I'm doing a project on mad cow disease, and I need a description on the virus like weight, where to find that?

Question

I need a description on the physical characteristics, cellular organization. reproduction method, and type of necleic acid. If you can show me a website link or url that will really help. Also a picture is needed.

Answer 1

Mad Cow Disease is not associated with with either a virus or DNA. It's a prion disease, like scrapie, caused by bizarre mis-folding proteins called prions. They seem to somehow 'convert' normal variants of the protein they are to their 'mutant' state, so they spread and act infectious. Do a search on prion, and if you're interested, try searching on 'scrapie', 'wasting disease' and 'variant Creutzfeld-Jacob disease'.