New Strain of Mad Cow Disease Found

In a new study, Italian researchers have identified what appears to be a new strain of prion disease, similar to mad cow disease. The study was published in the February 17, 2004 issue of the Proceedings of the [U.S.] National Academy of Sciences.

The brains of two cows infected with this new strain were found to look much like the human brains of people with sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), which has not been linked to tainted meat or bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), known as mad cow disease. What has been linked to BSE is new variant (nv) CJD, which has occurred in humans. In fact, around 150 cases of nvCJD have occurred in the United Kingdom, all associated with eating cattle infected with BSE.

The Italian scientists call the new strain bovine amyloidotic spongiform encephalopathy (BASE). This strain appeared in much older cattle, and the prions collected in the olfactory bulb and thalamus instead of in the brain stem. The scientists believe that eating meat with this new strain could produce CJD in people. Current U.S. tests used to find the prions that cause BSE in cows and nvCJD in people may not be able to identify the new strain. Meanwhile, other recent reports of differing types of mad cow disease in Japan and France suggest that many cases diagnosed as sporadic may instead be the result of eating animals with BSE.

The study was led by Dr. Salvatore Monaco and Dr. Gianluigi Zanusso, of the University of Verona (Italy), and was edited by Dr. Stanley Prusiner, awarded a Nobel Prize in 1977 for his work on prions.




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