In News
- Brazil has halted its beef exports after the confirmation of a case of mad cow disease in its northern state.
- Brazil is the largest exporter of Beef in the world while the USA is the largest producer.
What is mad cow disease?
- Mad cow disease is also known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE).Â
- It is a transmissible, slowly progressive, degenerative, and fatal disease which affects the central nervous system of adult cattle. The infectious agent that causes mad cow disease is an abnormal version of a protein normally found on cell surfaces called a prion.
- When protein gets altered, it destroys the nervous system tissue- the brain and spinal cord.Â
Source: HT
