What is mad cow disease? Is it contagious? What are the ways of transmission? How to prevent it?

Disease is an extremely complex process, in many cases, from health to disease is a process from quantitative change to qualitative change. So do you know what mad cow disease is? Is it contagious? What are the ways of transmission? How to prevent it?

What is mad cow disease?

Mad cow disease, namely bovine spongiform brain disease, is referred to as BSE. The disease was named BSE in November 1986 and was first reported in British newspapers. The disease affects many countries around the world, such as France, Ireland, Canada, Denmark, Portugal, Switzerland, Oman and Germany. According to the inspection, some of these countries are caused by the import of British beef.

Can mad cow disease infect people?

1. Generally eating beef contaminated by mad cow disease may be infected. The typical clinical symptoms are dementia or neurosis, blurred vision, disturbance of balance, muscle contraction and so on. The patient eventually died of insanity.

2. All kinds of cattle are easy to be infected with mad cow disease, but the actual situation is that the vast majority of cases come from dairy cows. It usually takes a long time for cattle to get sick after infection, mostly for 2 ~ 8 years, so it mainly occurs in adult cattle. At present, there is no treatment for the disease, there is no vaccine, infected cattle will die. Other animals such as sheep, cats, monkeys, tigers and minks can also be infected with mad cow disease. Mad cow disease can infect people, and people can develop variant Jakob disease after infection, which can not be treated and eventually lead to death. the route of infection mainly includes food, medicine and medical devices contaminated by the pathogen of mad cow disease.

What are the ways of transmission of mad cow disease?

Mad cow disease is infected and spread mainly by feeding cattle feed containing the pathogen of mad cow disease. The content of pathogen in the brain, spinal cord and other nerve tissues of diseased cattle is the highest, and the risk of transmission of mad cow disease is the greatest, which will not be transmitted through air or contact with diseased cattle.

How to prevent mad cow disease?

1. Do not import breeding cattle from countries where mad cow disease occurs or risk countries; second, do not import cattle feed and additives containing animal protein from countries where mad cow disease occurs or risk countries

2. Do not feed cattle with feed containing animal protein; fourth, feed cattle with unknown sources or ingredients.

3. Cattle suspected of mad cow disease shall immediately report to the local animal husbandry and veterinary department, the animal health supervision agency or the animal epidemic prevention and control agency, and shall be quarantined in time after the diagnosis is made by the state authority. Private sale, transfer or slaughtering is strictly prohibited. In accordance with the requirements of current national laws and regulations, measures such as culling and harmless treatment must be taken for infected cattle and cattle in the same herd at risk, and any parts of culled cattle must be destroyed and shall not be used for any purpose. It is strictly forbidden to sell or dispose of sick and dead animals, otherwise it will lead to the spread of mad cow disease or infect people.

Attached: common clinical symptoms of mad cow disease

Most cattle have no obvious symptoms in the early stage after infection, and gradually show certain neurological symptoms as the course of the disease develops: restlessness, fear, convulsion or depression; abnormal increase in masticatory times, muscle convulsions, general tremors and spasms; excessive sensitivity to touch, sound and light; unwilling to cross the threshold, crevice ground or enter the corral; walk unsteadily and fall repeatedly. The course of the disease is mostly 1-4 months, some as long as 1 year, gradually lose weight, and eventually die. Because other diseases such as rabies, neuroketosis, organophosphorus poisoning, listeriosis, brain parasites and so on sometimes show similar symptoms, it is difficult to judge whether they are really infected with mad cow disease only by clinical symptoms. therefore, it must be diagnosed by laboratory means.