United States Records Fourth Death From Mad Cow Disease

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recorded the fourth death in the United States from mad cow disease following an autopsy from the Texas man who died in May. The disease has killed 177 people in the UK since 1996.

Laboratory tests confirmed the man died from variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD). The deadly disorder, which attacks the nervous system and causes its victims to suffer from depression and dementia before they die, was first discovered in the United Kingdom back in 1996. Only four deaths have been recorded in the United States since then, and all of the victims contracted the disease while traveling abroad.

On Monday the CDC confirmed the fourth victim's death after a laboratory sample tested positive for the disease in the man's brain. The CDC is now working with the Texas Department of State Health Services to investigate the case of mad cow disease, which includes more information about the victim and the source of infection. It's already known that the man traveled throughout Europe and the Middle East before becoming ill.

"There is no evidence to suggest that other people in the United States have been exposed to variant CJD because of this patient," said CDC spokeswoman Christine Pearson in this National Geographic article.

"The history of this fourth patient, including extensive travel to Europe and the Middle East, supports the likelihood that infection occurred outside the United States," added the CDC news release.

Mad cow disease, otherwise known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), is a progressive neurological disorder of cattle that is the result of an infection from a prion - an infectious agent composed of protein in a misfolded form. The human prion disease, variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, has since mounted evidence of a causal relationship with BSE.

The spread of BSE and vCJD has resulted in the slaughter of millions of cattle that were suspected to have the disease. The three other people who died in the United States acquired the infection in the United Kingdom and Saudi Arabia.