Question

In 1986, something strange began to happen to cattle in Great Britain. The animals began acting strangely, losing control of their movements, staggering, stumbling, and eventually dying. Farmers watched helplessly as the disease they called, Mad cow" spread through their cattle. The disease affected more than 30,000 cattle in 1991. Studies in the brains of cattle killed by the mad cow disease showed that large areas of the animals' brains had been destroyed. Under the microscope, the holes in the tissue made the brain resemble a sponge. Because of this, the disease was given the name bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE. British scientists carefully examined 169 cattle with BSE. All 169 cattle had been given feed enriched with meat and bone meal protein from slaughtered cattle. How could this practice spread a disease? How could this have happened being that the DNA of cattle and mice are different? If the protein supplements that were given were sterilized at 100 degrees, how could this have happened?

Answer 1

The spread of BSE disease in cattle was caused by the consumption of infected feed containing an abnormal variant of the prion protein PrP.

Step-by-step explanation:

The spread of the bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) disease in cattle was caused by the consumption of feed containing meat and bone meal protein from infected cattle. This practice allowed the infectious prion protein, which causes the disease, to be introduced into the cattle's bodies. The prion protein is an abnormal variant of a normal cellular protein called PrP. When the infectious prion binds to the normal PrP, it converts it into the infectious form, leading to the destruction of brain tissue and the development of the disease.