A recent mad cow disease scare in a Texas feed lot has brought the deadly disease a bit closer to home for Americans.The cattle were fed meat and bone meal made from other ruminates, violating a Food and Drug Administration ban. They were quarantined in late January as a precautionary measure to ensure the safety of the American meat supply, according to the FDA Web site, www.fda.gov.While there was not a “mad cow” among the herd, the event has brought the disease back into the spotlight.Mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, causes cattle to go “mad” by eating holes in the brain, causing it to look like a sponge, said Harley Moon, professor of veterinary medicine at the Veterinary Medical Research Institute.”BSE is caused by an extraordinary infectious agent called a prion,” Moon said. A prion is a primitive-life form that causes proteins to fold in an unusual way, turning brain cells into a “scrambled mess,” according to an article on www.msnbc.com, “Mad Cow Disease: Should People Be Worried?” It is speculated humans can contract a similar disease, a variant form of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, by consuming meat products of cattle infected with bovine spongiform encephalopathy, Moon said. The disease kills its victims in a matter of 13 months after an illness of poor muscle coordination, confusion, spasms and psychiatric problems, according to the FDA Web site. A total of 81 cases have been confirmed in Great Britain, with others reported in Ireland, Switzerland, France, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal and Denmark.The good news is that mad cow disease and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease have not been reported in the United States, and the government is doing everything it can to keep it out.”We must be proactive rather than reactive,” Moon said.The FDA has banned all meat importation from Britain and other countries with the disease in an effort to “preserve the feeling of safety most Americans hold for their meat supply,” said Mark Love, associate professor of food science and human nutrition.Cosmetics and supplements containing glandular materials from cattle have also been banned, Love said.”The FDA seems to be ready to enforce an absolute zero-tolerance of these materials in meat products,” he said.The new effort has also resulted in a “blood ban” for those who have lived in France, Ireland or Portugal for 10 years since 1980. A previous ban prevented those who lived in Great Britain for six months or more from donating, according to the American Red Cross Web site, www.redcross.org.Some studies have suggested mad cow disease can be spread through blood, although it is unconfirmed, according to the American Red Cross’ Web site.There currently is no blood test to detect mad cow disease or Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, but “one is desperately needed,” Moon said. The only test available now is a brain biopsy, which is not very convenient, he said.The emergence of mad cow disease in Britain was detrimental to the country’s beef industry, Moon said, and the effect on the U.S. beef industry would undoubtedly be much worse.”It would cost an excess of $5 billion if the disease did appear and was irradiated, and that doesn’t count the consequences for human health,” Moon said.He said there is “no reason to worry about eating U.S. beef,” but Americans should continue to “demand governmental steps to reduce the extremely low risk of the disease to an even lower level towards zero.”