[Is crazy cow disease the cause of the new variant of Creutzfeldt-Jakob syndrome?].
In 1986, veterinary pathologists discovered spongiform encephalopathy in the brains of two cows in the UK. These two cases turned out to be the beginning of epidemic bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), which culminated in 1992 with more than 3000 cases monthly. In 1996, the British government announced that a distinct variant of CJD (vCJD) had occurred in ten young people in the UK. The cases were notified within the past 1 1/2 years. A link to BSE seemed likely. Transmission studies of the two diseases have demonstrated similar properties such as incubation time, neuropathology and glycoform profile of the pathologically altered prionprotein. In effect, vCJD is very likely to represent human BSE. Epidemiological data suggest that BSE transmission to humans may have occurred only in a limited number of cases. Future studies will have to confirm this. So far, no increase in the incidence of vCJD has been noticed.
Blättler
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H:S Rigshospitalet, neurologisk afdeling.
Laursen
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Vorstrup
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D000818:Animals; D002417:Cattle; D007562:Creutzfeldt-Jakob Syndrome / Q000209:etiology* / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology / Q000635:transmission; D016643:Encephalopathy, Bovine Spongiform / Q000150:complications* / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology / Q000635:transmission; D006801:Humans