Shonan Tax Office No.145

BSE

　

BSE (Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy), known as "mad cow" disease is infectious, neurodegenerative fatal brain disease of cattle. The mad cow disease that makes cow brain to change spongiform was first found in England in November 1986. It is called BSE (Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy.　After the cow get infection, the incubation period is about from 2 years to 8 years.　If the cow becomes ill, it will die during 6 months.　The cause of BSE is that protein, called prion stays in all brains without any harmful effect.　However, when prion takes abnormal shape, it will kill the brain cells.　In addition, it causes the clinical symptoms of the disease.

　

F&Q about BSE

Q1. Is BSE can infect humans?

Actually, we have not known yet.　One theory says that if human get infection, it may the cause of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD).

Until now, vCJD was found about 100 people in UK, 4 in France, and one in Ireland.　There are no reports in Japan

Q2 Is it safe to eat cow's meat and milk?

　 According to research in UK, there are infections with brains, spinal cord, eyes, and the ileum.　Therefore, it is safe to eat the other parts of cow's body.

　

Mad cow disease is disaster in Japan.　Because of it, consumers stopped buying meats.　As a result, farmer and restaurants that use cow had severely economical damage.　The most important problem is the fact that the government acts too late.