Mad Cow disease (Bovine Spongioform Encephalopathy) is similar in man to

(B) Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease # Group B (Prion Diseases) -caused by slow viruses:> The subacute spongiform viral encephalopathies are chronic progressive degenerative diseases of the CNS> Prion diseases of animals: Scrapie is the prototype prion disease. Mink encephalopathy is a scrapie-like disease of mink. It is believed to have spread to mink by feeding them on scrapie infected sheep meat.> Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE, 'mad cow disease) has been enzootic in Britain from 1986. The infection is presumed to have spread to cattle by the practice of feeding them with abattoir waste and offal which may have contained scrapie infected neat> Human prion diseases: These include Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), Gerstmann-Straussler-Scheinker (GSS) syndro me, Kuru and fatal familial insomnia.> CJD is a subacute presenile encephalopathy, with progressive incoordination and dementia, ending fatally in about a year. The appearance of a new variant of CJD affecting younger persons (below 45 years) in Britain in 1996 raised fears of infection through eating BSE infected beef.> Kuru (meaning tremor) was identified in 1957 as a mysterious disease seen only in the Fore tribe inhabiting the eastern highlands of New Guinea.> Group B (Prion Diseases) -caused by slow viruses