In the U.K., cattle had been fed with animal remains for years. In 1986, Bovin Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) was discovered in a herd of cows. As of November 2000, 177,500 cases of BSE had been discovered. The prion disease in humans acquired from contaminated beef has been called the new variant of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (nvCJD). [...]

Does Scrapie Agent Contain DNA or RNA? An assay was developed to transfer scrape from sheep extracts to mice. This assay took a very long time to complete. It was subsequently shown that Syrian Hamsters are more sensitive hosts, and in fact there is a species barrier to transmission. Exposing scrapie extracts to UV or [...]

Prion diseases, also known as transmissible spingiform encephalopathies, are a group of degenerative brain disease capable of transmission between individuals or by inoculation or ingestion of disesaes brain or other tissues. These diseases include scrapie in sheep, bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in cattle and Creutzfeld-Jakob disease (CJD), kuru, Gerstmann-Straussler-Scheinker syndrome (GSSS) and iatrogenic TSE in [...]