Mad cow disease is the usual name for a condition known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE).
1. Humans Cannot Get Mad Cow Disease
With all the fuss about mad cow disease, the disease cannot be transmitted to human beings. Mad cows can however contract a certain form of the disease called variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) which can e transmitted to humans. The disease is not mad cow disease, but is unpleasant and can be fatal. The disease is normally fatal among cows and can affect humans within 13 months of noting symptoms.
2. You Can’t Get the Disease From Eating Steak
Quite often when there is an outbreak of mad cow disease, panic soon follows and people start to avoid red meat. But human beings cannot get the disease from eating the meat. A human being can only become infected after they eat the brains, spinal cord or nerve tissues of the infected cow. People won’t become infected from eating muscles like steak or beef or drinking the infected cow’s milk.
In addition, human beings cannot spread the disease through regular contact. However, in the U.S. people who’ve spent more than 3 months around infect cows are not allowed to donate blood.
3. Humans Don’t Really Get CJD From Cows
It’s highly unlikely that human beings can get Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease from eating contaminated cows. There are basically three different types of CJD, which also include a hereditary version that accounts for about 10% of all cases. Approximately 85% of cases are deemed Sporadic CJD, where there are no risk factors involved. The acquired form of CJD, which accounts for less than a percent of patients who struggle with the disease. It is normally transmitted when someone is exposed to an infected nervous system or brain during medical procedures.
4. If You Have Contracted CJD, You May Not Know Until Years Later
CJD symptoms include, difficulty in moving body parts. As the diseases progresses, the victim will start to struggle walking. Victims may suffer brain damage, psychotic behavior, coma and dementia. The worse thing is that there is no cure for the disease and affected people normally die within 13 months of symptoms appearing. Furthermore, the symptoms may manifest after 15 years.
5. Mad Cow Disease Was Discovered in 1986
The disease was discovered in 1986 in Great Britain. It is however believed that the disease could have starting infecting in the 1970s.
6. Cooking the Meat Thoroughly Won’t Help
You could roast the meat into shoe leather, scorch it, boil it for days on the stove or even nuke it, but that won’t protect you from the perilous CJD variant. The ingredients that make up the disease are not affected by methods used to kill pathogens. These ingredients that are called prions can thrive in extreme temperatures. You would require temperatures in excess of 1,900 degrees to neutralize it.