Question: My brother told me about the only, slightly logical, vagually possible idea of a zombie apocolyps is through mad cow disease. what is the logic behing this? Could it happen?

You have just touched on one of my favourite subjects! The Zombie Apocalypse is a favourite of my friends and I!

A zombie apocalypse of Mad Cow origin is not as far-fetched as some people seem to believe. Mad Cow (or Bovine spongiform encephalopathy), is a fatal disease in cattle that cause the brain and spinal cord to become spongy and break down. Cattle infected with Mad Cow become more aggressive and being to lose control of their muscles, making them seem slow and twitchy.

Humans can become infected by eating food that has been contaminated by the infected cows, though in humans, it is known as Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease, and sadly, there is no cure. People infected experience memory loss and changes in personality, become very confused, even hallucinating, and can sometimes become more aggressive. Because their muscles become affected as the nervous system dies, they begin to have problems speaking, movements become very jerky, their gait (the way they walk) changes, and their posture becomes very stiff.

Do these symptoms sound familiar to you?

Of course, Mad Cow isn’t your typical zombie disease. I mean, there’s no nomming of brains or gnawing on legs. A virus called rabies, which is found in places like the USA, causes dogs infected by it to become very aggressive, so much so that they have to be put down to stop them from hurting and infecting other dogs, animals, and humans. Perhaps a super disease, which was a combination of Mad Cow and Rabies would be closer to the effect we see in the movies, but then we have yet to see people infected with either of these diseases form roaming bands or herds intent on cannibalism, so perhaps not. Stephen also has a bit of a talk about zombies while answering this question.

Mad Cow is what is known as a ‘transmissible prion disease’. Prions are proteins that are not folded correctly, which changes their shape and function. From what I’ve read, these proteins cause the body to produce more of the same misfolded proteins, which then disrupt the normal function of the neural cells, and cause them to die. The disease can move from cow to human, and then between humans, by eating the flesh on an infected animal. Cooking doesn’t kill off disease, so even that extra well-done steak might not be safe. Blood transfusions and organ transplants would also transmit the disease from one human to another, which is why the Australian Red Cross won’t allow people who lived in areas known to have Mad Cow for extended periods to give blood.

Thankfully, Australia has not had an outbreak of Mad Cow, and given our geographic isolation, we should be relatively safe should this disease ever trigger the zombie apocalypse… for a while, at least.