Mad Cow Disease

     Mad cow disease is caused by cattle eating feed supplements containing ground up
spinal cord, brain, and other parts from diseased cattle. Mad cow disease occurs suddenly in individual cattle. Biochemist, Thomas Pringle,  who runs the Sperling Biomedical Foundation's “mad cow” Internet site says, "Where you really get into problems is in the amplification -- when you take one infected cow and you grind it up and you feed it to 10,000 cows, and then you take those 10,000 cows and you grind them up and you feed them to a million cows."

    The following websites contain information on Mad Cow Disease, how it's transmitted,  the type of species that are affected, and steps taken to help prevent the spread of the disease:

FDA/ Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) Mad Cow Disease Fact Sheet
The Threat to Humans from BSE Creutzfeldt-Jacob Disease
Mad Cow Disease In Europe Mad Cow Disease: The Science and The Story
Organic Consumers Association The BSE Inquiry: Report
Food Safety: From the Farm to the Fork USDA/ Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy

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Last Updated June 30, 2003
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