Microbiology
A prion. AKA Bovine spongiform encephalopathy
Epidemiologic Risks
Eating infected neuro tissue of cows; of the 4 million infected cows consumed in Britain, there were about 145 cases of diseases in humans. I'd worry more about CAD with that Whopper® you are eating if I were you.
Syndromes
A variant of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.
Treatment
None. Supportive.
Notes
I know this great joke, e-mail if you want to know it.
Cooking does not inactivate the protein.
Probably the result of feeding sheep parts, which have scrapie, to cows.