bovine spongiform encephalopathy

encephalopathy

 [en-sef″ah-lop´ah-the]

any degenerative disease of the brain.

AIDS encephalopathy HIV encephalopathy.

anoxic encephalopathy hypoxic encephalopathy.

biliary encephalopathy (bilirubin encephalopathy) kernicterus.

bovine spongiform encephalopathy a prion disease of adult cattle in the British Isles with neurologic symptoms. It is transmitted by feed containing protein in the form of meat and bone meal derived from infected animals. The etiologic agent is also the cause of new variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. Called also mad cow disease.

boxer's encephalopathy (boxer's traumatic encephalopathy) a syndrome due to cumulative head blows absorbed in the boxing ring, characterized by slowing of mental function, occasional bouts of confusion, and scattered memory loss. It may progress to the more serious boxer's dementia. See also postconcussional syndrome.

dialysis encephalopathy a degenerative disease of the brain associated with longterm use of hemodialysis, marked by speech disorders and constant myoclonic jerks, progressing to global dementia.

hepatic encephalopathy a condition, usually occurring secondary to advanced liver disease, marked by disturbances of consciousness that may progress to deep coma (hepatic coma), psychiatric changes of varying degree, flapping tremor, and fetor hepaticus.

HIV encephalopathy (HIV-related encephalopathy) a progressive primary encephalopathy caused by infection with human immunodeficiency virus type I, manifested by a variety of cognitive, motor, and behavioral abnormalities. Called also AIDS encephalopathy.

hypernatremic encephalopathy a severe hemorrhagic encephalopathy induced by the hyperosmolarity accompanying hypernatremia and dehydration.

hypertensive encephalopathy a complex of cerebral phenomena such as headache, convulsions, and coma that occur in the course of malignant hypertension.

hypoxic encephalopathy encephalopathy caused by hypoxia from either decreased rate of blood flow or decreased oxygen content of arterial blood; mild cases cause temporary intellectual, visual, and motor disturbances, and severe cases can cause permanent brain damage within five minutes. Called also anoxic encephalopathy.

lead encephalopathy brain disease caused by lead poisoning.

mitochondrial encephalopathy encephalopathy associated with mitochondrial abnormalities, such as melas syndrome and merrf syndrome.

portal-systemic encephalopathy (portasystemic encephalopathy) hepatic encephalopathy.

progressive subcortical encephalopathy Schilder's disease.

subacute spongiform encephalopathy (transmissible spongiform encephalopathy) prion disease.

traumatic encephalopathy

1. boxer's encephalopathy.

2. postconcussional syndrome.

Wernicke's encephalopathy a neurological disorder characterized by confusion, apathy, drowsiness, ataxia of gait, nystagmus, and ophthalmoplegia; it is due to thiamine deficiency, usually from chronic alcohol abuse. It is almost invariably accompanied by or followed by korsakoff's syndrome and frequently accompanied by other nutritional polyneuropathies. See also wernicke-korsakoff syndrome.

Miller-Keane Encyclopedia and Dictionary of Medicine, Nursing, and Allied Health, Seventh Edition. © 2003 by Saunders, an imprint of Elsevier, Inc. All rights reserved.

bo·vine spon·gi·form en·ceph·a·lop·a·thy (BSE),

a disease of cattle first reported in 1986 in Great Britain; characterized clinically by apprehensive behavior, hyperesthesia, and ataxia, and histologically by spongiform changes in the gray matter of the brain stem; caused by a prion, like spongiform encephalopathies of other animals (for example, scrapie) and human beings (Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease [vCJD]).

Synonym(s): mad cow disease

In the middle 1990s, an unusual number of cases of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) were reported in people under 30 years of age in Great Britain. These patients displayed typical clinical features but not the EEG changes characteristic of CJD, and autopsy specimens showed unusual amyloid plaques resembling those of kuru but not previously observed in CJD. This so-called variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) has been traced to consumption of beef products contaminated by central nervous system tissues of a cow infected with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (mad cow disease). An epizootic of this disease killed more than 150,000 cattle in Britain between 1986 and 1996. Since July 1989 the importation of cattle and cattle products from the U.K. has been banned by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The discovery late in 2003 of a single dairy cow infected with BSE in Washington state prompted a revision of screening procedures in the U.S. and a tightening of restrictions on the use of meat products as human food. WHO consultants have condemned the practice of feeding ruminant-derived meat-and-bone meal to cattle and urged the adoption of measures to ensure that no part of any animal that shows signs of a spongiform encephalopathy enters any human or animal food chain. Milk, dairy products, gelatin, and lard are considered safe. see also Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.

Farlex Partner Medical Dictionary © Farlex 2012

bovine spongiform encephalopathy

n. Abbr. BSE

A fatal degenerative brain disease of cattle, caused by a prion that can be transmitted to humans who consume infected beef. Also called mad cow disease.

The American Heritage® Medical Dictionary Copyright © 2007, 2004 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

bovine spongiform encephalopathy

A disease of cattle which is characterised by high-stepping or staggering gait, anxiety, increased sensitivity and kicking while being milked, and less commonly by frenzy and aggressiveness.

Epidemiology
BSE has a long incubation period of two to eight years, and affects cattle that are fed bone meal and protein products from infected cattle; the disease is transmitted to humans by eating food contaminated with infected brain, spinal cord or GI tract. The human form of BSE has been called new variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, and as of late 2009, 166 people in the UK had died of the disease.

Aetiology
Prions.

Segen's Medical Dictionary. © 2012 Farlex, Inc. All rights reserved.

bovine spongiform encephalopathy

Bovine spongiform encephalitis, BSE, mad cow disease A disease of cattle, characterized by high-stepping or staggering gait, anxiety, ↑ sensitivity, and kicking while being milked, less commonly, frenzy, aggression; BSE was first described in the UK in cows fed with sheep offal. See Prions.

McGraw-Hill Concise Dictionary of Modern Medicine. © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

bo·vine spon·gi·form en·ceph·a·lop·a·thy

(BSE) (bō'vīn spŭn'ji-fōrm en-sef'a-lop'ă-thē)

A disease of cattle first reported in 1986 in Great Britain; characterized clinically by apprehensive behavior, hyperesthesia,and ataxia, and histologically by spongiform changes in the gray matter of the brainstem; caused by a prion, like spongiform encephalopathies of other animals (e.g., scrapie) and human beings (Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease).
See: Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease

Medical Dictionary for the Health Professions and Nursing © Farlex 2012

bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE)

A PRION DISEASE of cattle similar to, possibly identical to, CREUTZFELDT-JAKOB DISEASE in humans. The first cases appeared in 1985 believed to be the result of the feeding of calves in 1981–82 with meat-and-bone meal from infected animals. Only a few animals in each herd were affected; in more than one third of farms with BSE only one animal developed the disease. The question of whether new-variant CJD was acquired by eating beef products from infected animals has not been positively answered.

Collins Dictionary of Medicine © Robert M. Youngson 2004, 2005

bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE)

a group of degenerative neurological diseases found in cattle, resulting in uncoordinated muscular actions and progressive dementia. See also SCRAPIE. When transmitted to humans, the PRION may cause Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease, symptoms of which include spasmic movements, fits and dementia.

Collins Dictionary of Biology, 3rd ed. © W. G. Hale, V. A. Saunders, J. P. Margham 2005

Bovine spongiform encephalopathy

A progressive, fatal disease of the nervous system of domestic animals. It is transmitted by eating infected food. Also known as Mad Cow disease.

Mentioned in: Zoonosis

Gale Encyclopedia of Medicine. Copyright 2008 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.