Noun
bovine spongiform encephalopathy (uncountable) (abbreviated as BSE)
(pathology, neurology) A fatal, neurodegenerative disease of cattle, which is transmissible to humans through misshaped prion proteins, caused by eating infected tissues.
The outbreaks of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (mad cow disease) have limited some traditional uses of cattle for food, for example the eating of brains or spinal cords.