Case of mad cow disease detected in a farm in northern Spain

Spain has detected this Friday a case of mad cow disease in the north of the country.

Atypical bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) was detected in a dead cow in the northwest region of Galicia, the World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH) announced on Friday.

The disease, commonly called mad cow disease, was detected after the 22-year-old cow was culled due to signs of illness that were not related to BSE, WOAH said, citing information from Spanish authorities.

BSE is a progressive neurological disease of cows.

The disease worsens over time, eventually damaging the cow’s brain and spinal cord to the point of death.

Most scientists believe that BSE is caused by a protein called a prion.

For reasons that are not fully understood, the normal prion protein changes into an abnormal prion protein that is harmful.

A common sign of BSE in cows is a lack of coordination.

A sick cow will have trouble walking and getting up, and will also act very nervous or violent, which is why BSE is often called mad cow disease.

People can get a version of BSE called variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD).

As of 2019, 232 people worldwide are known to have become ill with vCJD and all have died.

They are believed to have contracted the disease by eating feed made from cows sick with BSE.

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