What Is New Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD)?
New variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) — or “Human Mad Cow disease” — is also a fatal brain-wasting disease. Characterized by dementia and loss of motor control, this hideous disease was first identified in the United Kingdom in 1996. It is widely accepted in the scientific community that the most likely cause of vCJD is from exposure to the BSE agent via “dietary contamination by affected bovine central nervous system tissue”, or in more simple terms, from eating infected meat.(9) Originally it was believed that Mad Cow disease could not jump from cattle to humans. The hypothesis of a link between vCJD and Mad Cow disease was first raised because of the association of these two in time and place. Experts quickly observed that the agent responsible for vCJD is consistent with the agent that causes Mad Cow disease in cattle; In other worlds – it was the same disease.(10) Scientific studies have since confirmed that vCJD and BSE are indeed the same disease.(11) vCJD is classified
