Could Mad-Cow Disease Happen Here?: “‘Whatever is causing this disease is unique; it falls out of the realm of all other disease agents,’ says Richard Rubenstein, the head of the molecular and biochemical neurovirology laboratory at the New York State Institute for Basic Research, in Staten Island. ‘We feel that it is probably a virino – a nucleic acid protected by a host protein that camouflages it so that the immune system doesn’t pick it up. There is no antibody reaction to the agent at all. The body simply does not recognize it as foreign.’” - This is out of date – we have reason to believe the disease can be passed through blood.