I am cow,
Hear me moo,
I weigh twice as much as you
& I look good on the barbeque
Milk, cream, cheese and butter,
are all made using liquid from my udders
While i taste so so good,
whether stir-friend, boiled or stewed
I've got a disease called mad cow,
and people are starting to shun me now
BSE bovine spongiform encephalopathy,
is the scientic name for the disease in me
The proteins in my brain are starting to go wrong,
I'll die soon, it won't be long
People who consume me will be infected,
they won't remain unaffected
In UK 170,000 people got the BSE
And in the end they all mati
While there are no cures, no treatments, no vaccines
and people now eat chicken as an alternative means,
There are a few ways to prevent this disease,
So that this epidemic can cease
Firstly, avoid products that may contain my spinal cord and tissue,
they will just increase the risk in you
Secondly, find alternative means,
such as fish, chicken, or even beans
Lastly, which i think is the best solution,
go green, the risk will be low and it will reduce pollution!
Infected cattle
Infected adult cattle may develop signs of the disease slowly. It may take from 2 to 8 years from the time an animal becomes infected until it first shows signs of disease. Symptoms in the animal include a change in attitude and behavior, gradual uncoordinated movements, trouble standing and walking, weight loss despite having an appetite, and decreased milk production. Eventually the animal dies. From the onset of symptoms, the animal deteriorates until it either dies or is destroyed (cattle who cannot stand are called “downers”). This disease process may take from 2 weeks to 6 months.
During the final stages, infected animals become aggressive, lack co-ordination, and are unsteady on their hooves – hence the nickname for the condition – mad cow.
Victims of the disease usually die within a year after the first symptoms appear. Veterinarians can only tell for certain if an animal died of BSE by examining its brain after death. Brains of "mad cows" are spongy, as holes have developed in the nerve cells. A deposit of fibrous protein is also apparent in the brain's tissues.
Infected Human
Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) is the "mad cow" disease that people contract when they are exposed to food contaminated with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE).
A number of subtypes of CJD exist, many with slight variations in signs and symptoms. Yet the various forms of the disease are more alike than they are different, and everyone affected by CJD must eventually contend with grave mental and physical problems.
Classic CJD and variant CJD share the characteristics listed below, but the characteristics manifest somewhat differently in each form of the disease.
Long incubation period
The incubation period is the time it takes you to become sick after you've contracted a disease. Cold symptoms usually start a day or two after you're exposed to a cold virus, for example, whereas the time frame for CJD is considerably longer.
- Classic CJD. It often takes years or even decades after infection before someone with classic CJD develops signs and symptoms of the disease.
- Variant CJD. Although it's too early to know for certain, scientists suspect that the same is true of vCJD. That's why some experts predict that an epidemic of vCJD is still to come.
Personality changes
Both classic and variant CJD begin with personality changes such as anxiety, depression, memory loss and impaired thinking. As the diseases progress, mental symptoms become more severe. Ultimately, people with both forms of CJD develop dementia — a mental disorder that robs them of the ability to speak, think, reason, remember and move. Although the symptoms of CJD sometimes resemble those of other neurological disorders such as Alzheimer's and Huntington's disease, CJD usually progresses much more rapidly than do other diseases associated with dementia.
- Classic CJD. The progression from initial personality changes to complete dementia occurs very quickly, usually within a few months of the onset of symptoms.
- Variant CJD. Psychiatric symptoms are the most prominent feature early in vCJD, but dementia develops later in the course of the disease than it does in classic CJD.
Problems with balance and coordination
Both types of CJD affect balance and coordination, leading to stumbling, falls and difficulty walking, but these problems occur sooner in vCJD than they do in classic CJD.
Coma and death
Most people lapse into coma before succumbing to these invariably fatal diseases.
- Classic CJD. People with classic CJD generally live less than 12 months after signs and symptoms appear, although some people may live as long as two years. Death is usually not a result of the disease itself, but rather of complications such as heart failure, respiratory failure and pneumonia.
- Variant CJD. People with vCJD tend to live slightly longer — about 12 to 14 months after signs and symptoms appear.
Other signs and symptoms of classic CJD include:
- Blurred vision and, often, eventual blindness
- Involuntary muscle contractions (myoclonus)
- Difficulty speaking, which may lead to mumbling or speech that's hard to understand
- Difficulty swallowing
Other signs and symptoms of vCJD include:
- A sense that the skin feels sticky
- Sensations of cold or pain
- Muscle paralysis
- Tremors
By Seewei
mad cows! signed off at 6:28 PM
