What is spongiform encephalitis?

spongiform encephalitis, or crazy cows, is a type of encephalopathy that affects cattle. People who enjoy spinal cord or brains of infected cattle are threatened by the development of the human variant of the spongiform encephalitis called Creutzfeldt-Jakoba's disease (CJD). At the beginning of 2011 there was no cure for this disease.

Mutated proteins called prions cause spongiform encephalitis. Prions do not behave like viruses or bacteria; They are resistant to drugs, heat and radiation. These prions worsen the brain by creating a fungus similar to holes inside the brain tissue. This disease has an extensive incubation period lasting several years.

Scientists believe that cattle will infect spongiform encephalitis when they consume the brain and spinal cord of another infected cattle. They have difficulty walking or positioning and may seem to be out of balance. They have changes in behavior and attitudes and lose weight, although it remains. Infected cows continue to phony and worsen mentally until they are on the disease of theny or not died.

CJD people develop similar symptoms. They have difficulty in coordination and suffer from loss of memory, download, depression and muscle convulsions. Some infected patients also have sleep problems.

doctors perform a number of tests to check human patients on CJD. They examine blood and liver to exclude other possible infections or diseases that could cause symptoms. They can also perform electroencephalogram (EEG), positron emission tomography (PET) or magnetic resonance (MRI) tests to look for damage in the brain or body. Doctors could also perform a backbone tap or brain biopsy and look for chemicals or proteins to help diagnose.

There is no CJD treatment; Doctors do everything they are in their power to make patients comfortable by giving them drugs to control symptoms. Death usually follows eight to 60 months later. This oneEmotion is very rare, with only a few hundred cases reported by only a few hundred cases per year.

Governments have issued a number of protocols that prevent infection of humans and animals. Before 1997, farmers fed the cows of feeds containing meat and bone meal, which contained parts of the entire carcase, including spinal cord and brain. This practice has been banned in some places to stop the dissemination of the disease. People can reduce their risk of being infected with CJD by not eating beef products in countries that had problems with encephalitis of beef spongiforms.