A non-descript building in the heart of California's dairy country has become the focus of intense scrutiny now that mad cow disease has been discovered in a dead dairy cow. The finding, announced Tuesday, is the first new case of the disease in the U.S. since 2006 — and the fact that the discovery was made at all was a stroke of luck. Tests are performed on only a small portion of dead animals brought to the transfer facility near Hanford. The cow had died at one of the region's hundreds of dairies, but hadn't exhibited outward symptoms of the disease: unsteadiness, incoordination, a drastic change in behavior or low milk production, officials said. But when the animal arrived at the facility with a truckload of other dead cows on April 18, its 30-month-plus age and fresh corpse made her eligible for USDA testing. This animation depicts a current theory on prion proteins and how Mad Cow Disease affects the neurons in a cow's brain. Thank you for visiting Medicine Men. Link freely but please credit original content.
