About BSE

BSE (Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy) is a fatal disease of the central nervous system of beef and dairy cattle. It is also called "Mad Cow Disease," because of the symptoms cattle with the disease have, including difficulty walking and behaviour changes.

BSE was first discovered in the U.K. in 1986. Most experts agree that BSE was most likely spread by cattle eating feed that contained Meat-and-Bone Meal (MBM), made from BSE-infected tissues. Experiments have shown that cattle can contract BSE if they are fed infected brain tissue. This seems to support the idea that BSE was transmitted to cattle through contaminated animal feed.

Since 1997, Canada has not allowed meat and bone meal from cattle, sheep, goats, bison, elk or deer (known as ruminants) to be fed to other ruminants. For more information, visit the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and the safeguards section.

There is no test to diagnose BSE in live animals, although a tentative diagnosis may be made based on clinical signs. Diagnosis can only be confirmed by examination of the animal’s brain.

BSE is one form of a group of diseases known as transmissible spongiform encephalopathies or TSEs. These disorders are thought to be related to an abnormal protein called a prion which causes brain tissue to appear "sponge-like".

CJD

Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) is a human TSE disease that has two forms: a classical form - cCJD - and a recently discovered variant form - vCJD - which is sometimes called the “human form” of Mad Cow disease. The two diseases should not be confused.

• Classical CJD (cCJD)
  cCJD is not related to eating beef or meat. Between 25 and 35 people die from cCJD in Canada each year, about 1 case per million people. This is the same rate that is found in the rest of the world. There is no evidence that the number of cCJD cases is increasing in Canada or anywhere else in the world. For more information on cCJD, visit the Public Health Agency of Canada.
  
  
• Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD)
  vCJD is linked to eating contaminated beef products from animals infected with BSE. As of March 31, 2006, 155 cases of vCJD have been reported in the U.K. To review figures for the U.K., see CJD statistics. More information on vCJD, visit the Public Health Agency of Canada.
  
  In 1998, Health Canada set up a CJD Surveillance System to monitor the instances of both classical and variant CJD across the country. It is now operated by the Public Health Agency of Canada and is considered one of the best in the world. In April 2002, a suspected case of vCJD was reported. After its investigation into the case, Health Canada decided that the person developed vCJD while living in the United Kingdom during the height of its’ BSE epidemic. There was no indication the individual contracted the disease anywhere other than the U. K.