cases have occurred in the United Kingdom. BSE is not known to exist in the United States. Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, in contrast, occurs worldwide and usually becomes evident as dementia. Most of the time it appears sporadically, striking one person in a million, typically around age 60.