Personal Injury Law

Cow Eyes tell about Mad Cow

By Mad Cow

Cattlenetworks reports that Sify.com reports scientists are working on a way to detect mad cow disease in cattle through an eye test making beef safer, culling infected cows sooner.

The test allows cattle to be tested before they enter the food supply. Scientist Jacob Petrich and colleagues say the human form of mad cow disease is contacted by eating infected beef. Beef contaminated with mad cow disease carries abnormal proteins, prions, implicated in a range of brain diseases.

The team of scientists is working on a way to develop tests looking for a chemical change in the animal's retina revealing it's affected by a prion disease. The team has already used a beam of light in an eye test to find a disease similar to mad cow disease in sheep. The test could provide a fast, inexpensive opportunity to detect diseases early.

Full post as published by Mad Cow Blog on June 10, 2010 (boomark / email).