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Brain Eater, The
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Program Overview
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In 1986, a small number of British cattle came down with a new
illness called Mad Cow Disease. Only a few years later, the name
would be a household word and the disease an epidemic among British
herds. A form of a brain disease known as spongiform encephalopathy,
the fatal disease probably infected cows who ate a food supplement
containing remains of sheep infected with a similar form of the
illness.
More recently, people who ate infected beef have been found with a
new variant of the disease. Is a large human epidemic brewing or
will the infection end with the handful of people who have already
been diagnosed? How does the disease infect? Is it through a rogue
protein—as some researchers believe—rather than a virus
or bacteria? NOVA tracks the work of scientists, epidemiologists,
and policy-makers as they seek to understand the puzzling nature of
the disease and its possible transmission to humans.
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