Description of National Prion Disease Pathology Surveillance Center
The National Prion Disease Pathology Surveillance Center (NPDPSC) was established in 1997 at the Division of Neuropathology of Case Western Reserve University. Several European countries also have established surveillance centers to monitor the occurrence of prion diseases, or spongiform encephalopathies, in response to the epidemic of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE), also known as "mad cow disease," which occurred in the United Kingdom during the 1980s.