Ask the Chatbot Games & Quizzes History & Society Science & Tech Biographies Animals & Nature Geography & Travel Arts & Culture ProCon Money Videos
transmissible spongiform encephalopathy
References
Quizzes
Encyclopaedia Britannica thistle graphic to be used with a Mendel/Consumer quiz in place of a photograph.
44 Questions from Britannica’s Most Popular Health and Medicine Quizzes
Britannica AI Icon

transmissible spongiform encephalopathy

pathology
Written by
The Information Architects of Encyclopaedia Britannica

The Information Architects maintain a master list of the topics included in the corpus of  Encyclopædia Britannica, and create and manage the relationships between them.
The Information Architects of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Last updated

Quick Summary

Transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) are fatal neurodegenerative diseases affecting animals, including humans. They are caused by prions, which are abnormal forms of normally harmless brain proteins. These prions accumulate in nerve cells, damaging them and leading to a spongy, pitted pattern in brain tissue.

Diseases in this category include bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in cattle, commonly known as mad cow disease, and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans. BSE, first identified in the United Kingdom in 1986, is thought to have originated from cattle consuming contaminated feed. This led to widespread concerns about a potential link to a new variant of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans. Measures such as feed bans were implemented to prevent further spread.12

Summary created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
4 Britannica Sources
  1. bovine spongiform encephalopathy
  2. transmissible spongiform encephalopathy
  3. prion
  4. TSE

Ask Britannica AI about this topic

Britannica doesn't have a full article on this topic, so we've curated a list of our relevant coverage.