What is mad cow disease in humans?

Mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), is a transmissible, slowly progressive, degenerative, and fatal disease affecting the central nervous system of adult cattle. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has tested hundreds of thousands of cattle for BSE. read more

Read an overview of mad cow disease (variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease) in humans including its symptoms, diagnosis, and treatment. Read an overview of mad cow disease (variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease) in humans including its symptoms, diagnosis, and treatment. read more

If humans eat diseased tissue from cattle, they may develop the human form of mad cow disease known as variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) or new variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (nvCJD). The disease was named after the researchers who first identified the classic condition. read more