MCD

* Mad Cow Disease.

The first thing that comes to mind when people hear "Mad Cow Disease" is probably acow with an insane look making weird sounds on thei TV screen, which is a completely different than what the disease really is.

The scientific name for the disease is: Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) but ever since the disease started sprouting in the United Kingdom the media decided to call it "Mad Cow Disease" (MCD) and since people only recognized the illness by that name, even scientists use the term MCD sometimes. With further studies even scientists started to doubt the reality bahind the name "Mad Cow Disease" and thought "Sad Cow Disease" would be a more appropiate term for the illness due to the symptoms shown in the cattle.

Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy is, as it's name suggests, a spongi that attacks the cow's brain and then spreads all the way throught the spinal cord attacking the animal's nervous system. As we know, the nervous system's work is to control the body, therefore the symptoms are all related to it.

The symptoms of BSE are:
* Loss of coordination, the cattle constantly falls and crashes with other animals or objects.
* Mobility issues. The animal might not move for days or even weeks since it starts oosing mobility in its legs, ears, etc.
* "Dementia" since cattle is not a thinking being it cannot be considered to suffer from dementia, but it starts acting different from the rest of the cows some cases are cows biting each other, eating their own excrements, between others.

As previously stated, scientists consider the term "Sad Cow Disease" to be a more accurate name for this disease due to a lack of movement in the sick cow seems to be "sad" because it will not move, be with other cows, and sometimes will not eat, similar to a person suffering from depression.

If a cow that has been infected reproduces, the younger cow is sure to inherit the disease from it's mother. This is the main reason why farmers are so worried about it. After the cow has been infected by the spongi, there is no way back for it. There is ano actual cure, no medicine, no pills, no surgery, and no way of healing an infected cow. Since farmers d not want the spongi to be spread and cannot cure an infected cow, all they do to help themselves is kill the infected animals. Either way, the spongi takes between 4 to 5 years to develop itself in the host, throught this lapse of time the symptoms start getting worse, until tey lead to the cow's death.

During 1986 there was a huge "epidemic" in the United Kingdom, suddenly thousands of cows were dying in different farms. After months of studying it, they discovered MCD eas behind the deaths. This was the origin of MCD, since it was a new disease unfamiliar to farmers and scientists, they could not find a way to stop it at the beginning. After 3 months, they had to kill the infected cows, doing something like a "purge" leaving only the healthy cows alive. It is estimated that over 200,000 cows died in the United Kingdom in 1986 from MCD.

Scientists still cannot explain what caused the disease or where it came from, as stated earlier the cure is still a mystery. Unfortunately, the disease somehow managed to spread throughout the world but its main host is still the United Kingdom.

What worries scientists, is the the infection has mutated and taken humans as a host, causing a very similar disease known as Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.

Bibliography:
www.sustainable.org/issues/madcow/
http://beyondfactoryfarming.org/get-informed/health/mad-cow-disease-bse
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bovine_spongiform_encephalopathy
http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/fn-an/securit/animal/bse-esb/facts-faits-eng.php

By: Luis Arturo Martinez