Bovine spongiform encephalopathy.
Also known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE); a chronic, degenerative disorder that affects the central nervous system of cattle. Since 1996, concerns have arisen that there is a link between a disease in humans called new variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and mad cow disease. Both are fatal brain diseases with unusually long incubation periods, and both are caused by unconventional transmissible agents. Mad cow disease has been a major public health problem in the United Kingdom. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, BSE is extremely unlikely to be a food-borne hazard in the United States.