Normal sterilization procedures such as boiling or irradiating materials do not prevent transmission of TSEs. However, they may be transmitted through contact with infected tissue, body fluids, or contaminated medical instruments. TSEs cannot be transmitted through the air or through touching or most other forms of casual contact. Through transmission from infected individuals-Transmission of TSEs from infected individuals is relatively rare.This genetic change may be transmitted to an individual's offspring. As hereditary diseases-Inherited cases arise from a change, or mutation, in the prion protein gene that causes the prions to be shaped in an abnormal way.Sporadically-Sporadic TSEs may develop because some of a person's normal prions spontaneously change into the infectious form of the protein and then alter the prions in other cells in a chain reaction.Prion proteins occur in both a normal form, which is a harmless protein found in the body's cells, and in an infectious form, which causes disease.

Research suggests that TSEs are caused by an abnormal version of a protein called a prion (short for proteinaceous infectious particle). CJD and other TSEs also can be transmitted experimentally to mice and other animals in the laboratory. These cases are probably caused by contaminated feed. In a few rare cases, TSEs have occurred in other mammals such as zoo animals. Chronic wasting disease, which affects elk and deer.Research suggests that vCJD may have resulted from human consumption of beef from cattle with a TSE disease called bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), also known as Mad Cow Disease. Gerstmann-Straussler-Scheinker Disease (GSS)Ī relatively new type of CJD known as variant CJD (vCJD) was first described in 1996.These holes can be seen when brain tissue is viewed under a microscope.Ĭreutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) is the most well-known of the human TSEs. Transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs), also known as prion diseases, are a group of rare degenerative brain disorders characterized by tiny holes that give the brain a 'spongy' appearance. What are transmissible spongiform encephalopathies?

Ffi disease