Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy

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was the scientists' overall conclusion (Stadthalle, 1993). These
lesions are consistent with the diseases of the more common scrapie family.
Without further investigation, the conclusion was made that BSE was a new member
of the scrapie family (Westgarth, 1994).
Transmission of BSE is rather common throughout the cattle industry.
After the incubation period of one to two years, experimental transmission was
found possible by the injection of brain homogenates from clinical cases
(Swanson, 1990). This only confirmed that BSE is caused by a scrapie-like
infectious agent.
How does the transmission become so readily available among the entire
United Kingdom feedlot population? Studies showed that the mode of infection
was meat and bone meal that had been incorporated into concentrated feedstuffs
as a protein-rich supplement (Glausiusz, 1996). It is thought that the outbreak
was started by a scrapie infection of cattle, but the subsequent course of the
epidemic was driven by the ...

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and it is
only there that a large-scale epidemic has occurred (Burton, 1996). By the end
of 1990 well over 20,000 cases of BSE had been has been confirmed in England,
Scotland, and Wales (Filders, 1990). The deadly epidemic started simultaneously
in several parts of the country and cases have been distributed over a wide area
ever since (Cowell, 1996).
Besides the United Kingdom, cases of BSE have occurred in the Republic
of Ireland. Some of these cases were associated with the importation of live
animals, meat, and bone meal from the United Kingdom (Cherfas, 1990).
Two cases of BSE have also occurred in cattle from the country of Oman.
These animals were thought to be part of a ...

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