Bovine spongiform encephalopathy is more commonly known to humans as mad cow disease, or BSE. BSE originates from endemic scrapie or spongiform encephalopathy, a disease that mainly affects sheep and goats. BSE is a disease that affects the brain and spinal cord of adult cattle due to an infection caused by a transmissible agent known as a prion. Once affected by BSE, the cattle began to develop strange behaviors such as aggression, lack of coordination with inability to stand or walk and abnormal posture; hence the name mad cow disease (1). Why BSE should be eradicated - BSE is a deadly disease - It has been observed that BSE progresses very slowly compared to other diseases, however it is very contagious and fatal not only to cattle but also to humans too. Although many diseases transmissible from animals to humans affect young or elderly humans, the average age of people infected with mad cow disease is 26 years (2). BSE has been linked to a fatal brain disease in humans called variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, or vCJD. Eating infected cow meat is what many presume to cause vCJD in humans (3). Symptoms include movement deficits, memory impairment, and cognitive impairment, all of which lead to death. Most reported BSE cases occurred primarily outside the United States; From 2003 to 2012, 23 cases were identified in North America, including 4 in the United States (1). This may seem like a small amount, however because it is believed to be transmitted through cattle meat, it can be extremely dangerous and be shipped across the United States before being identified. The symptoms of BSE progress very quickly. progression is one of the most important clues... middle of paper... animal feed. These high-risk substances come from the brain and spinal cord of cattle aged 30 months or older. After the feed ban in 1988, the number of reported cases decreased significantly. In 1998 this dropped to 1,567 reported cases. Last year, 4,454 new cases were reported, compared to 37,301 new cases in 1992, when the disease peaked. Bright: With current measures to prevent a BSE epidemic and control the spread of such a deadly disease, the only case has been reported in the United States that did not impact the food supply or cause contagion of vCJD in a human. These current steps, along with continued research, will eliminate bovine spongiform encephalopathy and variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.