How the Cows Turned Mad

by Schwartz, Maxime; Schneider, Edward

• ISBN13: 9780520235311
• ISBN10: 0520235312
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-02-01
• Publisher: Univ of California Pr

Summary

Fear of mad cow disease, a lethal illness transmitted from infected beef to humans, has spread from Europe to the United States and around the world. Originally published to much acclaim in France, this scientific thriller, available in English for the first time and updated with a new chapter on developments in 2001, tells of the hunt for the cause of an enigmatic class of fatal brain infections, of which mad cow disease is the latest incarnation. In gripping, nontechnical prose, Maxime Schwartz details the deadly manifestations of these diseases throughout history, describes the major players and events that led to discoveries about their true nature, and outlines our current state of knowledge. The book concludes by addressing the question we all want answered: should we be afraid? The story begins in the eighteenth century with the identification of a mysterious illness called scrapie that was killing British sheep. It was not until the 1960s that scientists unders

Author Biography

Maxime Schwartz is Professor at the Institut Pasteur in Paris and is currently serving as Director of Laboratories of the French agency for food safety (AFSSA).

Table of Contents

Prologue

The Sheep Are Strangely Dizzy

Molecules and Microbes

Mad Dogs and Earthworms

Scrapie under the Microscope

Creutzfeldt, Jakob, and Others

Scrapie Is Inoculable

And Goats, and Mice

Scrapie Is Contagious

Kuru and the Fore People of Papua New Guinea

The Wall Comes Down

From Pearl Necklace to Double Helix

The Phantom Virus

A Tragedy in the Making

One Case per Million

Prions

April 1985

The "Kiss of Death"

The Return of the Spontaneists

To Grow--and to Die

Lessons Learned

Have the Cows Gone Mad?

From Cows to Humans

From Cows to Sheep? From Humans to Humans?

The Secret in the Closet

Unmasking "The Disease"

Have We Conquered "The Disease"?

2001

Epilogue

Notes

Bibliography

Chronology

Acknowledgments

Index

Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.