What Is Mad Cow Disease?
3. How Does a Cow Contract Mad Cow Disease?
Cows can get BSE by consuming the meat of an infected cow. This typically happens when a person or cattle farm grounds up the unused meat of an infected cow into a powder. The powder is then mixed into animal feed and fed to other cows.
Though the meat is cooked prior to grinding it up into a powder, the powder will still contain the abnormal prion. While any cow can contract BSE, if one does, it likely ate contaminated feed during its first year of life. Even if that’s the case, however, it won’t show signs until it’s at least five years old.
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