The key is to feed the spinal cord an appropriate sensory input, so that it has something to learn.

ECONOMIST: Neurology

The Agriculture Department confirmed the first case of mad cow disease in America on December 23, 2003, in a cow born in Alberta, Canada, in April 1997, only four months before the United States and Canada began banning the use of brain and spinal cord tissue in cattle feed.

CNN: USDA quarantines 2 farms in mad cow investigation