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Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy Bovine Spongiform Encephaolpathy, also known as Mad Cow Disease, is a fatal disease that affects the brain of a cow. The disease was first discovered in the south of the UK in February 1985. One of the cows starting acting very strangely one day, acting aggressively, shaking her head, and forgetting how to walk. After she died, scientists performed an autopsy on her and found something that they had never seen before. They said that she was killed by a “new, novel, progressive spongiform encephalopathy,” and she was diagnosed with bovine spongiform encephalopathy, which is commonly known as BSE. This name is very appropriate for this disease because bovine is Latin for ox, spongiform means “being full of holes,” like a sponge, and encephalopathy means “a disease that affects the brain,” and that is exactly what it is. When an animal catches the disease, tiny holes develop in the brain until the animal’s brain is virtually destroyed. When scientists first discovered the disease, they could not find the agent that destroys the brain, but they finally discovered that it was caused, not by a bacteria, but by a prion. A prion is much simpler than a bacteria or a virus; it is sim