The mad cow disease is a disease happened among cows and founded in 1980s. in recent years， its becoming even more violent. The scientists found in research that this mental disease was firstly thought caused by the cows DNA mutation， but in fact ， the black hand was a mysterious microorganism.

The mysterious

phenomenon among

the cattle

Mike was an English farmer， on a morning in November， 1986， he went to the lair and feed the cows as usual. But the cows were strange that day， they stood there with dull eyes， and had no reaction on the fresh food. Several days later， the cows became no better， some even couldnt afford to lay down. The cardinal symptoms were loss of coordination， astasia， being hot and bothered， itching， even getting paralyzed and dead. Although the strange disease had been found for dozens of years， the cause of the disease was still not settled yet. As expected， Mikes cows died one after another， this attracted the attentions of the local medical institutions.

Find out the murderer

“prion”

The strange thing happened in the English lair was known by the American medical community soon. The professor Stanley B. Prusiner from University of California of America put forward a possibility： the murderer of these cows were virus！ As Prusiner hadnt known whether this virus really existed， he called it “ unusual virus” or “Slow infectious brain degeneration”. This hypothesis was finally verified 2 years later， he found a new organism——Prion in research， and won the 1997 Nobel Prize in biological medicine for this reason.

The mysterious virus

might originate from

“cannibals”

People couldnt help to guess if prion the product of animal pluck or skeleton. With this question， the scientists looked up some data about the cannibals of primitive tribes， and found the aboriginal people on some island had the custom to eat the internal organs of the dead. And by coincidence， the residents on this island frequently had a disease， the patients showed the change of mental state， such as fear， fury and nervousness， besides their touch and hearing weakened， the legs trembled or got paralyzed. Thinking about the cows， werent these the classical symptoms of the mad cow disease？

This research result was soon made public， the scientists asked the farmers to stop feeding the livestock with beef and bone meal， and strongly recommended people stopping eating the internal organs of animals， for this might be the only way of the mad cow disease spreading. By then， the mad cow disease began to spread in many countries and regions in the world. What was more regrettably was that not only the livestock got infected， but also human failed to escape the attack of prions.

The G-2s disease， the

form of prions in human

Though since the first case of mad cow disease was found in England in November， 1986， about 3700000 cows infected with mad cow disease were killed in 1988， that still couldnt stop the spread of prions among people by food and cosmetics.

The medical scientists soon had the jury for humans infecting with mad cow disease， they affirmed that the prions could be transmitted to humans indeed， and called this disease Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease （CJD）. According to introducing， its typical clinical symptoms are dementia， mental disorder， dimness of vision， equilibrium disorder， muscle contraction， etc. the patients will ultimately die for mental disorder. What is more terrible is that people havent found the effective medicine or therapy aiming at CJD.

The present battle

situation between human

and mad cow disease

The researchers of mad cow disease vaccine found on the laboratory mice infected with the disease that， although there was no healthy protein molecule in the brains of laboratory mice， they could still survive well. According to this， they extracted the special matters from the brain cells of the mice. The research team of University of Munich said that the vaccine made of these matters would prevent mad cow disease effectively， but in-depth study was needed to affirm whether it was effective in human prevention and curing the CJD. But this new matter may be a break through in resisting the mad cow disease.