You are right, it's not a virus but mutated prions that cause the disease: "through physical contact, the mutated prion protein (called PrPSC) is able to switch the normal version into the mutated form."den4 said:I thought the mad cow had to do with prions and cattle being fed with infected cows...didn't know it was an actual virus....
from the New Scientist BSE FAQ:
http://www.newscientist.com/hottopics/bse/bsefaq.jsp;jsessionid=AFBIGNDOKOIF
AFAIK, it's also not really as contagious as Rachel wrote, you have to eat contaminated beef to become infected. I think, all humans with vCJD have eaten beef from infected cattle (well, OK, it's not absolutely sure, but most probable). There were theories of other infection ways but none have been proved.