mad cow disease

noun

: bovine spongiform encephalopathy

Examples of mad cow disease in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Some are patently self-explanatory: swine flu, bird flu, or mad cow disease. —Angus Chen, Discover Magazine, 2 Dec. 2014

In 2008, when the government lifted a 5-year-old ban on American beef imports, first imposed after the outbreak of mad cow disease in the United States, massive protests paralyzed downtown Seoul for weeks. —Choe Sang-Hun, New York Times, 21 Aug. 2023

Those people had previously been deferred from donating blood because of mad cow disease concerns. —Paighten Harkins, The Salt Lake Tribune, 18 July 2023

In the near future, mad cow disease mutates into mad human disease and causes everyone affected to turn into zombies. —Samantha Olson, Seventeen, 14 June 2023

After a meeting between Brazilian Agriculture Minister Carlos Favaro and Chinese Customs Minister Yu Jianhua, Beijing formally lifted a ban on Brazilian beef that Brazil had voluntarily imposed in February after reporting a case of mad cow disease. —Meaghan Tobin, Washington Post, 2 Mar. 2023

Both mad cow disease and vCJD are fatal. —Cnn Editorial Research, CNN, 30 May 2021

While chronic wasting disease has not been found to infect humans, its similarity to mad cow disease has led the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to advise hunters to be careful when handling harvested elk and deer and to get the animal tested before eating it. —Anton L. Delgado, The Arizona Republic, 29 May 2021

These misfolded brain proteinshave been linked to fatal diseases--like mad cow disease in cattle and the deadly variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans. —Smriti Rao, Discover Magazine, 26 Jan. 2010

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Word History

First Known Use

1988, in the meaning defined above

Medical Definition

mad cow disease

noun

-ˈkau̇- 

: bovine spongiform encephalopathy