Chronic Wasting Disease and Atypical forms of BSE and scrapie are not
transmissible to mice expressing wild-type levels of human PrP
Running title: CWD and Atypical TSE Transmission to HuTg mice
Rona Wilson1, Chris Plinston1, Nora Hunter1, Cristina Casalone2, Cristiano
Corona2, Fabrizio Tagliavini3, Silvia Suardi3, Margherita Ruggerone3, Fabio
Moda3, Silvia Graziano4, Marco Sbriccoli4, Franco Cardone4, Maurizio Pocchiari4,
Loredana Ingrosso4, Thierry Baron5, Juergen Richt69 ‡, Olivier Andreoletti7,
Marion Simmons8, Richard Lockey8, Jean C. Manson1, and Rona M Barron1*
1Neuropathogenesis Division, The Roslin Institute and R(D)SVS, University
of Edinburgh, Roslin, Midlothian, UK
2Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale del Piemonte, Liguria e Valle
d’Aosta, Turin, Italy
3IRCCS Foundation, “Carlo Besta” Neurological Institute, Milan, Italy
4Department of Cell Biology and Neurosciences, Istituto Superiore di
Sanità, Viale Regina Elena 299, 00161 Rome, Italy
5Agence Nationale de Sécurité Sanitaire, Lyon, France
6USDA, ARS, National Animal Disease Center, PO Box 70, Ames, IA 50010,
USA
7UMR 1225 Interactions Hôtes-Agents Pathogènes, INRA, Ecole Nationale
Vétérinaire, 23 chemin des Capelles, B.P. 87614, 31076 Toulouse Cedex 3,
France
8Neuropathology Section, Department of Pathology and Host Susceptibility,
Animal Health and Veterinary Laboratories Agency, Addlestone, Surrey, KT15 3NB,
UK
‡ Current affiliation: Department of Diagnostic Medicine/Pathobiology,
College of Veterinary Medicine, Kansas State University, Manhattan, United
States of America
*Corresponding Author
Neuropathogenesis Division The Roslin Institute and R(D)SVS, University of
Edinburgh Roslin Midlothian, EH25 9PS UK Tel 0131 527 4200 Fax 0131 440 0434 rona.barron@roslin.ed.ac.uk
Contents Category: TSE Agents Word count summary: 139 Word count main text:
2315 Number of tables and figures: 2
Chronic Wasting Disease and Atypical 52 forms of BSE and scrapie are not
transmissible to mice expressing wild-type levels of human PrP
Summary
The association between bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) and variant
Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) has demonstrated that cattle TSEs can pose a
risk to human health and raises the possibility that other ruminant TSEs may be
transmissible to humans. In recent years, several new TSEs in sheep, cattle and
deer have been described and the risk posed to humans by these agents is
currently unknown. In this study, we inoculated two forms of atypical BSE (BASE
and H-type BSE), a chronic wasting disease (CWD) isolate, and seven isolates of
atypical scrapie into gene targeted transgenic (Tg) mice expressing the human
prion protein (PrP). Upon challenge with these ruminant TSEs, gene-targeted Tg
mice expressing human PrP did not show any signs of disease pathology. These
data strongly suggest the presence of a substantial transmission barrier between
these recently identified ruminant TSEs and humans.
Main Text
Transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) or prion diseases are a
group of fatal infectious neurodegenerative diseases that include scrapie in
sheep, bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in cattle, chronic wasting disease
(CWD) in cervids, and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) in humans. TSEs are
characterised by the accumulation in the brain of PrPTSE, which is a protease
resistant conformational variant of the normal host encoded cellular prion
protein (PrPc). Due to the infectious nature of TSEs, these diseases can be
transmitted via a number of different routes. While TSEs tend to transmit more
readily within species they are also able to transmit between species, although
efficiency is dependent on both the TSE agent and host. Often transmission to a
new species may initially present low transmission rates, however further
passage within the new species may result in increased transmission rates and
shorter incubation periods. The transmission of BSE to humans through
contaminated food is thought to be the cause of the variant form of
Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) (Bruce et al., 1997; Hill et al., 1997). This
relationship reveals a potential risk of transmission of other ruminant TSEs to
humans. In the present study we aimed to assess this risk by using gene-targeted
Tg mice expressing human PrP as a model system for investigating
transmissibility of several atypical ruminant TSE agents (atypical BSE, atypical
scrapie and CWD).
Until recently, TSE disease in cattle was believed to be caused by a single
TSE strain, classical BSE (BSE-C). However, two atypical BSE agents have
recently been reported (Biacabe et al., 2004; Casalone et al., 2004; Jacobs et
al., 2007; Stack et al., 2009), and are identified as H-type BSE (BSE-H) and
bovine amyloidotic spongiform encephalopathy (BASE, also named BSE-L). Given the
association of classical BSE with vCJD, in the present study we investigated the
potential risk of transmission of these atypical forms of BSE to humans. CWD is
a fatal, endemic TSE disease affecting free-ranging and captive cervids,
including mule deer, white-tailed deer, Rocky Mountain elk and moose. Although
CWD has not been reported in Europe, cases have been found in 14 USA states, two
Canadian provinces and in South Korea. CWD has been shown to spread via a
variety of routes (Denkers et al., 2010; Mathiason et al., 2009; Miller &
Williams, 2003; Miller 102 et al., 1998; Sigurdson et al., 1999; Trifilo et al.,
2007), and transmission between cervids is highly efficient. In addition to
brain, spinal cord and lymphoid tissues (Race et al., 2007; Sigurdson et al.,
1999; Spraker et al., 2002), PrPTSE has also been found in muscle, saliva,
urine, fat, blood and antler velvet of CWD-infected cervids (Angers et al.,
2006; Angers et al., 2009; Haley et al., 2009; Haley et al., 2011; Mathiason et
al., 2006; Race et al., 2009a). Due to hunting of deer and elk, the possible
consumption of CWD-infected meat raises concern over the risk to humans.
Furthermore, previous studies have shown the intracerebral and oral transmission
of CWD into squirrel monkeys (Race et al., 2009b). Atypical scrapie, also known
as Nor98, was first identified in 1998 in sheep in Norway (Benestad et al.,
2003) and can be distinguished from classical scrapie and BSE by the biochemical
features of PrPTSE, and its pathology and transmission characteristics. Despite
the fact that no evidence of transmissibility of classical scrapie to humans has
ever been obtained, atypical scrapie is a newly identified TSE, and is now known
to have been present throughout the BSE epidemic (Benestad et al., 2008;
Benestad et al., 2003) thus the risk to humans warrants investigation.
To address the transmissibility of these recently recognized ruminant TSEs
to humans, we performed inoculations of two forms of atypical BSE (BASE and H
type), one isolate of CWD (from white-tailed deer), six field isolates of
atypical scrapie, and one sheep passaged isolate of atypical scrapie into a
panel of gene targeted Tg mice expressing human PrP under the same spatial and
temporal controls as wild-type PrP (Bishop et al., 2006). Previously, three
lines of Tg mice (HuMM, HuMV and HuVV) were generated (Bishop et al., 2006)
which represent the genetic diversity in the human population, due to the PrP
codon 129-methionine/valine polymorphism. Interestingly, this polymorphism
correlates with human susceptibility to TSE, and all confirmed clinical cases of
vCJD to date have occurred in individuals who are methionine homozygous at PrP
codon 129. In addition we also inoculated these ruminant TSEs into gene-targeted
Tg mice expressing bovine PrP (named Bov6 mice) and wildtype 129/Ola mice (which
have the same genetic background as the human and bovine PrP Tg mice) as
controls.
For experimental setup at The Roslin Institute, groups (n=24) of
gene-targeted Tg mice expressing human (HuMM, HuMV and HuVV) or bovine PrP
(Bov6) and 129/Ola controls were inoculated intracerebrally (i.c.) with 0·02 ml
of 10-1 brain homogenate (BASE, BSE-H, CWD or atypical scrapie) into the right
cerebral hemisphere under halothane anaesthesia. As inocula were sourced from
field cases they were treated with gentamycin (0.25mg/ml) prior to inoculation
to remove bacterial contamination. In complementary studies, groups of the same
HuMM, HuMV and HuVV mice were also inoculated i.c. (20μl) and i.p.(100 μl) with
BASE inoculum at “Carlo Besta” Neurological Institute, Milan, and i.c (20μl)
with two different cases of BASE and BSE at the Istituto Superiore di Sanità,
Rome, Italy. Mice were scored each week for clinical signs of disease and killed
by cervical dislocation or carbon dioxide (Rome, Italy) at a pre-defined
clinical endpoint, or due to welfare reasons (Dickinson et al., 1968). Brains
and spleens were recovered at post mortem. To assess the abundance and location
of TSE-associated vacuolation in grey and white matter of the brain, sections
were cut (6μm) from each mouse brain and stained using haematoxylin and eosin
(H&E). TSE-related vacuolation was assessed at nine grey-matter regions
(medulla, cerebellum, superior colliculus, hypothalamus, thalamus, hippocampus,
septum, retrospinal cortex, cingulated 152 and motor cortex) and three regions
of white matter (cerebellar white matter, midbrain white matter, and cerebral
peduncle) as previously described (Fraser & Dickinson, 1967). Sections of
brain tissue were also examined for abnormal PrP deposition, which is a key
pathological marker of TSE infection, by immunohistochemistry and western blot
analysis following PTA precipitation using MAb6H4 (Prionics) as described
previously (Bishop et al., 2006). Although some mice in these experiments
exhibited clinical signs of disease, following analysis of all mice in this
study for vacuolar pathology and PrP deposition, no signs of TSE pathology were
detected in any of the gene-targeted human PrP Tg mice (Table 1). Transmission
of BASE and BSE-H in Bov6 and 129/Ola mice was detected as previously described
(Wilson et al., 2012), however no transmission of atypical scrapie was observed
in these two control mouse lines.
Recent studies of TSE inoculations in mice that result in inefficient
disease transmission have identified that lymphoid tissues were more permissive
to TSEs than brain (Béringue et al., 2012). Tg338 (ovine PrP) mice inoculated
with CWD and Tg650 (human PrP) mice inoculated with cattle BSE did not develop
high rates of clinical disease or significant PrPTSE in brain, but a large
proportion of inoculated mice had PrPTSE detectable in spleen. 60 mice
inoculated at Roslin with the atypical TSE agents (either showing clinical signs
or a selection of the oldest mice, ranging from 321dpi to 730dpi), were analysed
for the presence of peripheral agent replication using the IDEXX HerdChek Bovine
Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) Antigen Test Kit, which is an antigen capture
enzyme immunoassay (EIA) used to detect aggregated PrP in post-mortem tissues.
Spleens derived from human PrP Tg mice challenged with BASE, BSE-H, CWD and
atypical scrapie were homogenised in sterile saline in a Rybolyser (Hybaid,
Middlesex, UK) to achieve a 30% homogenate and processed in the IDEXX HerdChek
assay. All assay readouts were negative for the presence of disease related PrP.
Hence there was no evidence of increased cross species transmission in lymphoid
tissues of gene-targeted human Tg mice inoculated with these atypical TSE
agents.
Interestingly several human PrP Tg mice were scored as showing positive
clinical signs of disease despite the lack of disease associated pathology, most
notably in those mice inoculated with atypical scrapie (Table 2). Indeed, out of
a total of 662 mice inoculated with six atypical scrapie field isolates, 25 had
clinical signs of TSE (10 x HuMM, 9 x HuMV, 4 x HuVV, 1 x Bov6, 1 x 129/Ola). If
the data were simply due to scoring errors we would expect similar numbers of
cases in all groups. However, on the assumption that mice responded and were
scored independently of one another (i.e., all mice had an equal chance of being
scored as showing clinical signs) the distribution of clinical cases between the
30 groups of atypical scrapie inoculated Tg mice is statistically significant at
p ≤ 0.003. The relevance of this observation is unclear. It is possible that the
clinical signs observed in these mice are due to non-TSE intercurrent illnesses
encountered because of the extended nature of these transmission experiments.
However scoring protocols are robust and do not usually yield high numbers of
false negative results when compared with disease pathology post mortem. It is
possible that these clinical signs indicate a different TSE disease phenotype
whereby the pathological signs associated with disease cannot be detected using
our conventional methods of tissue analysis. This hypothesis is being further
investigated by subpassage from selected cases to identify any evidence of
subclinical disease or low level agent replication. While co 202 ntrol ovine Tg
mice were not available to include in the original transmission panel at The
Roslin Institute, 5/6 of the atypical scrapie field isolates were inoculated
into Tg338 ovine transgenic mice at AHVLA (Griffiths et al., 2010) (sample
numbers 2 and 5 in Griffiths et al, and Spiropoulos-personal communication). All
five isolates transmitted efficiently to Tg338 transgenic mice (incubation times
~200 days post inoculation), proving the infectivity of the source material.
Our results indicate that BASE, H-type BSE, CWD and atypical scrapie do not
transmit to gene-targeted Tg mice expressing wild type levels of human PrP,
however subpassage experiments are currently in progress to assay for any
possible subclinical infection in mice that received these agents. The lack of
BASE transmission to HuMM Tg mice has been confirmed following independent
transmissions to mice in three different laboratories (Roslin Institute, “Carlo
Besta” Neurological Institute, Istituto Superiore di Sanita). Surprisingly,
other studies have shown the transmission of BASE into microinjection-derived
human PrP Tg mice (Tg40) (Kong et al., 2008), which were reported to also
express human PrP-129M at wildtype levels. Despite the apparent similarities in
expression levels between these lines, previous studies have produced other
conflicting results between the Tg40 line and our targeted HuMM Tg line. While
Tg40 mice were reported to be highly susceptible to sCJD(MM2) (Kong et al.,
2008), HuMM mice inoculated with sCJD(MM2) showed no clinical signs of disease
(Bishop et al., 2010). The reasons for this discrepancy are not clear, but may
be due to different mouse genetic background, or a more subtle difference in PrP
expression levels in each Tg line. Other studies have shown the transmission of
BASE into overexpressing human PrP Tg mice (Tg 650; ~6 fold overexpression),
with prolonged incubation times of 600-700 days. However similarly to our
findings they did not achieve transmission of H-type BSE into Tg650 mice
(Beringue et al., 2008). Previous studies have shown CWD TSEs do not transmit to
mice overexpressing human PrP (Sandberg et al., 2010; Tamguney et al., 2006).
Furthermore, other studies investigating transmissibility of elk CWD TSEs, did
not observe transmission into Tg40 mice (human PrP Tg) (Kong et al., 2005).
Studies have shown levels of PrPTSE in lymphoid tissues are much higher in
CWD-infected deer compared to elk (Race et al., 2007), suggesting deer may be
more likely to transmit disease to other cervids and noncervids. In the present
study we challenged our human PrP Tg mice with CWD-infected white-tailed deer,
but did not observe any signs of disease. However it may be possible that CWD
can be caused by multiple strains (Angers et al., 2010) and as distinct cervid
TSE strains become recognised and characterised, further studies will be
required to assess human risk.
In this study, we examined, for the first time, the transmissibility of
BASE, BSE-H, CWD and atypical scrapie into gene-targeted Tg mice expressing
human PrP and show that these mice are highly resistant to infection with these
animal TSEs. In contrast to recently published research (Béringue et al., 2012),
we did not find any evidence of disease within lymphoid tissue of gene-targeted
HuTg mice inoculated with these atypical TSE agents. While other studies have
conducted similar experiments using overexpressing human PrP Tg mouse lines, the
Tg mice used in this study are produced by gene replacement and do not suffer
from any adverse phenotypes which can be associated with overexpression or
ectopic expression of the transgene in standard Tg lines. While overexpression
may increase sensitivity of these models by reducing incubation times, these
levels of expression do not occur in host species. Gene-targeted models may
therefore more closely 252 represent infection and disease progression in
nature. Indeed, previous studies have shown transmission of sporadic CJD, vCJD
and sheep BSE into gene-targeted human PrP Tg mice, demonstrating that these
mice do live long enough to show signs of infection, supporting the use of
targeted mouse models to analyse TSE disease transmission (Bishop et al., 2010;
Bishop et al., 2006; Plinston et al., 2011). In conclusion, the results
presented here strongly suggest the presence of a significant transmission
barrier between these ruminant TSEs and humans. However, while TSEs are still
present in the environment, the potential for cross-species transmission and
emergence of new TSE isolates remains, thus supporting the need for continued
surveillance of these agents.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to acknowledge I. McConnell, V. Thomson, S. Cumming,
S. Carpenter, R. Greenan, K. Hogan, I. Itro, E. Laconi, M. Venditti, A.
Valanzano, M. Bonanno, and N. Bellizzi for experimental setup, care and scoring
of the animals; A. Coghill, A. Boyle, S. Mack and G. McGregor for histology
processing and scoring; I. Martino, D. Biondo, and A. De Pascalis for western
blotting. We thank the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources for the CWD
brain sample. All mouse experiments were reviewed and approved by the Local
Ethical Review Committee and performed under licence from the United Kingdom
Home Office in accordance with the United Kingdom Animals (Scientific
Procedures) Act 1986 and by the Service for Biotechnology and Animal Welfare of
the Istituto Superiore di Sanità, authorized by the Italian Ministry of Health
according to Legislative Decree 116/12 which has implemented in Italy the
European Directive 86/609/EEC on laboratory animals protection. This work was
funded by contract M03054 from the Food Standards Agency (FSA), UK; contract
SE1441 from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra);
contract 2004–506579 “NeuroPrion” from the European Union, and from the Italian
Ministry of Health; and contract NIAID PO1 AI077774-01 "Pathogenesis,
Transmission and Detection of Zoonotic Prion Diseases". The authors declare that
this study was carried out under the following Research Project funded by the
Italian Ministry of Health: Ricerca Finalizzata 2009 - 09F01 “The novel
emergence of atypical animal and human TSEs. A clinical, pathological,
molecular, and experimental approach to define interspecies similarities and
strain connections”
References
snip....
“significant transmission barrier between these ruminant TSEs and
humans”
“Interestingly several human PrP Tg mice were scored as showing positive
clinical signs of disease despite the lack of disease associated pathology, most
notably in those mice inoculated with atypical scrapie (Table 2). Indeed, out of
a total of 662 mice inoculated with six atypical scrapie field isolates, 25 had
clinical signs of TSE (10 x HuMM, 9 x HuMV, 4 x HuVV, 1 x Bov6, 1 x 129/Ola). If
the data were simply due to scoring errors we would expect similar numbers of
cases in all groups. However, on the assumption that mice responded and were
scored independently of one another (i.e., all mice had an equal chance of being
scored as showing clinical signs) the distribution of clinical cases between the
30 groups of atypical scrapie inoculated Tg mice is statistically significant at
p ≤ 0.003. The relevance of this observation is unclear. It is possible that the
clinical signs observed in these mice are due to non-TSE intercurrent illnesses
encountered because of the extended nature of these transmission experiments.
However scoring protocols are robust and do not usually yield high numbers of
false negative results when compared with disease pathology post mortem. It is
possible that these clinical signs indicate a different TSE disease phenotype
whereby the pathological signs associated with disease cannot be detected using
our conventional methods of tissue analysis.”
I guess you can get these high dollar TG mice to do anything you want, if
you manipulate them enough, or not. I can see the usda et al running with this
very misleading title of this study, running all the way to the bank, and that’s
all the damn media will read and see, and nothing else. all is fine $$$
Chronic Wasting Disease and Atypical forms of BSE and scrapie are not
transmissible to mice expressing wild-type levels of human PrP ?
lets review some recent and past transmission studies shall we ;
PPo3-8:
Assessing the Risk of Sheep BSE Transmission to Humans
Chris Plinston, Nora Hunter, Jim Foster, Patricia Hart, Jean C. Manson and
Rona M. Barron
Neuropathogenesis Division; The Roslin Institute and R(D)SVS; University of
Edinburgh; Edinburgh, Scotland UK
Key words: human, transgenic, sheep BSE,
Strain typing studies have shown that the same strain of TSE agent is
responsible for BSE in cattle and vCJD in humans. However, transmission studies
of cattle BSE to humans using transgenic mice expressing human PrP have shown
limited transmissibility, suggesting the presence of a substantial transmission
barrier. To investigate this transmission barrier further, gene targeted
transgenic mice expressing human PrP with the codon 129 polymorphism (HuMM, HuMV
and HuVV) have been challenged with cattle BSE and Experimental Sheep BSE
(Exp-ShBSE). BSE has not been identified in sheep in the field, but sheep have
been shown to susceptible to experimental infection. Mice inoculated with cattle
BSE failed to show any evidence of disease transmission. However following
inoculation with Exp-ShBSE, 18/23 HuMM transgenic mice showed positive TSE
pathology (400–750 dpi) in the form of vacuolation and/or PrP deposition,
targeted mainly to the thalamic region. While no clinical signs of disease were
reported in any of the HuTg mice receiving Exp-ShBSE, positive clinical and
pathological signs of disease were observed in both control 129/Ola mice and
gene targeted bovine transgenic mice. Control lines showed similar pathology,
and incubation time ratios with both cattle BSE and Exp-ShBSE, however Exp-ShBSE
incubation times were shorter (~70–80 days) than those observed following cattle
BSE inoculation. These data suggest a difference in susceptibility of HuMM mice
to the BSE agent following propagation in either cattle or sheep. Experiments to
establish the titre of BSE in sheep brainstem are underway.
High Titers of Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy Infectivity
Associated with Extremely Low Levels of PrPSc in Vivo*
Rona M. Barron‡,1,2, Susan L. Campbell‡,1,3, Declan King‡, Anne Bellon§,
Karen E. Chapman¶, R. Anthony Williamson§ and Jean C. Manson‡ + Author
Affiliations
‡Neuropathogenesis Unit, Roslin Institute, Ogston Building, West Mains
Road, Edinburgh EH9 3JF, Scotland, United Kingdom, the §Department of
Immunology, Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, California 92037, and the
¶Centre for Cardiovascular Sciences, Queen's Medical Research Institute,
University of Edinburgh, 47 Little France Crescent, Edinburgh EH16 4TJ,
Scotland, United Kingdom ↵2 To whom correspondence should be addressed. Tel.:
44-131-667-5204; Fax: 44-131-668-3872; E-mail: rona.barron@bbsrc.ac.uk. Next
Section Abstract Diagnosis of transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE)
disease in humans and ruminants relies on the detection in post-mortem brain
tissue of the protease-resistant form of the host glycoprotein PrP. The presence
of this abnormal isoform (PrPSc) in tissues is taken as indicative of the
presence of TSE infectivity. Here we demonstrate conclusively that high titers
of TSE infectivity can be present in brain tissue of animals that show clinical
and vacuolar signs of TSE disease but contain low or undetectable levels of
PrPSc. This work questions the correlation between PrPSc level and the titer of
infectivity and shows that tissues containing little or no proteinase
K-resistant PrP can be infectious and harbor high titers of TSE infectivity.
Reliance on protease-resistant PrPSc as a sole measure of infectivity may
therefore in some instances significantly underestimate biological properties of
diagnostic samples, thereby undermining efforts to contain and eradicate TSEs.
snip...
The models of disease described herein demonstrate the potential for the
existence of high levels of TSE infectivity with undetectable PrP-res in natural
disease. Indeed, increased surveillance and sensitivity of testing methods has
identified a new TSE of sheep, termed atypical scrapie. These animals were
identified as TSE infected by one PrPSc-specific diagnostic ELISA, but could not
be confirmed by other methods (40, 41). Such cases are now only identifiable
using assays that require low concentrations of PK, or no PK, in the assay
procedure. It is unknown whether this is truly a new TSE of sheep, or whether it
has been present in sheep for some time (42) but was not detected due to the
reduced PK resistance of PrPSc. However, the disease has been shown to be highly
transmissible to transgenic mice expressing ovine PrP (43), indicating the
presence of substantial levels of infectivity. The results of our study raise
concern over the suitability of PrPSc as a sole diagnostic marker of TSE
disease. It is vital that markers of TSE infectivity other than PrPSc are
identified and validated in models such as those we have described and
characterized here. We anticipate that such research will lead to the
development of more robust diagnostic assays for TSE disease, which will have
important implications for both animal and human health.
J. Virol. doi:10.1128/JVI.01578-10 Copyright (c) 2010, American Society for
Microbiology and/or the Listed Authors/Institutions. All Rights Reserved.
Increased susceptibility of human-PrP transgenic mice to bovine spongiform
encephalopathy following passage in sheep.
Chris Plinston, Patricia Hart, Angela Chong, Nora Hunter, James Foster,
Pedro Piccardo, Jean C. Manson, and Rona M Barron* Neuropathogenesis Division,
The Roslin Institute and R(D)SVS, University of Edinburgh, Roslin, Midlothian,
UK; Laboratory of Bacterial and TSE Agents, Food and Drug Administration,
Rockville, MD, USA
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. Email:
rona.barron@roslin.ed.ac.uk .
Abstract
The risk of transmission of ruminant transmissible spongiform
encephalopathy (TSE) to humans was thought to be low due to the lack of
association between sheep scrapie and incidence of human TSE. However a single
TSE agent strain has been shown to cause both bovine spongiform encephalopathy
(BSE) and human vCJD, indicating that some ruminant TSEs may be transmissible to
humans. While the transmission of cattle BSE to humans in transgenic mouse
models has been inefficient, indicating the presence of a significant
transmission barrier between cattle and humans, BSE has been transmitted to a
number of other species. Here we aimed to further investigate the human
transmission barrier following passage of BSE in a sheep. Following inoculation
with cattle BSE, gene targeted transgenic mice expressing human PrP showed no
clinical or pathological signs of TSE disease. However following inoculation
with an isolate of BSE that had been passaged through a sheep, TSE associated
vacuolation and proteinase-K resistant PrP deposition were observed in mice
homozygous for the codon 129-methionine PRNP gene. This observation may be due
to higher titres of the BSE agent in sheep, or an increased susceptibility of
humans to BSE prions following passage through a sheep. However these data
confirm that, contrary to previous predictions, it is possible that a sheep
prion may be transmissible to humans and that BSE from other species may be a
public health risk.
Pathogenesis
Chairperson: Suzette Priola, Ph.D.
11:10 Accumulation of Prion Protein in the Brain That is Not Associated
with Transmissible Disease
Pedro Piccardo, M.D., Senior Investigator, OBRR / DETTD / LBPUA, FDA
(Invited)
11:35 High Levels of TSE Infectivity Can Be Associated with Little or No
Detectable PrPSc in Vivo
Rona Barron, Ph.D., Neuropathogenesis Unit, Roslin Institute and Royal
(Dick) School of Veterinary Studies This work examines the relationship between
TSE infectivity and the abnormal prion protein, PrPSc. In a mouse model of
disease we have shown high titres of TSE infectivity in brain tissue which
contains little or no PrP-res. We also found no evidence of other abnormal PrP
isofoms such as PK-sen PrPSc. These data question the true relationship between
PrPSc and TSE infectivity, and the current reliance on PrPSc as the sole
diagnostic marker for TSE disease.
snip...
2:00 Sporadic CJD and Atypical BSE: Two Children of One Protein
Maurizio Pocchiari, Ph.D., Director of Research, Virology, Istituto
Superiore Di Sanita The identification of forms of TSE diseases in cattle caused
by prion strains different from BSE has raised new concerns on the possibility
that these novel agents might induce disease in humans with a phenotype
resembling sporadic CJD. The analysis of the distribution of the different
molecular subtypes of sporadic CJD might give some answers.
TRANSMISSIBLE SPONGIFORM ENCEPHALOPATHY TRANSMISSION STUDIES
Volume 18, Number 1—January 2012
Dispatch
Oral Transmission of L-type Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy in Primate
Model
Nadine Mestre-Francés , Simon Nicot, Sylvie Rouland, Anne-Gaëlle Biacabe,
Isabelle Quadrio, Armand Perret-Liaudet, Thierry Baron, and Jean-Michel Verdier
Author affiliations: Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale
(INSERM) U710, Montpellier, France (N. Mestre-Francés, S. Rouland, J.-M.
Verdier); Université Montpellier 2, Montpellier (N. Mestre-Francés, S. Rouland,
J.-M. Verdier); École Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Paris, France (N.
Mestre-Francés, S. Rouland, J.-M. Verdier); Agence Nationale de Sécurité
Sanitaire, Lyon, France (S. Nicot, A.-G. Biacabe, T. Baron); Hopitaux Civils de
Lyon, Lyon, France (I. Quadrio, A. Perret-Liaudet); Université Lyon 1, Lyon (I.
Quadrio, A. Perret-Liaudet); INSERM U1028, Lyon (I. Quadrio, A. Perret-Liaudet);
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Lyon (I. Quadrio, A.
Perret-Liaudet)
Abstract
We report transmission of atypical L-type bovine spongiform encephalopathy
to mouse lemurs after oral or intracerebral inoculation with infected bovine
brain tissue. After neurologic symptoms appeared, transmissibility of the
disease by both inoculation routes was confirmed by detection of
disease-associated prion protein in samples of brain tissue.
snip...
Conclusions
We demonstrated that the agent of L-BSE can be transmitted by the oral
route from cattle to mouse lemurs. As expected, orally inoculated animals
survived longer than IC-inoculated animals. Orally inoculated lemurs had less
severe clinical signs and symptoms, with no evidence of motor dysfunction. It
was previously suggested that the agent of L-BSE might be involved in the
foodborne transmission of a prion disease in mink (11,12), a species in which
several outbreaks of transmissible mink encephalopathy had been identified,
notably in the United States (13).
Our study clearly confirms, experimentally, the potential risk for
interspecies oral transmission of the agent of L-BSE. In our model, this risk
appears higher than that for the agent of classical BSE, which could only be
transmitted to mouse lemurs after a first passage in macaques (14). We report
oral transmission of the L-BSE agent in young and adult primates. Transmission
by the IC route has also been reported in young macaques (6,7). A previous study
of L-BSE in transgenic mice expressing human PrP suggested an absence of any
transmission barrier between cattle and humans for this particular strain of the
agent of BSE, in contrast to findings for the agent of classical BSE (9). Thus,
it is imperative to maintain measures that prevent the entry of tissues from
cattle possibly infected with the agent of L-BSE into the food chain.
Dr Mestre-Francés is an assistant professor at the École Pratique des
Hautes Études. Her research focuses on neurodegenerative diseases (Alzheimer
disease, prion diseases) in the nonhuman primate model Microcebus murinus.
October 2009 O.11.3
Infectivity in skeletal muscle of BASE-infected cattle
Silvia Suardi1, Chiara Vimercati1, Fabio Moda1, Ruggerone Margherita1,
Ilaria Campagnani1, Guerino Lombardi2, Daniela Gelmetti2, Martin H. Groschup3,
Anne Buschmann3, Cristina Casalone4, Maria Caramelli4, Salvatore Monaco5,
Gianluigi Zanusso5, Fabrizio Tagliavini1 1Carlo Besta" Neurological
Institute,Italy; 2IZS Brescia, Italy; 33FLI Insel Riems, D, Germany; 4CEA-IZS
Torino, Italy; 5University of Verona, Italy
Background: BASE is an atypical form of bovine spongiform encephalopathy
caused by a prion strain distinct from that of BSE. Upon experimental
transmission to cattle, BASE induces a previously unrecognized disease phenotype
marked by mental dullness and progressive atrophy of hind limb musculature.
Whether affected muscles contain infectivity is unknown. This is a critical
issue since the BASE strain is readily transmissible to a variety of hosts
including primates, suggesting that humans may be susceptible.
Objectives: To investigate the distribution of infectivity in peripheral
tissues of cattle experimentally infected with BASE. Methods: Groups of Tg mice
expressing bovine PrP (Tgbov XV, n= 7-15/group) were inoculated both i.c. and
i.p. with 10% homogenates of a variety of tissues including brain, spleen,
cervical lymph node, kidney and skeletal muscle (m. longissimus dorsi) from
cattle intracerebrally infected with BASE. No PrPres was detectable in the
peripheral tissues used for inoculation either by immunohistochemistry or
Western blot.
Results: Mice inoculated with BASE-brain homogenates showed clinical signs
of disease with incubation and survival times of 175±15 and 207±12 days. Five
out of seven mice challenged with skeletal muscle developed a similar
neurological disorder, with incubation and survival times of 380±11 and 410±12
days. At present (700 days after inoculation) mice challenged with the other
peripheral tissues are still healthy. The neuropathological phenotype and PrPres
type of the affected mice inoculated either with brain or muscle were
indistinguishable and matched those of Tgbov XV mice infected with natural BASE.
Discussion: Our data indicate that the skeletal muscle of cattle
experimentally infected with BASE contains significant amount of infectivity, at
variance with BSE-affected cattle, raising the issue of intraspecies
transmission and the potential risk for humans. Experiments are in progress to
assess the presence of infectivity in skeletal muscles of natural BASE.
18.173 page 189
Experimental Challenge of Cattle with H-type and L-type Atypical BSE
A. Buschmann1, U. Ziegler1, M. Keller1, R. Rogers2, B. Hills3, M.H.
Groschup1. 1Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut, Greifswald-Insel Riems, Germany,
2Health Canada, Bureau of Microbial Hazards, Health Products & Food Branch,
Ottawa, Canada, 3Health Canada, Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy
Secretariat, Ottawa, Canada
Background: After the detection of two novel BSE forms designated H-type
and L-type atypical BSE the question of the pathogenesis and the agent
distribution of these two types in cattle was fully open. From initial studies
of the brain pathology, it was already known that the anatomical distribution of
L-type BSE differs from that of the classical type where the obex region in the
brainstem always displays the highest PrPSc concentrations. In contrast in
L-type BSE cases, the thalamus and frontal cortex regions showed the highest
levels of the pathological prion protein, while the obex region was only weakly
involved.
Methods:We performed intracranial inoculations of cattle (five and six per
group) using 10%brainstemhomogenates of the two German H- and L-type atypical
BSE isolates. The animals were inoculated under narcosis and then kept in a
free-ranging stable under appropriate biosafety conditions.At least one animal
per group was killed and sectioned in the preclinical stage and the remaining
animals were kept until they developed clinical symptoms. The animals were
examined for behavioural changes every four weeks throughout the experiment
following a protocol that had been established during earlier BSE pathogenesis
studies with classical BSE. Results and
Discussion: All animals of both groups developed clinical symptoms and had
to be euthanized within 16 months. The clinical picture differed from that of
classical BSE, as the earliest signs of illness were loss of body weight and
depression. However, the animals later developed hind limb ataxia and
hyperesthesia predominantly and the head. Analysis of brain samples from these
animals confirmed the BSE infection and the atypical Western blot profile was
maintained in all animals. Samples from these animals are now being examined in
order to be able to describe the pathogenesis and agent distribution for these
novel BSE types.
Conclusions: A pilot study using a commercially avaialble BSE rapid test
ELISA revealed an essential restriction of PrPSc to the central nervous system
for both atypical BSE forms. A much more detailed analysis for PrPSc and
infectivity is still ongoing.
Subject: Atypical BSE (BASE) Transmitted from Asymptomatic Aging Cattle to
a Primate
Atypical BSE (BASE) Transmitted from Asymptomatic Aging Cattle to a
Primate
Emmanuel E. Comoy1*, Cristina Casalone2, Nathalie Lescoutra-Etchegaray1,
Gianluigi Zanusso3, Sophie Freire1, Dominique Marcé1, Frédéric Auvré1,
Marie-Magdeleine Ruchoux1, Sergio Ferrari3, Salvatore Monaco3, Nicole Salès4,
Maria Caramelli2, Philippe Leboulch1,5, Paul Brown1, Corinne I. Lasmézas4,
Jean-Philippe Deslys1
1 Institute of Emerging Diseases and Innovative Therapies, CEA,
Fontenay-aux-Roses, France, 2 Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale del
Piemonte, Turin, Italy, 3 Policlinico G.B. Rossi, Verona, Italy, 4 Scripps
Florida, Jupiter, Florida, United States of America, 5 Genetics Division,
Brigham & Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts,
United States of America
Abstract Top Background
Human variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD) results from foodborne
transmission of prions from slaughtered cattle with classical Bovine Spongiform
Encephalopathy (cBSE). Atypical forms of BSE, which remain mostly asymptomatic
in aging cattle, were recently identified at slaughterhouses throughout Europe
and North America, raising a question about human susceptibility to these new
prion strains.
Methodology/Principal Findings
Brain homogenates from cattle with classical BSE and atypical (BASE)
infections were inoculated intracerebrally into cynomolgus monkeys (Macacca
fascicularis), a non-human primate model previously demonstrated to be
susceptible to the original strain of cBSE. The resulting diseases were compared
in terms of clinical signs, histology and biochemistry of the abnormal prion
protein (PrPres). The single monkey infected with BASE had a shorter survival,
and a different clinical evolution, histopathology, and prion protein (PrPres)
pattern than was observed for either classical BSE or vCJD-inoculated animals.
Also, the biochemical signature of PrPres in the BASE-inoculated animal was
found to have a higher proteinase K sensitivity of the octa-repeat region. We
found the same biochemical signature in three of four human patients with
sporadic CJD and an MM type 2 PrP genotype who lived in the same country as the
infected bovine.
Conclusion/Significance
Our results point to a possibly higher degree of pathogenicity of BASE
than classical BSE in primates and also raise a question about a possible link
to one uncommon subset of cases of apparently sporadic CJD. Thus, despite the
waning epidemic of classical BSE, the occurrence of atypical strains should
temper the urge to relax measures currently in place to protect public health
from accidental contamination by BSE-contaminated products.
Citation: Comoy EE, Casalone C, Lescoutra-Etchegaray N, Zanusso G, Freire
S, et al. (2008) Atypical BSE (BASE) Transmitted from Asymptomatic Aging Cattle
to a Primate. PLoS ONE 3(8): e3017. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0003017
Editor: Neil Mabbott, University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom
Received: April 24, 2008; Accepted: August 1, 2008; Published: August 20,
2008
Copyright: © 2008 Comoy et al. This is an open-access article distributed
under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits
unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the
original author and source are credited.
Funding: This work has been supported by the Network of Excellence
NeuroPrion.
Competing interests: CEA owns a patent covering the BSE diagnostic tests
commercialized by the company Bio-Rad.
* E-mail: emmanuel.comoy@cea.fr
snip...
In summary, we have transmitted one atypical form of BSE (BASE) to a
cynomolgus macaque monkey that had a shorter incubation period than monkeys
infected with classical BSE, with distinctive clinical, neuropathological, and
biochemical features; and have shown that the molecular biological signature
resembled that seen in a comparatively uncommon subtype of sporadic CJD. We
cannot yet say whether BASE is more pathogenic for primates (including humans)
than cBSE, nor can we predict whether its molecular biological features
represent a clue to one cause of apparently sporadic human CJD. However, the
evidence presented here and by others justifies concern about a potential human
health hazard from undetected atypical forms of BSE, and despite the waning
epizoonosis of classical BSE, it would be premature to abandon the precautionary
measures that have been so successful in reversing the impact of cBSE. We would
instead urge a gradual, staged reduction that takes into account the evolving
knowledge about atypical ruminant diseases, and both a permanent ban on the use
of bovine central nervous system tissue for either animal or human use, and its
destruction so as to eliminate any risk of environmental contamination.
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Atypical BSE in Cattle
To date the OIE/WAHO assumes that the human and animal health standards
set out in the BSE chapter for classical BSE (C-Type) applies to all forms of
BSE which include the H-type and L-type atypical forms. This assumption is
scientifically not completely justified and accumulating evidence suggests that
this may in fact not be the case. Molecular characterization and the spatial
distribution pattern of histopathologic lesions and immunohistochemistry (IHC)
signals are used to identify and characterize atypical BSE. Both the L-type and
H-type atypical cases display significant differences in the conformation and
spatial accumulation of the disease associated prion protein (PrPSc) in brains
of afflicted cattle. Transmission studies in bovine transgenic and wild type
mouse models support that the atypical BSE types might be unique strains because
they have different incubation times and lesion profiles when compared to C-type
BSE. When L-type BSE was inoculated into ovine transgenic mice and Syrian
hamster the resulting molecular fingerprint had changed, either in the first or
a subsequent passage, from L-type into C-type BSE. In addition, non-human
primates are specifically susceptible for atypical BSE as demonstrated by an
approximately 50% shortened incubation time for L-type BSE as compared to
C-type. Considering the current scientific information available, it cannot be
assumed that these different BSE types pose the same human health risks as
C-type BSE or that these risks are mitigated by the same protective measures.
This study will contribute to a correct definition of specified risk
material (SRM) in atypical BSE. The incumbent of this position will develop new
and transfer existing, ultra-sensitive methods for the detection of atypical BSE
in tissue of experimentally infected cattle.
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Seven main threats for the future linked to prions
First threat
The TSE road map defining the evolution of European policy for protection
against prion diseases is based on a certain numbers of hypotheses some of which
may turn out to be erroneous. In particular, a form of BSE (called atypical
Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy), recently identified by systematic testing in
aged cattle without clinical signs, may be the origin of classical BSE and thus
potentially constitute a reservoir, which may be impossible to eradicate if a
sporadic origin is confirmed.
***Also, a link is suspected between atypical BSE and some apparently
sporadic cases of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans. These atypical BSE cases
constitute an unforeseen first threat that could sharply modify the European
approach to prion diseases.
Second threat
snip...
P04.27
Experimental BSE Infection of Non-human Primates: Efficacy of the Oral
Route
Holznagel, E1; Yutzy, B1; Deslys, J-P2; Lasmézas, C2; Pocchiari, M3;
Ingrosso, L3; Bierke, P4; Schulz-Schaeffer, W5; Motzkus, D6; Hunsmann, G6;
Löwer, J1 1Paul-Ehrlich-Institut, Germany; 2Commissariat à l´Energie Atomique,
France; 3Instituto Superiore di Sanità, Italy; 4Swedish Institute for Infectious
Disease control, Sweden; 5Georg August University, Germany; 6German Primate
Center, Germany
Background In 2001, a study was initiated in primates to assess the risk
for humans to contract BSE through contaminated food. For this purpose, BSE
brain was titrated in cynomolgus monkeys.
Aims The primary objective is the determination of the minimal infectious
dose (MID50) for oral exposure to BSE in a simian model, and, by in doing this,
to assess the risk for humans. Secondly, we aimed at examining the course of the
disease to identify possible biomarkers.
Methods Groups with six monkeys each were orally dosed with lowering
amounts of BSE brain: 16g, 5g, 0.5g, 0.05g, and 0.005g. In a second titration
study, animals were intracerebrally (i.c.) dosed (50, 5, 0.5, 0.05, and 0.005
mg).
Results In an ongoing study, a considerable number of high-dosed macaques
already developed simian vCJD upon oral or intracerebral exposure or are at the
onset of the clinical phase. However, there are differences in the clinical
course between orally and intracerebrally infected animals that may influence
the detection of biomarkers.
Conclusions Simian vCJD can be easily triggered in cynomolgus monkeys on
the oral route using less than 5 g BSE brain homogenate. The difference in the
incubation period between 5 g oral and 5 mg i.c. is only 1 year (5 years versus
4 years). However, there are rapid progressors among orally dosed monkeys that
develop simian v CJD as fast as intracerebrally inoculated animals.
The work referenced was performed in partial fulfillment of the study "BSE
in primates" supported by the EU (QLK1-2002-01096).
look at the table and you'll see that as little as 1 mg (or 0.001 gm)
caused 7% (1 of 14) of the cows to come down with BSE;
Risk of oral infection with bovine spongiform encephalopathy agent in
primates
Corinne Ida Lasmézas, Emmanuel Comoy, Stephen Hawkins, Christian Herzog,
Franck Mouthon, Timm Konold, Frédéric Auvré, Evelyne Correia, Nathalie
Lescoutra-Etchegaray, Nicole Salès, Gerald Wells, Paul Brown, Jean-Philippe
Deslys Summary The uncertain extent of human exposure to bovine spongiform
encephalopathy (BSE)--which can lead to variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease
(vCJD)--is compounded by incomplete knowledge about the efficiency of oral
infection and the magnitude of any bovine-to-human biological barrier to
transmission. We therefore investigated oral transmission of BSE to non-human
primates. We gave two macaques a 5 g oral dose of brain homogenate from a
BSE-infected cow. One macaque developed vCJD-like neurological disease 60 months
after exposure, whereas the other remained free of disease at 76 months. On the
basis of these findings and data from other studies, we made a preliminary
estimate of the food exposure risk for man, which provides additional assurance
that existing public health measures can prevent transmission of BSE to
man.
snip...
BSE bovine brain inoculum
100 g 10 g 5 g 1 g 100 mg 10 mg 1 mg 0·1 mg 0·01 mg
Primate (oral route)* 1/2 (50%)
Cattle (oral route)* 10/10 (100%) 7/9 (78%) 7/10 (70%) 3/15 (20%) 1/15 (7%)
1/15 (7%)
RIII mice (ic ip route)* 17/18 (94%) 15/17 (88%) 1/14 (7%)
PrPres biochemical detection
The comparison is made on the basis of calibration of the bovine inoculum
used in our study with primates against a bovine brain inoculum with a similar
PrPres concentration that was inoculated into mice and cattle.8 *Data are number
of animals positive/number of animals surviving at the time of clinical onset of
disease in the first positive animal (%). The accuracy of bioassays is generally
judged to be about plus or minus 1 log. ic ip=intracerebral and
intraperitoneal.
Table 1: Comparison of transmission rates in primates and cattle infected
orally with similar BSE brain inocula
Published online January 27, 2005
The Lancet, Volume 365, Issue 9461, Pages 781 - 783, 26 February 2005
doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(05)17985-9Cite or Link Using DOI
Risk of oral infection with bovine spongiform encephalopathy agent in
primates
Corinne Ida Lasmézas DrMedVet a, Emmanuel Comoy DrMedVet a, Stephen
Hawkins MIBiol b, Christian Herzog DipBiol a, Franck Mouthon DipBiol a, Timm
Konold DrMedVet b, Frédéric Auvré a, Evelyne Correia a, Nathalie
Lescoutra-Etchegaray DipBiol a, Prof Nicole Salès PhD a, Gerald Wells BVetMed b,
Paul Brown PhD c, Dr Jean-Philippe Deslys MD a
Summary
The uncertain extent of human exposure to bovine spongiform encephalopathy
(BSE)—which can lead to variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD)—is compounded
by incomplete knowledge about the efficiency of oral infection and the magnitude
of any bovine-to-human biological barrier to transmission. We therefore
investigated oral transmission of BSE to non-human primates. We gave two
macaques a 5 g oral dose of brain homogenate from a BSE-infected cow. One
macaque developed vCJD-like neurological disease 60 months after exposure,
whereas the other remained free of disease at 76 months. On the basis of these
findings and data from other studies, we made a preliminary estimate of the food
exposure risk for man, which provides additional assurance that existing public
health measures can prevent transmission of BSE to man.
Published online January 27, 2005
Calves were challenged by mouth with homogenised brain from confirmed cases
of BSE. Some received 300g (3 doses of 100g), some 100g, 10g or 1g. They were
then left to develop BSE, but were not subjected to the normal stresses that
they might have encountered in a dairy herd. Animals in all four groups
developed BSE. There has been a considerable spread of incubation period in some
of the groups, but it appears as if those in the 1 and 10g challenge groups most
closely fit the picture of incubation periods seen in the epidemic. Experiments
in progress indicate that oral infection can occur in some animals with doses as
low as 0.01g and 0.001g. .........
It is clear that the designing scientists must also have shared Mr
Bradley’s surprise at the results because all the dose
levels right down to 1 gram triggered infection.
6. It also appears to me that Mr Bradley’s answer (that it would take less
than say 100 grams) was probably given with the benefit of hindsight;
particularly if one considers that later in the same answer Mr Bradley expresses
his surprise that it could take as little of 1 gram of brain to cause BSE by the
oral route within the same species. This information did not become available
until the "attack rate" experiment had been completed in 1995/96. This was a
titration experiment designed to ascertain the infective dose. A range of
dosages was used to ensure that the actual result was within both a lower and an
upper limit within the study and the designing scientists would not have
expected all the dose levels to trigger infection. The dose ranges chosen by the
most informed scientists at that time ranged from 1 gram to three times one
hundred grams. It is clear that the designing scientists must have also shared
Mr Bradley’s surprise at the results because all the dose levels right down to 1
gram triggered infection.
P.4.23
Transmission of atypical BSE in humanized mouse models
Liuting Qing1, Wenquan Zou1, Cristina Casalone2, Martin Groschup3, Miroslaw
Polak4, Maria Caramelli2, Pierluigi Gambetti1, Juergen Richt5, Qingzhong Kong1
1Case Western Reserve University, USA; 2Instituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale,
Italy; 3Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut, Germany; 4National Veterinary Research
Institute, Poland; 5Kansas State University (Previously at USDA National Animal
Disease Center), USA
Background: Classical BSE is a world-wide prion disease in cattle, and the
classical BSE strain (BSE-C) has led to over 200 cases of clinical human
infection (variant CJD). Atypical BSE cases have been discovered in three
continents since 2004; they include the L-type (also named BASE), the H-type,
and the first reported case of naturally occurring BSE with mutated bovine PRNP
(termed BSE-M). The public health risks posed by atypical BSE were largely
undefined.
Objectives: To investigate these atypical BSE types in terms of their
transmissibility and phenotypes in humanized mice. Methods: Transgenic mice
expressing human PrP were inoculated with several classical (C-type) and
atypical (L-, H-, or Mtype) BSE isolates, and the transmission rate, incubation
time, characteristics and distribution of PrPSc, symptoms, and histopathology
were or will be examined and compared.
Results: Sixty percent of BASE-inoculated humanized mice became infected
with minimal spongiosis and an average incubation time of 20-22 months, whereas
only one of the C-type BSE-inoculated mice developed prion disease after more
than 2 years. Protease-resistant PrPSc in BASE-infected humanized Tg mouse
brains was biochemically different from bovine BASE or sCJD. PrPSc was also
detected in the spleen of 22% of BASE-infected humanized mice, but not in those
infected with sCJD. Secondary transmission of BASE in the humanized mice led to
a small reduction in incubation time.*** The atypical BSE-H strain is also
transmissible with distinct phenotypes in the humanized mice, but no BSE-M
transmission has been observed so far.
Discussion: Our results demonstrate that BASE is more virulent than
classical BSE, has a lymphotropic phenotype, and displays a modest transmission
barrier in our humanized mice. BSE-H is also transmissible in our humanized Tg
mice. The possibility of more than two atypical BSE strains will be discussed.
Supported by NINDS NS052319, NIA AG14359, and NIH AI 77774.
P26 TRANSMISSION OF ATYPICAL BOVINE SPONGIFORM ENCEPHALOPATHY (BSE) IN
HUMANIZED MOUSE MODELS
Liuting Qing1, Fusong Chen1, Michael Payne1, Wenquan Zou1, Cristina
Casalone2, Martin Groschup3, Miroslaw Polak4, Maria Caramelli2, Pierluigi
Gambetti1, Juergen Richt5*, and Qingzhong Kong1 1Department of Pathology, Case
Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH 44106, USA; 2CEA, Istituto
Zooprofilattico Sperimentale, Italy; 3Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut, Germany;
4National Veterinary Research Institute, Poland; 5Kansas State University,
Diagnostic Medicine/Pathobiology Department, Manhattan, KS 66506, USA. *Previous
address: USDA National Animal Disease Center, Ames, IA 50010, USA
Classical BSE is a world-wide prion disease in cattle, and the classical
BSE strain (BSE-C) has led to over 200 cases of clinical human infection
(variant CJD). Two atypical BSE strains, BSE-L (also named BASE) and BSE-H, have
been discovered in three continents since 2004. The first case of naturally
occurring BSE with mutated bovine PrP gene (termed BSE-M) was also found in 2006
in the USA. The transmissibility and phenotypes of these atypical BSE
strains/isolates in humans were unknown. We have inoculated humanized transgenic
mice with classical and atypical BSE strains (BSE-C, BSE-L, BSE-H) and the BSE-M
isolate. We have found that the atypical BSE-L strain is much more virulent than
the classical BSE-C.*** The atypical BSE-H strain is also transmissible in the
humanized transgenic mice with distinct phenotype, but no transmission has been
observed for the BSE-M isolate so far.
III International Symposium on THE NEW PRION BIOLOGY: BASIC SCIENCE,
DIAGNOSIS AND THERAPY 2 - 4 APRIL 2009, VENEZIA (ITALY)
I ask Professor Kong ;
Thursday, December 04, 2008 3:37 PM Subject: RE: re--Chronic Wating Disease
(CWD) and Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathies (BSE): Public Health Risk
Assessment
''IS the h-BSE more virulent than typical BSE as well, or the same as cBSE,
or less virulent than cBSE? just curious.....''
Professor Kong reply ;
.....snip
''As to the H-BSE, we do not have sufficient data to say one way or
another, but we have found that H-BSE can infect humans. I hope we could publish
these data once the study is complete. Thanks for your interest.''
Best regards, Qingzhong Kong, PhD Associate Professor Department of
Pathology Case Western Reserve University Cleveland, OH 44106 USA
END...TSS
Thursday, December 04, 2008 2:37 PM
"we have found that H-BSE can infect humans."
personal communication with Professor Kong. ...TSS
BSE-H is also transmissible in our humanized Tg mice.
The possibility of more than two atypical BSE strains will be discussed.
Supported by NINDS NS052319, NIA AG14359, and NIH AI 77774.
let's take a closer look at this new prionpathy or prionopathy, and then
let's look at the g-h-BSEalabama mad cow.
This new prionopathy in humans? the genetic makeup is IDENTICAL to the
g-h-BSEalabama mad cow, the only _documented_ mad cow in the world to date like
this, ......wait, it get's better. this new prionpathy is killing young and old
humans, with LONG DURATION from onset of symptoms to death, and the symptoms are
very similar to nvCJD victims, OH, and the plaques are very similar in some
cases too, bbbut, it's not related to the g-h-BSEalabama cow, WAIT NOW, it gets
even better, the new human prionpathy that they claim is a genetic TSE, has no
relation to any gene mutation in that family. daaa, ya think it could be related
to that mad cow with the same genetic make-up ??? there were literally tons and
tons of banned mad cow protein in Alabama in commerce, and none of it
transmitted to cows, and the cows to humans there from ??? r i g h t $$$
ALABAMA MAD COW g-h-BSEalabama
In this study, we identified a novel mutation in the bovine prion protein
gene (Prnp), called E211K, of a confirmed BSE positive cow from Alabama, United
States of America. This mutation is identical to the E200K pathogenic mutation
found in humans with a genetic form of CJD. This finding represents the first
report of a confirmed case of BSE with a potential pathogenic mutation within
the bovine Prnp gene. We hypothesize that the bovine Prnp E211K mutation most
likely has caused BSE in "the approximately 10-year-old cow" carrying the E221K
mutation.
her healthy calf also carried the mutation (J. A. Richt and S. M. Hall PLoS
Pathog. 4, e1000156; 2008).
This raises the possibility that the disease could occasionally be genetic
in origin. Indeed, the report of the UK BSE Inquiry in 2000 suggested that the
UK epidemic had most likely originated from such a mutation and argued against
the scrapierelated assumption. Such rare potential pathogenic PRNP mutations
could occur in countries at present considered to be free of BSE, such as
Australia and New Zealand. So it is important to maintain strict surveillance
for BSE in cattle, with rigorous enforcement of the ruminant feed ban (many
countries still feed ruminant proteins to pigs). Removal of specified risk
material, such as brain and spinal cord, from cattle at slaughter prevents
infected material from entering the human food chain. Routine genetic screening
of cattle for PRNP mutations, which is now available, could provide additional
data on the risk to the public. Because the point mutation identified in the
Alabama animals is identical to that responsible for the commonest type of
familial (genetic) CJD in humans, it is possible that the resulting infective
prion protein might cross the bovine–human species barrier more easily. Patients
with vCJD continue to be identified. The fact that this is happening less often
should not lead to relaxation of the controls necessary to prevent future
outbreaks.
Malcolm A. Ferguson-Smith Cambridge University Department of Veterinary
Medicine, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0ES, UK e-mail: maf12@cam.ac.uk Jürgen
A. Richt College of Veterinary Medicine, Kansas State University, K224B Mosier
Hall, Manhattan, Kansas 66506-5601, USA
NATURE|Vol 457|26 February 2009
Saturday, August 14, 2010
BSE Case Associated with Prion Protein Gene Mutation (g-h-BSEalabama) and
VPSPr PRIONPATHY
(see mad cow feed in COMMERCE IN ALABAMA...TSS)
Friday, May 11, 2012
Experimental H-type bovine spongiform encephalopathy characterized by
plaques and glial- and stellate-type prion protein deposits
In addition, the present data will support risk assessments in some
peripheral tissues derived from cattle affected with H-type BSE.
Re: [BSE-L] Experimental H-type bovine spongiform encephalopathy
characterized by plaques and glial- and stellate-type prion protein deposits
“Unfortunately, a detailed and all-encompassing analysis of neuropathology and
topographical distribution of immunolabeled PrPSc in H-type BSE-affected cattle
could not be performed, since only the obex region is routinely sampled for BSE
surveillance testing and the remaining brain as well as the carcasses are not
available in most countries [3,10,12,13,24-27]. Recently, clinical signs and
biochemical properties of experimental German H-type BSE cases have been
reported [20]. The primary objective of this study was to investigate the
transmissibility of H-type BSE, using a field isolate detected in the active
surveillance program in Canada [12]. The secondary objective was to extend the
knowledge of the topographical distribution and deposition patterns of
immunolabeled PrPSc in H-type BSE.”
UPDATED...PLEASE SEE ;
Tuesday, November 02, 2010
BSE - ATYPICAL LESION DISTRIBUTION (RBSE 92-21367) statutory (obex only)
diagnostic criteria CVL 1992
SEE FULL TEXT ;
Identification of a second bovine amyloidotic spongiform encephalopathy:
Molecular similarities with sporadic Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease
Cristina Casalone*†, Gianluigi Zanusso†‡, Pierluigi Acutis*, Sergio
Ferrari‡, Lorenzo Capucci§, Fabrizio Tagliavini¶, Salvatore Monaco‡ , and Maria
Caramelli* *Centro di Referenza Nazionale per le Encefalopatie Animali, Istituto
Zooprofilattico Sperimentale del Piemonte, Liguria e Valle d’Aosta, Via Bologna,
148, 10195 Turin, Italy; ‡Department of Neurological and Visual Science, Section
of Clinical Neurology, Policlinico G.B. Rossi, Piazzale L.A. Scuro, 10, 37134
Verona, Italy; §Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale della Lombardia ed Emilia
Romagna, Via Bianchi, 9, 25124 Brescia, Italy; and ¶Istituto Nazionale
Neurologico ‘‘Carlo Besta,’’ Via Celoria 11, 20133 Milan, Italy
Edited by Stanley B. Prusiner, University of California, San Francisco, CA,
and approved December 23, 2003 (received for review September 9, 2003)
Transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs), or prion diseases, are
mammalian neurodegenerative disorders characterized by a posttranslational
conversion and brain accumulation of an insoluble, protease-resistant isoform
(PrPSc) of the host-encoded cellular prion protein (PrPC). Human and animal TSE
agents exist as different phenotypes that can be biochemically differentiated on
the basis of the molecular mass of the protease-resistant PrPSc fragments and
the degree of glycosylation. Epidemiological, molecular, and transmission
studies strongly suggest that the single strain of agent responsible for bovine
spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) has infected humans, causing variant
Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease. The unprecedented biological properties of the BSE
agent, which circumvents the so-called ‘‘species barrier’’ between cattle and
humans and adapts to different mammalian species, has raised considerable
concern for human health. To date, it is unknown whether more than one strain
might be responsible for cattle TSE or whether the BSE agent undergoes
phenotypic variation after natural transmission. Here we provide evidence of a
second cattle TSE. The disorder was pathologically characterized by the presence
of PrP-immunopositive amyloid plaques, as opposed to the lack of amyloid
deposition in typical BSE cases, and by a different pattern of regional
distribution and topology of brain PrPSc accumulation. In addition, Western blot
analysis showed a PrPSc type with predominance of the low molecular mass
glycoform and a protease- resistant fragment of lower molecular mass than
BSE-PrPSc. Strikingly, the molecular signature of this previously undescribed
bovine PrPSc was similar to that encountered in a distinct subtype of sporadic
Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease.
Phenotypic Similarities Between BASE and sCJD. The transmissibility of CJD
brains was initially demonstrated in primates (27), and classification of
atypical cases as CJD was based on this property (28). To date, no systematic
studies of strain typing in sCJD have been provided, and classification of
different subtypes is based on clinical, neuropathological, and molecular
features (the polymorphic PRNP codon 129 and the PrPSc glycotype) (8, 9, 15,
19). The importance of molecular PrPSc characterization in assessing the
identity of TSE strains is underscored by several studies, showing that the
stability of given disease-specific PrPSc types is maintained upon experimental
propagation of sCJD, familial CJD, and vCJD isolates in transgenic PrP-humanized
mice (8, 29). Similarly, biochemical properties of BSE- and vCJDassociated PrPSc
molecules remain stable after passage to mice expressing bovine PrP (30).
Recently, however, it has been reported that PrP-humanized mice inoculated with
BSE tissues may also propagate a distinctive PrPSc type, with a
‘‘monoglycosylated- dominant’’ pattern and electrophoretic mobility of the
unglycosylated fragment slower than that of vCJD and BSE (31). Strikingly, this
PrPSc type shares its molecular properties with the a PrPSc molecule found in
classical sCJD. This observation is at variance with the PrPSc type found in
M V2 sCJD cases and in cattle BASE, showing a monoglycosylated-dominant pattern
but faster electrophoretic mobility of the protease-resistant fragment as
compared with BSE. In addition to molecular properties of PrPSc, BASE and M V2
sCJD share a distinctive pattern of intracerebral PrP deposition, which occurs
as plaque-like and amyloid-kuru plaques. Differences were, however, observed in
the regional distribution of PrPSc. While inM V2 sCJD cases the largest amounts
of PrPSc were detected in the cerebellum, brainstem, and striatum, in cattle
BASE these areas were less involved and the highest levels of PrPSc were
recovered from the thalamus and olfactory regions.
In conclusion, decoding the biochemical PrPSc signature of individual human
and animal TSE strains may allow the identification of potential risk factors
for human disorders with unknown etiology, such as sCJD. However, although BASE
and sCJD share several characteristics, caution is dictated in assessing a link
between conditions affecting two different mammalian species, based on
convergent biochemical properties of diseaseassociated PrPSc types. Strains of
TSE agents may be better characterized upon passage to transgenic mice. In the
interim until this is accomplished, our present findings suggest a strict
epidemiological surveillance of cattle TSE and sCJD based on molecular criteria.
Employment Listings position: Post Doctoral Fellow | Atypical BSE in
Cattle
Closing date: December 24, 2009
Anticipated start date: January/February 2010
Employer: Canadian and OIE Reference Laboratories for BSE CFIA Lethbridge
Laboratory, Lethbridge/Alberta
The Canadian and OIE reference laboratories for BSE are extensively
involved in prion diseases diagnosis and research. With a recent increase in
research activities and funding, the laboratory is looking to fill two post
doctoral fellow positions. Both positions will be located at the Canadian Food
Inspection Agency (CFIA) Lethbridge Laboratory which offers biosaftey level 3
(BSL3) and BSL2 laboratory space and is well equipped for molecular and
morphologic prion research. The facility also has a BSL3 large animal housing
wing and a state of the art post mortem room certified for prion work.
Successful candidates will have the opportunity to visit other laboratories to
cooperate in various aspects of the projects and to be trained in new techniques
and acquire new skills. With a recent increase in prion disease expertise and
research in Alberta and Canada, these positions will offer significant exposure
to cutting edge prion science via videoconferencing, meetings, workshops and
conferences. These interactions will also provide a valuable opportunity to
present research findings and discuss potential future work opportunities and
collaborations with other Canadian and international research groups.
Atypical BSE in Cattle
BSE has been linked to the human disease variant Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease
(vCJD). The known exposure pathways for humans contracting vCJD are through the
consumption of beef and beef products contaminated by the BSE agent and through
blood transfusions. However, recent scientific evidence suggests that the BSE
agent may play a role in the development of other forms of human prion diseases
as well. These studies suggest that classical type of BSE may cause type 2
sporadic CJD and that H-type atypical BSE is connected with a familial form of
CJD.
To date the OIE/WAHO assumes that the human and animal health standards set
out in the BSE chapter for classical BSE (C-Type) applies to all forms of BSE
which include the H-type and L-type atypical forms. This assumption is
scientifically not completely justified and accumulating evidence suggests that
this may in fact not be the case. Molecular characterization and the spatial
distribution pattern of histopathologic lesions and immunohistochemistry (IHC)
signals are used to identify and characterize atypical BSE. Both the L-type and
H-type atypical cases display significant differences in the conformation and
spatial accumulation of the disease associated prion protein (PrPSc) in brains
of afflicted cattle. Transmission studies in bovine transgenic and wild type
mouse models support that the atypical BSE types might be unique strains because
they have different incubation times and lesion profiles when compared to C-type
BSE. When L-type BSE was inoculated into ovine transgenic mice and Syrian
hamster the resulting molecular fingerprint had changed, either in the first or
a subsequent passage, from L-type into C-type BSE. In addition, non-human
primates are specifically susceptible for atypical BSE as demonstrated by an
approximately 50% shortened incubation time for L-type BSE as compared to
C-type. Considering the current scientific information available, it cannot be
assumed that these different BSE types pose the same human health risks as
C-type BSE or that these risks are mitigated by the same protective measures.
This study will contribute to a correct definition of specified risk
material (SRM) in atypical BSE. The incumbent of this position will develop new
and transfer existing, ultra-sensitive methods for the detection of atypical BSE
in tissue of experimentally infected cattle.
Responsibilities include:
Driving research at the National and OIE BSE reference lab to ensure
project milestones are met successfully. Contributing to the preparation of
project progress reports. Directing technical staff working on the project.
Communicating and discussing results, progress and future direction with project
principle investigator(s). Communicating with collaborative project partners.
Qualifications:
Successful completion of a PhD degree in an area focusing on or related to
prion diseases. Extensive experience with molecular and/or morphologic
techniques used in studying prion diseases and/or other protein misfolding
disorders. Ability to think independently and contribute new ideas. Excellent
written and oral communication skills. Ability to multitask, prioritize, and
meet challenges in a timely manner. Proficiency with Microsoft Office,
especially Word, PowerPoint and Excel.
How to apply:
Please send your application and/or inquiry to: Dr. Stefanie Czub, DVM,
Ph.D. Head, National and OIE BSE Reference Laboratory Canadian Food Inspection
Agency Lethbridge Laboratory P.O. Box 640, Township Road 9-1 Lethbridge, AB, T1J
3Z4 Canada
phone: +1-403-382-5500 +1-403-382-5500 ext. 5549 email:
stefanie.czub@inspection.gc.ca
Contact Info:
Last Updated: 12/10/2009 1:35:18 PM
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Seven main threats for the future linked to prions
First threat
The TSE road map defining the evolution of European policy for protection
against prion diseases is based on a certain numbers of hypotheses some of which
may turn out to be erroneous. In particular, a form of BSE (called atypical
Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy), recently identified by systematic testing in
aged cattle without clinical signs, may be the origin of classical BSE and thus
potentially constitute a reservoir, which may be impossible to eradicate if a
sporadic origin is confirmed.
***Also, a link is suspected between atypical BSE and some apparently
sporadic cases of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans. These atypical BSE cases
constitute an unforeseen first threat that could sharply modify the European
approach to prion diseases.
Second threat
snip...
P03.141
Aspects of the Cerebellar Neuropathology in Nor98
Gavier-Widén, D1; Benestad, SL2; Ottander, L1; Westergren, E1 1National
Veterinary Insitute, Sweden; 2National Veterinary Institute,
Norway Nor98 is a prion disease of old sheep and goats. This atypical form
of scrapie was first described in Norway in 1998. Several features of Nor98 were
shown to be different from classical scrapie including the distribution of
disease associated prion protein (PrPd) accumulation in the brain. The
cerebellum is generally the most affected brain area in Nor98. The study here
presented aimed at adding information on the neuropathology in the cerebellum of
Nor98 naturally affected sheep of various genotypes in Sweden and Norway. A
panel of histochemical and immunohistochemical (IHC) stainings such as IHC for
PrPd, synaptophysin, glial fibrillary acidic protein, amyloid, and cell markers
for phagocytic cells were conducted. The type of histological lesions and tissue
reactions were evaluated. The types of PrPd deposition were characterized. The
cerebellar cortex was regularly affected, even though there was a variation in
the severity of the lesions from case to case. Neuropil vacuolation was more
marked in the molecular layer, but affected also the granular cell layer. There
was a loss of granule cells. Punctate deposition of PrPd was characteristic. It
was morphologically and in distribution identical with that of synaptophysin,
suggesting that PrPd accumulates in the synaptic structures. PrPd was also
observed in the granule cell layer and in the white matter. The pathology
features of Nor98 in the cerebellum of the affected sheep showed similarities
with those of sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans.
***The pathology features of Nor98 in the cerebellum of the affected sheep
showed similarities with those of sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in
humans.
PR-26
NOR98 SHOWS MOLECULAR FEATURES REMINISCENT OF GSS
R. Nonno1, E. Esposito1, G. Vaccari1, E. Bandino2, M. Conte1, B.
Chiappini1, S. Marcon1, M. Di Bari1, S.L. Benestad3, U. Agrimi1 1 Istituto
Superiore di Sanità, Department of Food Safety and Veterinary Public Health,
Rome, Italy (romolo.nonno@iss.it); 2 Istituto Zooprofilattico della Sardegna,
Sassari, Italy; 3 National Veterinary Institute, Department of Pathology, Oslo,
Norway
Molecular variants of PrPSc are being increasingly investigated in sheep
scrapie and are generally referred to as "atypical" scrapie, as opposed to
"classical scrapie". Among the atypical group, Nor98 seems to be the best
identified. We studied the molecular properties of Italian and Norwegian Nor98
samples by WB analysis of brain homogenates, either untreated, digested with
different concentrations of proteinase K, or subjected to enzymatic
deglycosylation. The identity of PrP fragments was inferred by means of
antibodies spanning the full PrP sequence. We found that undigested brain
homogenates contain a Nor98-specific PrP fragment migrating at 11 kDa (PrP11),
truncated at both the C-terminus and the N-terminus, and not N-glycosylated.
After mild PK digestion, Nor98 displayed full-length PrP (FL-PrP) and
N-glycosylated C-terminal fragments (CTF), along with increased levels of PrP11.
Proteinase K digestion curves (0,006-6,4 mg/ml) showed that FL-PrP and CTF are
mainly digested above 0,01 mg/ml, while PrP11 is not entirely digested even at
the highest concentrations, similarly to PrP27-30 associated with classical
scrapie. Above 0,2 mg/ml PK, most Nor98 samples showed only PrP11 and a fragment
of 17 kDa with the same properties of PrP11, that was tentatively identified as
a dimer of PrP11. Detergent solubility studies showed that PrP11 is insoluble in
2% sodium laurylsorcosine and is mainly produced from detergentsoluble,
full-length PrPSc. Furthermore, among Italian scrapie isolates, we found that a
sample with molecular and pathological properties consistent with Nor98 showed
plaque-like deposits of PrPSc in the thalamus when the brain was analysed by
PrPSc immunohistochemistry. Taken together, our results show that the
distinctive pathological feature of Nor98 is a PrP fragment spanning amino acids
~ 90-155. This fragment is produced by successive N-terminal and C-terminal
cleavages from a full-length and largely detergent-soluble PrPSc, is produced in
vivo and is extremely resistant to PK digestion.
*** Intriguingly, these conclusions suggest that some pathological features
of Nor98 are reminiscent of Gerstmann-Sträussler-Scheinker disease.
119
A newly identified type of scrapie agent can naturally infect sheep with
resistant PrP genotypes
Annick Le Dur*,?, Vincent Béringue*,?, Olivier Andréoletti?, Fabienne
Reine*, Thanh Lan Laï*, Thierry Baron§, Bjørn Bratberg¶, Jean-Luc Vilotte?,
Pierre Sarradin**, Sylvie L. Benestad¶, and Hubert Laude*,?? +Author
Affiliations
*Virologie Immunologie Moléculaires and ?Génétique Biochimique et
Cytogénétique, Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique, 78350
Jouy-en-Josas, France; ?Unité Mixte de Recherche, Institut National de la
Recherche Agronomique-Ecole Nationale Vétérinaire de Toulouse, Interactions Hôte
Agent Pathogène, 31066 Toulouse, France; §Agence Française de Sécurité Sanitaire
des Aliments, Unité Agents Transmissibles Non Conventionnels, 69364 Lyon,
France; **Pathologie Infectieuse et Immunologie, Institut National de la
Recherche Agronomique, 37380 Nouzilly, France; and ¶Department of Pathology,
National Veterinary Institute, 0033 Oslo, Norway
***Edited by Stanley B. Prusiner, University of California, San Francisco,
CA (received for review March 21, 2005)
Abstract Scrapie in small ruminants belongs to transmissible spongiform
encephalopathies (TSEs), or prion diseases, a family of fatal neurodegenerative
disorders that affect humans and animals and can transmit within and between
species by ingestion or inoculation. Conversion of the host-encoded prion
protein (PrP), normal cellular PrP (PrPc), into a misfolded form, abnormal PrP
(PrPSc), plays a key role in TSE transmission and pathogenesis. The intensified
surveillance of scrapie in the European Union, together with the improvement of
PrPSc detection techniques, has led to the discovery of a growing number of
so-called atypical scrapie cases. These include clinical Nor98 cases first
identified in Norwegian sheep on the basis of unusual pathological and PrPSc
molecular features and "cases" that produced discordant responses in the rapid
tests currently applied to the large-scale random screening of slaughtered or
fallen animals. Worryingly, a substantial proportion of such cases involved
sheep with PrP genotypes known until now to confer natural resistance to
conventional scrapie. Here we report that both Nor98 and discordant cases,
including three sheep homozygous for the resistant PrPARR allele (A136R154R171),
efficiently transmitted the disease to transgenic mice expressing ovine PrP, and
that they shared unique biological and biochemical features upon propagation in
mice. *** These observations support the view that a truly infectious TSE agent,
unrecognized until recently, infects sheep and goat flocks and may have
important implications in terms of scrapie control and public health.
Monday, December 1, 2008
When Atypical Scrapie cross species barriers
Authors
Andreoletti O., Herva M. H., Cassard H., Espinosa J. C., Lacroux C., Simon
S., Padilla D., Benestad S. L., Lantier F., Schelcher F., Grassi J., Torres, J.
M., UMR INRA ENVT 1225, Ecole Nationale Veterinaire de Toulouse.France;
ICISA-INlA, Madrid, Spain; CEA, IBiTec-5, DSV, CEA/Saclay, Gif sur Yvette cedex,
France; National Veterinary Institute, Postboks 750 Sentrum, 0106 Oslo, Norway,
INRA IASP, Centre INRA de Tours, 3738O Nouzilly, France.
Content
Atypical scrapie is a TSE occurring in small ruminants and harbouring
peculiar clinical, epidemiological and biochemical properties. Currently this
form of disease is identified in a large number of countries. In this study we
report the transmission of an atypical scrapie isolate through different species
barriers as modeled by transgenic mice (Tg) expressing different species PRP
sequence.
The donor isolate was collected in 1995 in a French commercial sheep flock.
inoculation into AHQ/AHQ sheep induced a disease which had all
neuro-pathological and biochemical characteristics of atypical scrapie.
Transmitted into Transgenic mice expressing either ovine or PrPc, the isolate
retained all the described characteristics of atypical scrapie.
Surprisingly the TSE agent characteristics were dramatically different
v/hen passaged into Tg bovine mice. The recovered TSE agent had biological and
biochemical characteristics similar to those of atypical BSE L in the same mouse
model. Moreover, whereas no other TSE agent than BSE were shown to transmit into
Tg porcine mice, atypical scrapie was able to develop into this model, albeit
with low attack rate on first passage.
Furthermore, after adaptation in the porcine mouse model this prion showed
similar biological and biochemical characteristics than BSE adapted to this
porcine mouse model. Altogether these data indicate.
(i) the unsuspected potential abilities of atypical scrapie to cross
species barriers
(ii) the possible capacity of this agent to acquire new characteristics
when crossing species barrier
These findings raise some interrogation on the concept of TSE strain and on
the origin of the diversity of the TSE agents and could have consequences on
field TSE control measures.
Monday, April 25, 2011
Experimental Oral Transmission of Atypical Scrapie to Sheep
Volume 17, Number 5–May 2011
Research
Experimental Oral Transmission of Atypical Scrapie to Sheep
Marion M. Simmons, S. Jo Moore,1 Timm Konold, Lisa Thurston, Linda A.
Terry, Leigh Thorne, Richard Lockey, Chris Vickery, Stephen A.C. Hawkins,
Melanie J. Chaplin, and John Spiropoulos –Weybridge, Addlestone, UK
Suggested citation for this article
Abstract To investigate the possibility of oral transmission of atypical
scrapie in sheep and determine the distribution of infectivity in the animals'
peripheral tissues, we challenged neonatal lambs orally with atypical scrapie;
they were then killed at 12 or 24 months. Screening test results were negative
for disease-specific prion protein in all but 2 recipients; they had positive
results for examination of brain, but negative for peripheral tissues.
Infectivity of brain, distal ileum, and spleen from all animals was assessed in
mouse bioassays; positive results were obtained from tissues that had negative
results on screening. These findings demonstrate that atypical scrapie can be
transmitted orally and indicate that it has the potential for natural
transmission and iatrogenic spread through animal feed. Detection of infectivity
in tissues negative by current surveillance methods indicates that diagnostic
sensitivity is suboptimal for atypical scrapie, and potentially infectious
material may be able to pass into the human food chain.
SEE MORE HERE ;
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
IN CONFIDENCE SCRAPIE TRANSMISSION TO CHIMPANZEES
IN CONFIDENCE
reference...
RB3.20
TRANSMISSION TO CHIMPANZEES
1. Kuru and CJD have been successfully transmitted to chimpanzees but
scrapie and TME have not.
2. We cannot say that scrapie will not transmit to chimpanzees. There are
several scrapie strains and I am not aware that all have been tried (that would
have to be from mouse passaged material). Nor has a wide enough range of field
isolates subsequently strain typed in mice been inoculated by the appropriate
routes (i/c, ilp and i/v) :
3. I believe the proposed experiment to determine transmissibility, if
conducted, would only show the susceptibility or resistance of the chimpanzee to
infection/disease by the routes used and the result could not be interpreted for
the predictability of the susceptibility for man. Proposals for prolonged oral
exposure of chimpanzees to milk from cattle were suggested a long while ago and
rejected.
4. In view of Dr Gibbs' probable use of chimpazees Mr Wells' comments
(enclosed) are pertinent. I have yet to receive a direct communication from Dr
Schellekers but before any collaboration or provision of material we should
identify the Gibbs' proposals and objectives.
5. A positive result from a chimpanzee challenged severely would likely
create alarm in some circles even if the result could not be interpreted for
man. I have a view that all these agents could be transmitted provided a large
enough dose by appropriate routes was given and the animals kept long enough.
Until the mechanisms of the species barrier are more clearly understood it might
be best to retain that hypothesis.
6. A negative result would take a lifetime to determine but that would be a
shorter period than might be available for human exposure and it would still not
answer the question regarding mans' susceptibility. In the meantime no doubt the
negativity would be used defensively. It would however be counterproductive if
the experiment finally became positive. We may learn more about public reactions
following next Monday' s meeting.
R. Bradley
23 September 1990
CVO (+Mr Wells' comments)
Dr T W A Little
Dr B J Shreeve
90/9.23/1.1.
IN CONFIDENCE CHIMPANZEES
CODE 18-77 Reference RB3.46
Some further information that may assist in decision making has been gained
by discussion with Dr Rosalind Ridley.
She says that careful study of Gajdusek's work shows no increased
susceptibility of chimpanzees over New World Monkeys such as Squirrel Monkeys.
She does not think it would tell you anything about the susceptibility to man.
Also Gajdusek did not, she believes, challenge chimpanzees with scrapie as
severely as we did pigs and we know little of that source of scrapie.
Comparisons would be difficult. She also would not expect the Home Office to
sanction such experiments here unless there was a very clear and important
objective that would be important for human health protection. She doubted such
a case could be made. If this is the case she thought it would be unethical to
do an experiment abroad because we could not do it in our own country.
Retrospectively she feels they should have put up more marmosets than they
did. They all remain healthy. They would normally regard the transmission as
negative if no disease resulted in five years.
We are not being asked for a decision but I think that before we made one
we should gain as much knowledge as we can. If we decided to proceed we would
have to bear any criticisms for many years if there was an adverse view by
scientists ormedia. This should not be undertaken lightly. There is already
some adverse comment here, I gather, on the pig experiment though that will
subside.
The Gibbs' (as' distinct from Schellekers') study is somewhat different. We
are merely supplying material for comparative studies in a laboratory with the
greatest experience of human SEs in the world and it has been sanctioned by USDA
(though we do not know for certain yet if chimpanzees specifically will be
used). This would keep it at a lower profile than if we conducted such an
experiment in the UK or Europe.
I consider we must have very powerful and defendable objectives to go
beyond Gibbs' proposed experiments and should not initiate others just because
an offer has been made.
Scientists have a responsibility to seek other methods of investigative
research other than animal experimentation. At present no objective has
convinced me we need to do research using Chimpanzees - a species in need of
protection. Resisting such proposals would enable us to communicate that
information to the scientist and the public should the need arise. A line would
have been drawn.
CVO cc Dr T Dr B W A Little Dr B J Shreeve
R Bradley
26 September 1990
90/9.26/3.2
I AM NOT AN ADVOCATE FOR EXPERIMENTAL USE OF CHIMPANZEES AS TEST VICTIMS.
However, I would be an advocate for (and i have said this before over the
years), of death row inmates being used. Their families could be compensated
with a monetary award, and the death row inmates could do one final thing for
the good of humanity. There going to die anyway. just my opinion. ...TSS-2011
POLICY - RESTRICTED
CREUTZFELDT-JAKOB DISEASE: 3RD ANNUAL REPORT OF THE UK SURVEILLANCE
UNIT
1. This submission, which has been agreed with colleagues in HEF(M). alerts
PS(L) to the contents of the forthcoming annual report of the CJD Surveillance
Unit and presents options for publication. It also highlights concern over the
presentation of results which could be misrepresented by the media and others as
evidence of a lilnk between CJD and the consumption of veal. ...
RECOMMENDATION
2. PS(L) is invited to agree the recommendation at para 13.
PROBLEM
7. The main findings in the case-control study were STATISTICALLY
SIGNIFICANT ASSOCIATIONS BETWEEN CONSUMPTION OF VEAL OR VENISON AND THE
DEVELOPMENT OF CJD (INCREASED RISKS OF 2-13x). There was also evidence of a
dose-response relationship between dietary exposure and development of the
disease. (Last year's findings showed an apparent association between eating
black pudding and risk of CJD which was neither statistically significant nor
biologically plausible - interestingly, this has not been (replicated was marked
out with something i cannot read), and then this complete sentence was marked
through to be replaced ;
THIS YEAR'S FINDINGS SHOW A NUMBER OF ASSOCIATIONS BUT THE STRONGEST IS FOR
VEAL.
IP PS(L) wishes to probe this further we think it best to explain the
matter VERBALLY. The problem is how to present the findings in this year's
annual report in a way which avoids unnecessary public alarm and limits the
scope for media scare stores. (or the facts...TSS)
This is of considerable concern given recent development. In particular
Ministers will be particularly concerned about the European dimension given the
recent troubles with the Germans.
9. DH doctors advise - and we understand Dr Wills agrees - that the
association the study found between the developments of CJD and veal consumption
cannot be regarded as demonstrating a causal relationship or give any reason to
change the advice that eating beef and veal is safe. IF PS(L) wishes to probe
this further we think it best to explain the matter verbally. The problem is how
to present the findings in this year's annual report in a way which avoids
unnecessary public alarm and limits the scope for media scare stories.
Next steps ...
snip... full text ;
PROBLEM
7. The main findings in the case-control study were STATISTICALLY
SIGNIFICANT ASSOCIATIONS BETWEEN CONSUMPTION OF VEAL OR VENISON AND THE
DEVELOPMENT OF CJD (INCREASED RISKS OF 2-13x). There was also evidence of a
dose-response relationship between dietary exposure and development of the
disease. (Last year's findings showed an apparent association between eating
black pudding and risk of CJD which was neither statistically significant nor
biologically plausible - interestingly, this has not been (replicated was marked
out with something i cannot read), and then this complete sentence was marked
through to be replaced ;
see watered down report here ;
http://web.archive.org/web/20030511211625/http://www.bseinquiry.gov.uk/files/yb/1994/10/00004001.pdf
Lessons from BSE
4. In retrospect, a problem of scrapie transmission in feedstuffs was
perhaps predictable.
IN CONFIDENCE
NOT FOR PUBLICATION
STRICTLY PRIVATE AND CONFIDENTIAL 25, AUGUST 1995
snip...
To minimise the risk of farmers' claims for compensation from feed
compounders.
To minimise the potential damage to compound feed markets through adverse
publicity.
To maximise freedom of action for feed compounders, notably by maintaining
the availability of meat and bone meal as a raw material in animal feeds, and
ensuring time is available to make any changes which may be required.
snip...
THE FUTURE
4..........
MAFF remains under pressure in Brussels and is not skilled at handling
potentially explosive issues.
5. Tests _may_ show that ruminant feeds have been sold which contain
illegal traces of ruminant protein. More likely, a few positive test results
will turn up but proof that a particular feed mill knowingly supplied it to a
particular farm will be difficult if not impossible.
6. The threat remains real and it will be some years before feed
compounders are free of it. The longer we can avoid any direct linkage between
feed milling _practices_ and actual BSE cases, the more likely it is that
serious damage can be avoided. ...
Differentiation of ruminant transmissible spongiform encephalopathy isolate
types, including bovine spongiform encephalopathy and CH1641 scrapie
J. G. Jacobs1, M. Sauer2, L. J. M. van Keulen1, Y. Tang2, A. Bossers1 and
J. P. M. Langeveld1
1 Department of Infection Biology, Central Veterinary Institute of
Wageningen UR, PO Box 65, 8200 AB Lelystad, The Netherlands 2 Department of
Molecular Pathogenesis and Genetics, Veterinary Laboratories Agency-Weybridge,
Woodham Lane, New Haw, Addlestone, Surrey KT15 3NB, UK
Correspondence J. P. M. Langeveld jan.langeveld@wur.nl
With increased awareness of the diversity of transmissible spongiform
encephalopathy (TSE) strains in the ruminant population, comes an appreciation
of the need for improved methods of differential diagnosis. Exposure to bovine
spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) has been associated with the human TSE, variant
Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease, emphasizing the necessity in distinguishing low-risk
TSE types from BSE. TSE type discrimination in ruminants such as cattle, sheep,
goats and deer, requires the application of several prion protein (PrP)-specific
antibodies in parallel immunochemical tests on brain homogenates or tissue
sections from infected animals. This study uses in a single incubation step,
three PrP-specific antibodies and fluorescent Alexa dye-labelled anti-mouse Fabs
on a Western blot. The usual amount of brain tissue needed is 0.5 mg. This
multiplex application of antibodies directed towards three different PrP
epitopes enabled differential diagnosis of all established main features of
classical scrapie, BSE and Nor98-like scrapie in sheep and goats, as well as the
currently known BSE types C, H and L in cattle. Moreover, due to an
antibody-dependent dual PrP-banding pattern, for the first time CH1641 scrapie
of sheep can be reliably discriminated from the other TSE isolate types in
sheep.
----- Original Message -----
From: "BioMed Central Comments"
To:
Sent: Wednesday, February 16, 2011 4:13 AM
Subject: Your comment on BMC Veterinary Research 2011, 7:7
Your discussion posting "Scrapie cases Goats from same herd USA Michigan"
has been rejected by the moderator as not being appropriate for inclusion on the
site.
Dear Mr Singeltary,
Thank you for submitting your comment on BMC Veterinary Research article
(2011, 7:7). We have read your comment with interest but we feel that only the
authors of the article can answer your question about further investigation of
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======end=======
Friday, February 11, 2011
Atypical/Nor98 Scrapie Infectivity in Sheep Peripheral Tissues
Technical Abstract:
Prion strains may vary in their ability to transmit to humans and animals.
Few experimental studies have been done to provide evidence of differences
between U.S. strains of scrapie, which can be distinguished by incubation times
in inbred mice, microscopic lesions, immunoreactivity to various antibodies, or
molecular profile (electrophoretic mobility and glycoform ratio). Recent work on
two U.S. isolates of sheep scrapie supports that at least two distinct strains
exist based on differences in incubation time and genotype of sheep affected.
One isolate (No. 13-7) inoculated intracerebrally caused scrapie in sheep AA at
codon 136 (AA136) and QQ at codon 171 (QQ171) of the prion protein in an average
of 19 months post-inoculation (PI) whereas a second isolate (No. x124) caused
disease in less than 12 months after oral inoculation in AV136/QQ171 sheep.
Striking differences were evident when further strain analysis was done in R111,
VM, C57Bl6, and C57Bl6xVM (F1) mice. No. 13-7 did not induce disease in any
mouse strain at any time post-inoculation (PI) nor were brain tissues positive
by western blot (WB). Positive WB results were obtained from mice inoculated
with isolate No. x124 starting at day 380 PI. Incubation times averaged 508,
559, 601, and 633 days PI for RIII, C57Bl6, VM, and F1 mice, respectively.
Further passage will be required to characterize these scrapie strains in mice.
This work provides evidence that multiple scrapie strains exist in U.S.
sheep.
One of these isolates (TR316211) behaved like the CH1641 isolate, with
PrPres features in mice similar to those in the sheep brain. From two other
isolates (O100 and O104), two distinct PrPres phenotypes were identified in
mouse brains, with either high (h-type) or low (l-type) apparent molecular
masses of unglycosylated PrPres, the latter being similar to that observed with
CH1641, TR316211, or BSE. Both phenotypes could be found in variable proportions
in the brains of the individual mice. In contrast with BSE, l-type PrPres from
"CH1641-like" isolates showed lower levels of diglycosylated PrPres. From one of
these cases (O104), a second passage in mice was performed for two mice with
distinct PrPres profiles. This showed a partial selection of the l-type
phenotype in mice infected with a mouse brain with predominant l-type PrPres,
and it was accompanied by a significant increase in the proportions of the
diglycosylated band. These results are discussed in relation to the diversity of
scrapie and BSE strains.
In the US, scrapie is reported primarily in sheep homozygous for 136A/171Q
(AAQQ) and the disease phenotype is similar to that seen with experimental
strain CH1641.
4.2.9 A further hypothesis to explain the occurrence of BSE is the
emergence or selection of a strain or strains of the scrapie agent pathogenic
for cattle. Mutations of the scrapie agent. which can occur after a single
passage in mice. have been well documented (9). This phenomenon cannot be
dismissed for BSE. but given the form of the epidemic and the geographically
widespread occurrence of BSE, such a hypothesis" would require the emergence of
a mutant scrapie strain simultaneously in a large . number of sheep flocks, or
cattle. throughout the country. Also. if it resulted "from a localised chance
transmission of the scrapie strain from sheep to cattle giving rise , . to a
mutant. a different pattern of disease would have been expected: its range would
'. have increased with time. Thus the evidence from Britain is against the
disease being due to a new strain of the agent, but we note that in the United
States from 1984 to 1988 outbreaks of scrapie in sheep flocks are reported to
have Increased markedly. now being nearly 3 times as high as during any previous
period (18).
If the scrapie agent is generated from ovine DNA and thence causes disease
in other species, then perhaps, bearing in mind the possible role of scrapie in
CJD of humans (Davinpour et al, 1985), scrapie and not BSE should be the
notifiable disease. ...
EVIDENCE OF SCRAPIE IN SHEEP AS A RESULT OF FOOD BORNE EXPOSURE
This is provided by the statistically significant increase in the incidence
of sheep scrape from 1985, as determined from analyses of the submissions made
to VI Centres, and from individual case and flock incident studies.
........
RISK OF BSE TO SHEEP VIA FEED
Marion Simmons communicated surprising evidence for oral transmissibility
of Nor98/atypical scrapie in neonatal sheep and although bioassay is ongoing,
infectivity of the distal ileum of 12 and 24 month infected sheep is positive in
Tg338 mice.
SUMMARY REPORTS OF MAFF BSE TRANSMISSION STUDIES AT THE CVL ;
THE RISK TO HUMANS FROM SHEEP;
EXPERIMENTAL TRANSMISSION OF BSE TO SHEEP
SHEEP AND BSE
PERSONAL AND CONFIDENTIAL
SHEEP AND BSE
A. The experimental transmission of BSE to sheep.
Studies have shown that the ''negative'' line NPU flock of Cheviots can be
experimentally infected with BSE by intracerebral (ic) or oral challenge (the
latter being equivalent to 0.5 gram of a pool of four cow brains from animals
confirmed to have BSE).
RB264
BSE - TRANSMISSION STUDIES
1: J Infect Dis 1980 Aug;142(2):205-8
Oral transmission of kuru, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, and scrapie to
nonhuman primates.
Gibbs CJ Jr, Amyx HL, Bacote A, Masters CL, Gajdusek DC.
Kuru and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease of humans and scrapie disease of sheep
and goats were transmitted to squirrel monkeys (Saimiri sciureus) that were
exposed to the infectious agents only by their nonforced consumption of known
infectious tissues. The asymptomatic incubation period in the one monkey exposed
to the virus of kuru was 36 months; that in the two monkeys exposed to the virus
of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease was 23 and 27 months, respectively; and that in the
two monkeys exposed to the virus of scrapie was 25 and 32 months, respectively.
Careful physical examination of the buccal cavities of all of the monkeys failed
to reveal signs or oral lesions. One additional monkey similarly exposed to kuru
has remained asymptomatic during the 39 months that it has been under
observation.
snip...
The successful transmission of kuru, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, and scrapie
by natural feeding to squirrel monkeys that we have reported provides further
grounds for concern that scrapie-infected meat may occasionally give rise in
humans to Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.
PMID: 6997404
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=6997404&dopt=Abstract
12/10/76 AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH COUNCIL REPORT OF THE ADVISORY COMMITTE ON
SCRAPIE Office Note CHAIRMAN: PROFESSOR PETER WILDY
snip...
A The Present Position with respect to Scrapie A] The Problem Scrapie is a
natural disease of sheep and goats. It is a slow and inexorably progressive
degenerative disorder of the nervous system and it ia fatal. It is enzootic in
the United Kingdom but not in all countries. The field problem has been reviewed
by a MAFF working group (ARC 35/77). It is difficult to assess the incidence in
Britain for a variety of reasons but the disease causes serious financial loss;
it is estimated that it cost Swaledale breeders alone $l.7 M during the five
years 1971-1975. A further inestimable loss arises from the closure of certain
export markets, in particular those of the United States, to British sheep. It
is clear that scrapie in sheep is important commercially and for that reason
alone effective measures to control it should be devised as quickly as possible.
Recently the question has again been brought up as to whether scrapie is
transmissible to man. This has followed reports that the disease has been
transmitted to primates.
One particularly lurid speculation (Gajdusek 1977) conjectures that the
agents of scrapie, kuru, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and transmissible
encephalopathy of mink are varieties of a single "virus". The U.S. Department of
Agriculture concluded that it could "no longer justify or permit scrapie-blood
line and scrapie-exposed sheep and goats to be processed for human or animal
food at slaughter or rendering plants" (ARC 84/77)" The problem is emphasised by
the finding that some strains of scrapie produce lesions identical to the once
which characterise the human dementias" Whether true or not. the hypothesis that
these agents might be transmissible to man raises two considerations. First, the
safety of laboratory personnel requires prompt attention. Second, action such as
the "scorched meat" policy of USDA makes the solution of the acrapie problem
urgent if the sheep industry is not to suffer grievously.
snip...
76/10.12/4.6
Nature. 1972 Mar 10;236(5341):73-4.
Transmission of scrapie to the cynomolgus monkey (Macaca
fascicularis).
Gibbs CJ Jr, Gajdusek DC. Nature 236, 73 - 74 (10 March 1972);
doi:10.1038/236073a0
Transmission of Scrapie to the Cynomolgus Monkey (Macaca
fascicularis)
C. J. GIBBS jun. & D. C. GAJDUSEK National Institute of Neurological
Diseases and Stroke, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland
SCRAPIE has been transmitted to the cynomolgus, or crab-eating, monkey
(Macaca fascicularis) with an incubation period of more than 5 yr from the time
of intracerebral inoculation of scrapie-infected mouse brain. The animal
developed a chronic central nervous system degeneration, with ataxia, tremor and
myoclonus with associated severe scrapie-like pathology of intensive astroglial
hypertrophy and proliferation, neuronal vacuolation and status spongiosus of
grey matter. The strain of scrapie virus used was the eighth passage in Swiss
mice (NIH) of a Compton strain of scrapie obtained as ninth intracerebral
passage of the agent in goat brain, from Dr R. L. Chandler (ARC, Compton,
Berkshire).
Epidemiology of Scrapie in the United States 1977
IBNC
"All of the 15 cattle tested showed that the brains had abnormally
accumulated prion protein."
Saturday, February 28, 2009
NEW RESULTS ON IDIOPATHIC BRAINSTEM NEURONAL CHROMATOLYSIS "All of the 15
cattle tested showed that the brains had abnormally accumulated PrP" 2009
SEAC 102/2
Monday, November 30, 2009
USDA AND OIE COLLABORATE TO EXCLUDE ATYPICAL SCRAPIE NOR-98 ANIMAL HEALTH
CODE
Published online ahead of print on 26 January 2011 as
doi:10.1099/vir.0.028886-0 J Gen Virol (2011), DOI 10.1099/vir.0.028886-0 © 2011
Society for General Microbiology This Article
Emergence of multiple prion strains from single isolates of ovine
scrapie
Alana M. Thackray1, Lee Hopkins1, Richard Lockey2, John Spiropoulos2 and
Raymond Bujdoso1,3
1 University of Cambridge; 2 VLA, Weybridge
3 E-mail: rb202@cam.ac.uk
The infectious agent associated with prion diseases such as ovine scrapie
shows strain diversity. Ovine prion strains have typically been identified by
their transmission properties in wild type mice. However, strain typing ovine
scrapie isolates in wild type mice may not reveal properties of the infectious
prion agent as they exist in the original host. This could be circumvented if
ovine scrapie isolates are passaged in ovine PrP transgenic mice. Here we have
used incubation time, lesion profile, PrPSc immunohistochemistry and molecular
profile to compare the range of ovine prion strains that emerge from sheep
scrapie isolates following serial passage in wild type and ovine PrP transgenic
mice. We have found that a diverse range of ovine prion strains emerged from
homozygous ARQ and VRQ scrapie isolates passaged in wild type and ovine PrP
transgenic mice. However, strain-specific PrPSc deposition and PrP27-30
molecular profile patterns were identified in ovine PrP transgenic mice that
were not detected in wild type mice. Significantly, we have established that the
individual mouse brain selected for transmission during prion strain typing has
a significant influence on strain definition. Serial passage of short and long
incubation time animals from the same group of scrapie inoculated mice revealed
different prion strain phenotypes. Our observations are consistent with the
possibility that some scrapie isolates contained more than one prion
strain.
Received 10 November 2010; accepted 24 January 2011.
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
EFSA and ECDC review scientific evidence on possible links between TSEs in
animals and humans Webnachricht 19 Januar 2011
Saturday, December 18, 2010
OIE Global Conference on Wildlife Animal Health and Biodiversity –
Preparing for the Future (TSE AND PRIONS) Paris (France), 23-25 February
2011
SNIP...
please see full text ;
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
IN CONFIDENCE
SCRAPIE TRANSMISSION TO CHIMPANZEES
IN CONFIDENCE
why do we not want to do TSE transmission studies on chimpanzees $
snip...
5. A positive result from a chimpanzee challenged severly would likely
create alarm in some circles even if the result could not be interpreted for
man. I have a view that all these agents could be transmitted provided a large
enough dose by appropriate routes was given and the animals kept long enough.
Until the mechanisms of the species barrier are more clearly understood it might
be best to retain that hypothesis.
snip...
R. BRADLEY
Sunday, April 18, 2010
SCRAPIE AND ATYPICAL SCRAPIE TRANSMISSION STUDIES A REVIEW 2010
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Increased susceptibility of human-PrP transgenic mice to bovine spongiform
encephalopathy following passage in sheep
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
EFSA and ECDC review scientific evidence on possible links between TSEs in
animals and humans Webnachricht 19 Januar 2011
Monday, June 27, 2011
Comparison of Sheep Nor98 with Human Variably Protease-Sensitive
Prionopathy and Gerstmann-Sträussler-Scheinker Disease
RESEARCH
Emerging Infectious Diseases • www.cdc.gov/eid • Vol. 17, No. 5, May
2011
Experimental Oral Transmission of Atypical Scrapie to Sheep
Marion M. Simmons, S. Jo Moore,1 Timm Konold, Lisa Thurston, Linda A.
Terry, Leigh Thorne, Richard Lockey, Chris Vickery, Stephen A.C. Hawkins,
Melanie J. Chaplin, and John Spiropoulos
To investigate the possibility of oral transmission of atypical scrapie in
sheep and determine the distribution of infectivity in the animals’ peripheral
tissues, we challenged neonatal lambs orally with atypical scrapie; they were
then killed at 12 or 24 months. Screening test results were negative for
disease-specifi c prion protein in all but 2 recipients; they had positive
results for examination of brain, but negative for peripheral tissues.
Infectivity of brain, distal ileum, and spleen from all animals was assessed in
mouse bioassays; positive results were obtained from tissues that had negative
results on screening. These fi ndings demonstrate that atypical scrapie can be
transmitted orally and indicate that it has the potential for natural
transmission and iatrogenic spread through animal feed. Detection of infectivity
in tissues negative by current surveillance methods indicates that diagnostic
sensitivity is suboptimal for atypical scrapie, and potentially infectious
material may be able to pass into the human food chain.
SNIP...
Although we do not have epidemiologic evidence that supports the effi cient
spread of disease in the fi eld, these data imply that disease is potentially
transmissible under fi eld situations and that spread through animal feed may be
possible if the current feed restrictions were to be relaxed. Additionally,
almost no data are available on the potential for atypical scrapie to transmit
to other food animal species, certainly by the oral route. However, work with
transgenic mice has demonstrated the potential susceptibility of pigs, with the
disturbing fi nding that the biochemical properties of the resulting PrPSc have
changed on transmission (40). The implications of this observation for
subsequent transmission and host target range are currently unknown.
How reassuring is this absence of detectable PrPSc from a public health
perspective? The bioassays performed in this study are not titrations, so the
infectious load of the positive gut tissues cannot be quantifi ed, although
infectivity has been shown unequivocally. No experimental data are currently
available on the zoonotic potential of atypical scrapie, either through
experimental challenge of humanized mice or any meaningful epidemiologic
correlation with human forms of TSE. However, the detection of infectivity in
the distal ileum of animals as young as 12 months, in which all the tissues
tested were negative for PrPSc by the currently available screening and confi
rmatory diagnostic tests, indicates that the diagnostic sensitivity of current
surveillance methods is suboptimal for detecting atypical scrapie and that
potentially infectious material may be able to pass into the human food chain
undetected.
Emerging Infectious Diseases • www.cdc.gov/eid • Vol. 17, No. 5, May 2011
Thursday, March 29, 2012
atypical Nor-98 Scrapie has spread from coast to coast in the USA 2012
NIAA Annual Conference April 11-14, 2011San Antonio, Texas
*** Chronic Wasting Disease CWD CDC REPORT MARCH 2012 ***
Saturday, February 18, 2012
Occurrence, Transmission, and Zoonotic Potential of Chronic Wasting Disease
CDC Volume 18, Number 3—March 2012
CWD has been identified in free-ranging cervids in 15 US states and 2
Canadian provinces and in ≈ 100 captive herds in 15 states and provinces and in
South Korea (Figure 1, panel B).
SNIP...
Long-term effects of CWD on cervid populations and ecosystems remain
unclear as the disease continues to spread and prevalence increases. In captive
herds, CWD might persist at high levels and lead to complete herd destruction in
the absence of human culling. Epidemiologic modeling suggests the disease could
have severe effects on free-ranging deer populations, depending on hunting
policies and environmental persistence (8,9). CWD has been associated with large
decreases in free-ranging mule deer populations in an area of high CWD
prevalence (Boulder, Colorado, USA) (5).
SNIP...
Long-term effects of CWD on cervid populations and ecosystems remain
unclear as the disease continues to spread and prevalence increases. In captive
herds, CWD might persist at high levels and lead to complete herd destruction in
the absence of human culling. Epidemiologic modeling suggests the disease could
have severe effects on free-ranging deer populations, depending on hunting
policies and environmental persistence (8,9). CWD has been associated with large
decreases in free-ranging mule deer populations in an area of high CWD
prevalence (Boulder, Colorado, USA) (5). SNIP...
Reasons for Caution There are several reasons for caution with respect to
zoonotic and interspecies CWD transmission. First, there is strong evidence that
distinct CWD strains exist (36). Prion strains are distinguished by varied
incubation periods, clinical symptoms, PrPSc conformations, and CNS PrPSc
depositions (3,32). Strains have been identified in other natural prion
diseases, including scrapie, BSE, and CJD (3). Intraspecies and interspecies
transmission of prions from CWD-positive deer and elk isolates resulted in
identification of >2 strains of CWD in rodent models (36), indicating that
CWD strains likely exist in cervids. However, nothing is currently known about
natural distribution and prevalence of CWD strains. Currently, host range and
pathogenicity vary with prion strain (28,37). Therefore, zoonotic potential of
CWD may also vary with CWD strain. In addition, diversity in host (cervid) and
target (e.g., human) genotypes further complicates definitive findings of
zoonotic and interspecies transmission potentials of CWD. Intraspecies and
interspecies passage of the CWD agent may also increase the risk for zoonotic
CWD transmission. The CWD prion agent is undergoing serial passage naturally as
the disease continues to emerge. In vitro and in vivo intraspecies transmission
of the CWD agent yields PrPSc with an increased capacity to convert human PrPc
to PrPSc (30). Interspecies prion transmission can alter CWD host range (38) and
yield multiple novel prion strains (3,28). The potential for interspecies CWD
transmission (by cohabitating mammals) will only increase as the disease spreads
and CWD prions continue to be shed into the environment. This environmental
passage itself may alter CWD prions or exert selective pressures on CWD strain
mixtures by interactions with soil, which are known to vary with prion strain
(25), or exposure to environmental or gut degradation. Given that prion disease
in humans can be difficult to diagnose and the asymptomatic incubation period
can last decades, continued research, epidemiologic surveillance, and caution in
handling risky material remain prudent as CWD continues to spread and the
opportunity for interspecies transmission increases. Otherwise, similar to what
occurred in the United Kingdom after detection of variant CJD and its subsequent
link to BSE, years of prevention could be lost if zoonotic transmission of CWD
is subsequently identified, SNIP...SEE FULL TEXT ;
SNIP...SEE FULL TEXT ;
*** Chronic Wasting Disease CWD CDC REPORT MARCH 2012 ***
WHICH CAME FIRST, THE CART OR THE HORSE $$$
PLEASE STUDY THIS MAP, COMPARE FARMED CWD TO WILD CWD...TSS
Saturday, February 18, 2012
Occurrence, Transmission, and Zoonotic Potential of Chronic Wasting Disease
CDC Volume 18, Number 3—March 2012
see much more here ;
see much more here ;
CJD9/10022
October 1994
Mr R.N. Elmhirst Chairman British Deer Farmers Association Holly Lodge
Spencers Lane BerksWell Coventry CV7 7BZ
Dear Mr Elmhirst,
CREUTZFELDT-JAKOB DISEASE (CJD) SURVEILLANCE UNIT REPORT
Thank you for your recent letter concerning the publication of the third
annual report from the CJD Surveillance Unit. I am sorry that you are
dissatisfied with the way in which this report was published.
The Surveillance Unit is a completely independant outside body and the
Department of Health is committed to publishing their reports as soon as they
become available. In the circumstances it is not the practice to circulate the
report for comment since the findings of the report would not be amended. In
future we can ensure that the British Deer Farmers Association receives a copy
of the report in advance of publication.
The Chief Medical Officer has undertaken to keep the public fully informed
of the results of any research in respect of CJD. This report was entirely the
work of the unit and was produced completely independantly of the the
Department.
The statistical results reqarding the consumption of venison was put into
perspective in the body of the report and was not mentioned at all in the press
release. Media attention regarding this report was low key but gave a realistic
presentation of the statistical findings of the Unit. This approach to
publication was successful in that consumption of venison was highlighted only
once by the media ie. in the News at one television proqramme.
I believe that a further statement about the report, or indeed statistical
links between CJD and consumption of venison, would increase, and quite possibly
give damaging credence, to the whole issue. From the low key media reports of
which I am aware it seems unlikely that venison consumption will suffer
adversely, if at all.
http://web.archive.org/web/20030511010117/http://www.bseinquiry.gov.uk/files/yb/1994/10/00003001.pdf
THIRD CJD REPORT UK 1994
snip...
Consumption of venison and veal was much less widespread among both cases
and controls. For both of these meats, there was evidence of a trend with
increasing frequency of consumption being associated with increasing risk of
CJD. These associations were largely unchanged when attention was restricted to
pairs with data obtained from relatives. ...
PLUS, THE CDC DID NOT PUT THIS WARNING OUT FOR THE WELL BEING OF THE DEER
AND ELK ;
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Travel History, Hunting, and Venison Consumption Related to Prion Disease
Exposure, 2006-2007 FoodNet Population Survey
Journal of the American Dietetic Association Volume 111, Issue 6 , Pages
858-863, June 2011.
NOR IS THE FDA recalling this CWD positive elk meat for the well being of
the dead elk ;
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Noah's Ark Holding, LLC, Dawson, MN RECALL Elk products contain meat
derived from an elk confirmed to have CWD NV, CA, TX, CO, NY, UT, FL, OK RECALLS
AND FIELD CORRECTIONS: FOODS CLASS II
now, let’s see what the authors said about this casual link, personal
communications years ago. see where it is stated NO STRONG evidence. so, does
this mean there IS casual evidence ????
“Our conclusion stating that we found no strong evidence of CWD
transmission to humans”
From: TSS (216-119-163-189.ipset45.wt.net)
Subject: CWD aka MAD DEER/ELK TO HUMANS ???
Date: September 30, 2002 at 7:06 am PST
From: "Belay, Ermias"
To:
Cc: "Race, Richard (NIH)" ; ; "Belay, Ermias"
Sent: Monday, September 30, 2002 9:22 AM
Subject: RE: TO CDC AND NIH - PUB MED- 3 MORE DEATHS - CWD - YOUNG HUNTERS
Dear Sir/Madam,
In the Archives of Neurology you quoted (the abstract of which was attached
to your email), we did not say CWD in humans will present like variant CJD.
That assumption would be wrong. I encourage you to read the whole article
and call me if you have questions or need more clarification (phone:
404-639-3091). Also, we do not claim that "no-one has ever been infected with
prion disease from eating venison." Our conclusion stating that we found no
strong evidence of CWD transmission to humans in the article you quoted or in
any other forum is limited to the patients we investigated.
Ermias Belay, M.D. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
-----Original Message-----
From:
Sent: Sunday, September 29, 2002 10:15 AM
To: rr26k@nih.gov; rrace@niaid.nih.gov; ebb8@CDC.GOV
Subject: TO CDC AND NIH - PUB MED- 3 MORE DEATHS - CWD - YOUNG HUNTERS
Sunday, November 10, 2002 6:26 PM ......snip........end..............TSS
Thursday, April 03, 2008
A prion disease of cervids: Chronic wasting disease
2008 1: Vet Res. 2008 Apr 3;39(4):41
A prion disease of cervids: Chronic wasting disease
Sigurdson CJ.
snip...
*** twenty-seven CJD patients who regularly consumed venison were reported
to the Surveillance Center***,
snip...
full text ;
*** Chronic Wasting Disease CWD CDC REPORT MARCH 2012 ***
WHICH CAME FIRST, THE CART OR THE HORSE $$$
PLEASE STUDY THIS MAP, COMPARE FARMED CWD TO WILD CWD...TSS
Saturday, February 18, 2012
Occurrence, Transmission, and Zoonotic Potential of Chronic Wasting Disease
CDC Volume 18, Number 3—March 2012
CWD has been identified in free-ranging cervids in 15 US states and 2
Canadian provinces and in ≈ 100 captive herds in 15 states and provinces and in
South Korea (Figure 1, panel B).
see much more here ;
Thursday, February 09, 2012
50 GAME FARMS IN USA INFECTED WITH CHRONIC WASTING DISEASE
Saturday, February 04, 2012
Wisconsin 16 age limit on testing dead deer Game Farm CWD Testing Protocol
Needs To Be Revised
Saturday, April 07, 2012
EFFECTS OF CHRONIC WASTING DISEASE ON REPRODUCTION AND FAWN HARVEST
VULNERABILITY IN WISCONSIN WHITE-TAILED DEER
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
CHRONIC WASTING DISEASE CWD WISCONSIN Almond Deer (Buckhorn Flats) Farm
Update DECEMBER 2011
The CWD infection rate was nearly 80%, the highest ever in a North American
captive herd.
RECOMMENDATION: That the Board approve the purchase of 80 acres of land for
$465,000 for the Statewide Wildlife Habitat Program in Portage County and
approve the restrictions on public use of the site. snip...see full text and
much more here ;
SNIP...SEE FULL TEXT ;
Sunday, January 22, 2012
Chronic Wasting Disease CWD cervids interspecies transmission
Thursday, January 26, 2012
The Risk of Prion Zoonoses
Science 27 January 2012: Vol. 335 no. 6067 pp. 411-413 DOI:
10.1126/science.1218167
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Facilitated Cross-Species Transmission of Prions in Extraneural Tissue
Science 27 January 2012: Vol. 335 no. 6067 pp. 472-475 DOI:
10.1126/science.1215659
UPDATED DATA ON 2ND CWD STRAIN
Wednesday, September 08, 2010
CWD PRION CONGRESS SEPTEMBER 8-11 2010
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Experimental oral transmission of CWD to red deer (Cervus elaphus elaphus):
early detection and late stage distribution of protease-resistant protein
Sunday, July 27, 2008
DOCKET-- 03D-0186 -- FDA Issues Draft Guidance on Use of Material From Deer
and Elk in Animal Feed; Availability
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: DOCKET-- 03D-0186 -- FDA Issues Draft Guidance on Use of Material
From Deer and Elk in Animal Feed; Availability
Date: Fri, 16 May 2003 11:47:37 -0500
From: "Terry S. Singeltary Sr."
To: fdadockets@oc.fda.gov
Greetings FDA,
i would kindly like to comment on;
Docket 03D-0186
FDA Issues Draft Guidance on Use of Material From Deer and Elk in Animal
Feed; Availability
Several factors on this apparent voluntary proposal disturbs me greatly,
please allow me to point them out;
1. MY first point is the failure of the partial ruminant-to-ruminant feed
ban of 8/4/97. this partial and voluntary feed ban of some ruminant materials
being fed back to cattle is terribly flawed. without the _total_ and _mandatory_
ban of all ruminant materials being fed back to ruminants including cattle,
sheep, goat, deer, elk and mink, chickens, fish (all farmed animals for
human/animal consumption), this half ass measure will fail terribly, as in the
past decades...
2. WHAT about sub-clinical TSE in deer and elk? with the recent findings of
deer fawns being infected with CWD, how many could possibly be sub-clinically
infected. until we have a rapid TSE test to assure us that all deer/elk are free
of disease (clinical and sub-clinical), we must ban not only documented CWD
infected deer/elk, but healthy ones as well. it this is not done, they system
will fail...
3. WE must ban not only CNS (SRMs specified risk materials), but ALL
tissues. recent new and old findings support infectivity in the rump or ass
muscle. wether it be low or high, accumulation will play a crucial role in
TSEs.
4. THERE are and have been for some time many TSEs in the USA. TME in mink,
Scrapie in Sheep and Goats, and unidentified TSE in USA cattle. all this has
been proven, but the TSE in USA cattle has been totally ignored for decades. i
will document this data below in my references.
5. UNTIL we ban all ruminant by-products from being fed back to ALL
ruminants, until we rapid TSE test (not only deer/elk) but cattle in sufficient
numbers to find (1 million rapid TSE test in USA cattle annually for 5 years),
any partial measures such as the ones proposed while ignoring sub-clinical TSEs
and not rapid TSE testing cattle, not closing down feed mills that continue to
violate the FDA's BSE feed regulation (21 CFR 589.2000) and not making freely
available those violations, will only continue to spread these TSE mad cow
agents in the USA. I am curious what we will call a phenotype in a species that
is mixed with who knows how many strains of scrapie, who knows what strain or
how many strains of TSE in USA cattle, and the CWD in deer and elk (no telling
how many strains there), but all of this has been rendered for animal feeds in
the USA for decades. it will get interesting once someone starts looking in all
species, including humans here in the USA, but this has yet to happen...
6. IT is paramount that CJD be made reportable in every state (especially
''sporadic'' cjd), and that a CJD Questionnaire must be issued to every family
of a victim of TSE. only checking death certificates will not be sufficient.
this has been proven as well (see below HISTORY OF CJD -- CJD
QUESTIONNAIRE)
7. WE must learn from our past mistakes, not continue to make the same
mistakes...
snip...
Oral transmission and early lymphoid tropism of chronic wasting disease
PrPres in mule deer fawns (Odocoileus hemionus ) Christina J. Sigurdson1,
Elizabeth S. Williams2, Michael W. Miller3, Terry R. Spraker1,4, Katherine I.
O'Rourke5 and Edward A. Hoover1
Department of Pathology, College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical
Sciences, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523- 1671, USA1
Department of Veterinary Sciences, University of Wyoming, 1174 Snowy Range Road,
University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY 82070, USA 2 Colorado Division of Wildlife,
Wildlife Research Center, 317 West Prospect Road, Fort Collins, CO 80526-2097,
USA3 Colorado State University Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, 300 West Drake
Road, Fort Collins, CO 80523-1671, USA4 Animal Disease Research Unit,
Agricultural Research Service, US Department of Agriculture, 337 Bustad Hall,
Washington State University, Pullman, WA 99164-7030, USA5
Author for correspondence: Edward Hoover.Fax +1 970 491 0523. e-mail
ehoover@lamar.colostate.edu
Mule deer fawns (Odocoileus hemionus) were inoculated orally with a brain
homogenate prepared from mule deer with naturally occurring chronic wasting
disease (CWD), a prion-induced transmissible spongiform encephalopathy. Fawns
were necropsied and examined for PrP res, the abnormal prion protein isoform, at
10, 42, 53, 77, 78 and 80 days post-inoculation (p.i.) using an
immunohistochemistry assay modified to enhance sensitivity. PrPres was detected
in alimentary-tract-associated lymphoid tissues (one or more of the following:
retropharyngeal lymph node, tonsil, Peyer's patch and ileocaecal lymph node) as
early as 42 days p.i. and in all fawns examined thereafter (53 to 80 days p.i.).
No PrPres staining was detected in lymphoid tissue of three control fawns
receiving a control brain inoculum, nor was PrPres detectable in neural tissue
of any fawn. PrPres-specific staining was markedly enhanced by sequential tissue
treatment with formic acid, proteinase K and hydrated autoclaving prior to
immunohistochemical staining with monoclonal antibody F89/160.1.5. These results
indicate that CWD PrP res can be detected in lymphoid tissues draining the
alimentary tract within a few weeks after oral exposure to infectious prions and
may reflect the initial pathway of CWD infection in deer. The rapid infection of
deer fawns following exposure by the most plausible natural route is consistent
with the efficient horizontal transmission of CWD in nature and enables
accelerated studies of transmission and pathogenesis in the native
species.
snip...
These results indicate that mule deer fawns develop detectable PrP res
after oral exposure to an inoculum containing CWD prions. In the earliest
post-exposure period, CWD PrPres was traced to the lymphoid tissues draining the
oral and intestinal mucosa (i.e. the retropharyngeal lymph nodes, tonsil, ileal
Peyer's patches and ileocaecal lymph nodes), which probably received the highest
initial exposure to the inoculum. Hadlow et al. (1982) demonstrated scrapie
agent in the tonsil, retropharyngeal and mesenteric lymph nodes, ileum and
spleen in a 10-month-old naturally infected lamb by mouse bioassay. Eight of
nine sheep had infectivity in the retropharyngeal lymph node. He concluded that
the tissue distribution suggested primary infection via the gastrointestinal
tract. The tissue distribution of PrPres in the early stages of infection in the
fawns is strikingly similar to that seen in naturally infected sheep with
scrapie. These findings support oral exposure as a natural route of CWD
infection in deer and support oral inoculation as a reasonable exposure route
for experimental studies of CWD.
snip...
===================================
now, just what is in that deer feed? _ANIMAL PROTEIN_
Subject: MAD DEER/ELK DISEASE AND POTENTIAL SOURCES Date: Sat, 25 May 2002
18:41:46 -0700 From: "Terry S. Singeltary Sr." Reply-To: BSE-L To: BSE-L
8420-20.5% Antler Developer For Deer and Game in the wild Guaranteed
Analysis Ingredients / Products Feeding Directions
snip...
_animal protein_
BODE'S GAME FEED SUPPLEMENT #400 A RATION FOR DEER NET WEIGHT 50 POUNDS
22.6 KG.
snip...
_animal protein_
Ingredients
Grain Products, Plant Protein Products, Processed Grain By-Products, Forage
Products, Roughage Products 15%, Molasses Products, __Animal Protein Products__,
Monocalcium Phosphate, Dicalcium Pyosphate, Salt, Calcium Carbonate, Vitamin A
Acetate with D-activated Animal Sterol (source of Vitamin D3), Vitamin E
Supplement, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Riboflavin Supplement, Niacin Supplement,
Calcium Panothenate, Choline Chloride, Folic Acid, Menadione Soduim Bisulfite
Complex, Pyridoxine Hydorchloride, Thiamine Mononitrate, d-Biotin, Manganous
Oxide, Zinc Oxide, Ferrous Carbonate, Calcium Iodate, Cobalt Carbonate, Dried
Sacchoromyces Berevisiae Fermentation Solubles, Cellulose gum, Artificial
Flavors added.
===================================
MORE ANIMAL PROTEIN PRODUCTS FOR DEER
Bode's #1 Game Pellets A RATION FOR DEER F3153
GUARANTEED ANALYSIS Crude Protein (Min) 16% Crude Fat (Min) 2.0% Crude
Fiber (Max) 19% Calcium (Ca) (Min) 1.25% Calcium (Ca) (Max) 1.75% Phosphorus (P)
(Min) 1.0% Salt (Min) .30% Salt (Max) .70%
Ingredients
Grain Products, Plant Protein Products, Processed Grain By-Products, Forage
Products, Roughage Products, 15% Molasses Products, __Animal Protein Products__,
Monocalcium Phosphate, Dicalcium Phosphate, Salt, Calcium Carbonate, Vitamin A
Acetate with D-activated Animal Sterol (source of Vitamin D3) Vitamin E
Supplement, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Roboflavin Supplement, Niacin Supplement,
Calcium Pantothenate, Choline Chloride, Folic Acid, Menadione Sodium Bisulfite
Complex, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Thiamine Mononitrate, e - Biotin, Manganous
Oxide, Zinc Oxide, Ferrous Carbonate, Calcium Iodate, Cobalt Carbonate, Dried
Saccharyomyces Cerevisiae Fermentation Solubles, Cellulose gum, Artificial
Flavors added.
FEEDING DIRECTIONS Feed as Creep Feed with Normal Diet
INGREDIENTS
Grain Products, Roughage Products (not more than 35%), Processed Grain
By-Products, Plant Protein Products, Forage Products, __Animal Protein
Products__, L-Lysine, Calcium Carbonate, Salt, Monocalcium/Dicalcium Phosphate,
Yeast Culture, Magnesium Oxide, Cobalt Carbonate, Basic Copper Chloride,
Manganese Sulfate, Manganous Oxide, Sodium Selenite, Zinc Sulfate, Zinc Oxide,
Sodium Selenite, Potassium Iodide, Ethylenediamine Dihydriodide, Vitamin E
Supplement, Vitamin A Supplement, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Mineral Oil, Mold
Inhibitor, Calcium Lignin Sulfonate, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Menadione Sodium
Bisulfite Complex, Calcium Pantothenate, Riboflavin, Niacin, Biotin, Folic Acid,
Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Mineral Oil, Chromium Tripicolinate
DIRECTIONS FOR USE
Deer Builder Pellets is designed to be fed to deer under range conditions
or deer that require higher levels of protein. Feed to deer during gestation,
fawning, lactation, antler growth and pre-rut, all phases which require a higher
level of nutrition. Provide adequate amounts of good quality roughage and fresh
water at all times.
===================================================
DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH & HUMAN SERVICES PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE FOOD AND
DRUG ADMINISTRATION
April 9, 2001 WARNING LETTER
01-PHI-12 CERTIFIED MAIL RETURN RECEIPT REQUESTED
Brian J. Raymond, Owner Sandy Lake Mills 26 Mill Street P.O. Box 117 Sandy
Lake, PA 16145 PHILADELPHIA DISTRICT
Tel: 215-597-4390
Dear Mr. Raymond:
Food and Drug Administration Investigator Gregory E. Beichner conducted an
inspection of your animal feed manufacturing operation, located in Sandy Lake,
Pennsylvania, on March 23, 2001, and determined that your firm manufactures
animal feeds including feeds containing prohibited materials. The inspection
found significant deviations from the requirements set forth in Title 21, code
of Federal Regulations, part 589.2000 - Animal Proteins Prohibited in Ruminant
Feed. The regulation is intended to prevent the establishment and amplification
of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) . Such deviations cause products being
manufactured at this facility to be misbranded within the meaning of Section
403(f), of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (the Act).
Our investigation found failure to label your swine feed with the required
cautionary statement "Do Not Feed to cattle or other Ruminants" The FDA suggests
that the statement be distinguished by different type-size or color or other
means of highlighting the statement so that it is easily noticed by a
purchaser.
In addition, we note that you are using approximately 140 pounds of cracked
corn to flush your mixer used in the manufacture of animal feeds containing
prohibited material. This flushed material is fed to wild game including deer, a
ruminant animal. Feed material which may potentially contain prohibited material
should not be fed to ruminant animals which may become part of the food
chain.
The above is not intended to be an all-inclusive list of deviations from
the regulations. As a manufacturer of materials intended for animal feed use,
you are responsible for assuring that your overall operation and the products
you manufacture and distribute are in compliance with the law. We have enclosed
a copy of FDA's Small Entity Compliance Guide to assist you with complying with
the regulation... blah, blah, blah...
==================================
Subject: MAD DEER/ELK DISEASE AND POTENTIAL SOURCES Date: Sat, 25 May 2002
18:41:46 -0700 From: "Terry S. Singeltary Sr." Reply-To: Bovine Spongiform
Encephalopathy To: BSE-L@uni-karlsruhe.de
now, what about those 'deer scents' of 100% urine', and the prion that is
found in urine, why not just pass the prion with the urine to other
deer...
Mrs. Doe Pee Doe in Estrus Model FDE1 Mrs. Doe Pee's Doe in Estrus is made
from Estrus urine collected at the peak of the rut, blended with Fresh Doe Urine
for an extremely effective buck enticer. Use pre-rut before the does come into
heat. Use during full rut when bucks are most active. Use during post-rut when
bucks are still actively looking for does. 1 oz.
www.gamecalls.net/hunting...lures.html
ELK SCENT/SPRAY BOTTLE
Works anytime of the year *
100 % Cow Elk-in-Heat urine (2oz.) *
Economical - mix with water in spray mist bottle *
Use wind to your advantage
Product Code WP-ESB $9.95
www.elkinc.com/Scent.asp
prions in urine?
DEER & ELK URINE, LURES & SCENT CONTROL DEPARTMENT by MRS.DOE PEE'S
Main Index
The Turkey Pro Sez... "Premium, fresh, top-quality, pure 100% undiluted
deer lures from Mrs. Doe Pee really work. I won't trust anything else when I'm
after big bucks. Sam Collora, owner of the company, proved how well his products
work when he bagged this monster buck in
1996.............snip......end........CWD
snip...
REFERENCES
snip...see full text ;
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: DOCKET-- 03D-0186 -- FDA Issues Draft Guidance on Use of Material
From Deer and Elk in Animal Feed; Availability
Date: Fri, 16 May 2003 11:47:37 –0500
From: "Terry S. Singeltary Sr."
To: fdadockets@oc.fda.gov
WHAT ABOUT THAT other part of the USDA et al MAD COW TRIPLE FIREWALL, THE
PARTIAL AND VOLUNTARY MAD COW FEED BAN THAT WAS NOTHING MORE THAN ink on paper.
how is that working out for us $$$
P.9.21
Molecular characterization of BSE in Canada
Jianmin Yang1, Sandor Dudas2, Catherine Graham2, Markus Czub3, Tim
McAllister1, Stefanie Czub1 1Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada Research Centre,
Canada; 2National and OIE BSE Reference Laboratory, Canada; 3University of
Calgary, Canada
Background: Three BSE types (classical and two atypical) have been
identified on the basis of molecular characteristics of the misfolded protein
associated with the disease. To date, each of these three types have been
detected in Canadian cattle.
Objectives: This study was conducted to further characterize the 16
Canadian BSE cases based on the biochemical properties of there associated
PrPres. Methods: Immuno-reactivity, molecular weight, glycoform profiles and
relative proteinase K sensitivity of the PrPres from each of the 16 confirmed
Canadian BSE cases was determined using modified Western blot analysis.
Results: Fourteen of the 16 Canadian BSE cases were C type, 1 was H type
and 1 was L type. The Canadian H and L-type BSE cases exhibited size shifts and
changes in glycosylation similar to other atypical BSE cases. PK digestion under
mild and stringent conditions revealed a reduced protease resistance of the
atypical cases compared to the C-type cases. N terminal- specific antibodies
bound to PrPres from H type but not from C or L type. The C-terminal-specific
antibodies resulted in a shift in the glycoform profile and detected a fourth
band in the Canadian H-type BSE.
Discussion: The C, L and H type BSE cases in Canada exhibit molecular
characteristics similar to those described for classical and atypical BSE cases
from Europe and Japan. This supports the theory that the importation of BSE
contaminated feedstuff is the source of C-type BSE in Canada. *** It also
suggests a similar cause or source for atypical BSE in these countries.
what about that ALABAMA MAD COW, AND MAD COW FEED THERE FROM IN THAT STATE
???
2006 was a banner year for banned suspect mad cow protein in commerce. in
2006, it was measured in TONNAGE...
*** (see mad cow feed in COMMERCE IN ALABAMA...TSS)
BANNED MAD COW FEED IN COMMERCE IN ALABAMA
Date: September 6, 2006 at 7:58 am PST PRODUCT
a) EVSRC Custom dairy feed, Recall # V-130-6;
b) Performance Chick Starter, Recall # V-131-6;
c) Performance Quail Grower, Recall # V-132-6;
d) Performance Pheasant Finisher, Recall # V-133-6.
CODE None RECALLING FIRM/MANUFACTURER Donaldson & Hasenbein/dba J&R
Feed Service, Inc., Cullman, AL, by telephone on June 23, 2006 and by letter
dated July 19, 2006. Firm initiated recall is complete.
REASON
Dairy and poultry feeds were possibly contaminated with ruminant based
protein.
VOLUME OF PRODUCT IN COMMERCE 477.72 tons
DISTRIBUTION AL
______________________________
PRODUCT Bulk custom dairy pre-mixes,
Recall # V-120-6 CODE None RECALLING FIRM/MANUFACTURER Ware Milling Inc.,
Houston, MS, by telephone on June 23, 2006. Firm initiated recall is complete.
REASON Possible contamination of dairy animal feeds with ruminant derived meat
and bone meal.
VOLUME OF PRODUCT IN COMMERCE 350 tons
DISTRIBUTION AL and MS
______________________________
PRODUCT
a) Tucker Milling, LLC Tm 32% Sinking Fish Grower, #2680-Pellet, 50 lb.
bags, Recall # V-121-6;
b) Tucker Milling, LLC #31120, Game Bird Breeder Pellet, 50 lb. bags,
Recall # V-122-6;
c) Tucker Milling, LLC #31232 Game Bird Grower, 50 lb. bags, Recall #
V-123-6;
d) Tucker Milling, LLC 31227-Crumble, Game Bird Starter, BMD Medicated, 50
lb bags, Recall # V-124-6;
e) Tucker Milling, LLC #31120, Game Bird Breeder, 50 lb bags, Recall #
V-125-6;
f) Tucker Milling, LLC #30230, 30 % Turkey Starter, 50 lb bags, Recall #
V-126-6;
g) Tucker Milling, LLC #30116, TM Broiler Finisher, 50 lb bags, Recall #
V-127-6
CODE All products manufactured from 02/01/2005 until 06/20/2006 RECALLING
FIRM/MANUFACTURER Recalling Firm: Tucker Milling LLC, Guntersville, AL, by
telephone and visit on June 20, 2006, and by letter on June 23, 2006.
Manufacturer: H. J. Baker and Brothers Inc., Stamford, CT. Firm initiated recall
is ongoing.
REASON Poultry and fish feeds which were possibly contaminated with
ruminant based protein were not labeled as "Do not feed to ruminants".
VOLUME OF PRODUCT IN COMMERCE 7,541-50 lb bags
DISTRIBUTION AL, GA, MS, and TN
END OF ENFORCEMENT REPORT FOR AUGUST 9, 2006
###
Subject: MAD COW FEED RECALL AL AND FL VOLUME OF PRODUCT IN COMMERCE 125
TONS Products manufactured from 02/01/2005 until 06/06/2006
Date: August 6, 2006 at 6:16 pm PST PRODUCT
a) CO-OP 32% Sinking Catfish, Recall # V-100-6;
b) Performance Sheep Pell W/Decox/A/N, medicated, net wt. 50 lbs, Recall #
V-101-6;
c) Pro 40% Swine Conc Meal -- 50 lb, Recall # V-102-6;
d) CO-OP 32% Sinking Catfish Food Medicated, Recall # V-103-6;
e) "Big Jim's" BBB Deer Ration, Big Buck Blend, Recall # V-104-6;
f) CO-OP 40% Hog Supplement Medicated Pelleted, Tylosin 100 grams/ton, 50
lb. bag, Recall # V-105-6;
g) Pig Starter Pell II, 18% W/MCDX Medicated 282020, Carbadox -- 0.0055%,
Recall # V-106-6;
h) CO-OP STARTER-GROWER CRUMBLES, Complete Feed for Chickens from Hatch to
20 Weeks, Medicated, Bacitracin Methylene Disalicylate, 25 and 50 Lbs, Recall #
V-107-6;
i) CO-OP LAYING PELLETS, Complete Feed for Laying Chickens, Recall #
108-6;
j) CO-OP LAYING CRUMBLES, Recall # V-109-6;
k) CO-OP QUAIL FLIGHT CONDITIONER MEDICATED, net wt 50 Lbs, Recall #
V-110-6;
l) CO-OP QUAIL STARTER MEDICATED, Net Wt. 50 Lbs, Recall # V-111-6;
m) CO-OP QUAIL GROWER MEDICATED, 50 Lbs, Recall # V-112-6 CODE
Product manufactured from 02/01/2005 until 06/06/2006
RECALLING FIRM/MANUFACTURER Alabama Farmers Cooperative, Inc., Decatur, AL,
by telephone, fax, email and visit on June 9, 2006. FDA initiated recall is
complete.
REASON Animal and fish feeds which were possibly contaminated with ruminant
based protein not labeled as "Do not feed to ruminants".
VOLUME OF PRODUCT IN COMMERCE 125 tons
DISTRIBUTION AL and FL
END OF ENFORCEMENT REPORT FOR AUGUST 2, 2006
###
MAD COW FEED RECALL USA EQUALS 10,878.06 TONS NATIONWIDE Sun Jul 16, 2006
09:22 71.248.128.67
RECALLS AND FIELD CORRECTIONS: VETERINARY MEDICINE -- CLASS II
______________________________
PRODUCT
a) PRO-LAK, bulk weight, Protein Concentrate for Lactating Dairy Animals,
Recall # V-079-6;
b) ProAmino II, FOR PREFRESH AND LACTATING COWS, net weight 50lb (22.6 kg),
Recall # V-080-6;
c) PRO-PAK, MARINE & ANIMAL PROTEIN CONCENTRATE FOR USE IN ANIMAL FEED,
Recall # V-081-6;
d) Feather Meal, Recall # V-082-6 CODE
a) Bulk
b) None
c) Bulk
d) Bulk
RECALLING FIRM/MANUFACTURER H. J. Baker & Bro., Inc., Albertville, AL,
by telephone on June 15, 2006 and by press release on June 16, 2006. Firm
initiated recall is ongoing.
REASON
Possible contamination of animal feeds with ruminent derived meat and bone
meal.
VOLUME OF PRODUCT IN COMMERCE 10,878.06 tons
DISTRIBUTION Nationwide
END OF ENFORCEMENT REPORT FOR July 12, 2006
###
Saturday, July 23, 2011
CATTLE HEADS WITH TONSILS, BEEF TONGUES, SPINAL CORD, SPECIFIED RISK
MATERIALS (SRM's) AND PRIONS, AKA MAD COW DISEASE
Saturday, November 6, 2010
TAFS1 Position Paper on Position Paper on Relaxation of the Feed Ban in the
EU Berne, 2010 TAFS
INTERNATIONAL FORUM FOR TRANSMISSIBLE ANIMAL DISEASES AND FOOD SAFETY a
non-profit Swiss Foundation
2007, ONE DECADE POST MAD COW PROTEIN BAN, the USDA et al was able to
reduce the measurements of banned suspect mad cow protein from tonnage, to
pounds. this was one weeks worth ;
10,000,000+ LBS. of PROHIBITED BANNED MAD COW FEED I.E. BLOOD LACED MBM IN
COMMERCE USA 2007
Date: March 21, 2007 at 2:27 pm PST
RECALLS AND FIELD CORRECTIONS: VETERINARY MEDICINES -- CLASS II
PRODUCT
Bulk cattle feed made with recalled Darling's 85% Blood Meal, Flash Dried,
Recall # V-024-2007
CODE
Cattle feed delivered between 01/12/2007 and 01/26/2007
RECALLING FIRM/MANUFACTURER
Pfeiffer, Arno, Inc, Greenbush, WI. by conversation on February 5, 2007.
Firm initiated recall is ongoing.
REASON
Blood meal used to make cattle feed was recalled because it was cross-
contaminated with prohibited bovine meat and bone meal that had been
manufactured on common equipment and labeling did not bear cautionary BSE
statement. VOLUME OF PRODUCT IN COMMERCE 42,090 lbs. DISTRIBUTION WI
___________________________________
PRODUCT
Custom dairy premix products: MNM ALL PURPOSE Pellet, HILLSIDE/CDL Prot-
Buffer Meal, LEE, M.-CLOSE UP PX Pellet, HIGH DESERT/ GHC LACT Meal, TATARKA, M
CUST PROT Meal, SUNRIDGE/CDL PROTEIN Blend, LOURENZO, K PVM DAIRY Meal, DOUBLE B
DAIRY/GHC LAC Mineral, WEST PIONT/GHC CLOSEUP Mineral, WEST POINT/GHC LACT Meal,
JENKS, J/COMPASS PROTEIN Meal, COPPINI - 8# SPECIAL DAIRY Mix, GULICK, L-LACT
Meal (Bulk), TRIPLE J - PROTEIN/LACTATION, ROCK CREEK/GHC MILK Mineral,
BETTENCOURT/GHC S.SIDE MK-MN, BETTENCOURT #1/GHC MILK MINR, V&C DAIRY/GHC
LACT Meal, VEENSTRA, F/GHC LACT Meal, SMUTNY, A- BYPASS ML W/SMARTA, Recall #
V-025-2007
CODE
The firm does not utilize a code - only shipping documentation with
commodity and weights identified.
RECALLING FIRM/MANUFACTURER
Rangen, Inc, Buhl, ID, by letters on February 13 and 14, 2007. Firm
initiated recall is complete.
REASON
Products manufactured from bulk feed containing blood meal that was cross
contaminated with prohibited meat and bone meal and the labeling did not bear
cautionary BSE statement.
VOLUME OF PRODUCT IN COMMERCE
9,997,976 lbs.
DISTRIBUTION
ID and NV
END OF ENFORCEMENT REPORT FOR MARCH 21, 2007
Saturday, March 5, 2011
MAD COW ATYPICAL CJD PRION TSE CASES WITH CLASSIFICATIONS PENDING ON THE
RISE IN NORTH AMERICA
Sunday, February 12, 2012
National Prion Disease Pathology Surveillance Center Cases Examined1
(August 19, 2011) including Texas
TSS
