National Scrapie Eradication Program Monthly Report - February 2015

National Scrapie Eradication Program Monthly Report - February 2015

 

 The monthly report for the National Scrapie Eradication Program for February 2015 is now available. The monthly reports are available in both PowerPoint and PDF formats.

 

PowerPoint Monthly Report PDF Monthly Report Highlights of the February 2015 Report

 

One new scrapie infected flock and two new scrapie source flocks have been designated in FY 2015. Since the beginning of FY 2015, 29 sheep have tested positive for scrapie; 26 of these positives were from the same source flock. Two goats have tested for positive—both from the same herd.

 

The most recent positive case was confirmed on February 18, 2015; the animal was a black-faced sheep tested at slaughter. A trace investigation is underway.

 

For FY 2015, as of February 28, 12,683 sheep and 3,325 goats have been tested for scrapie.

 

Scrapie/Scrapie Program Monthly Tidbit

 

In November 2014, the first positive goat found through VS’ Regulatory Scrapie Slaughter Surveillance (RSSS) program was identified. Based on the goats sampled at slaughter to date, the prevalence of scrapie in U.S. cull goats is 0.004 percent with an upper 95 percent confidence limit of 0.013 percent.

 

Resources

 

To report a sheep or goat with clinical signs of scrapie, please contact your local VS office. To learn more about scrapie, the disease, and the national scrapie eradication program visit the APHIS VS Scrapie Website and www.eradicatescrapie.org.

 

 

SNIP...

 

As of February 28, 2015, 2 black-faced sheep and 1 goat have tested positive for scrapie in FY 2015; this is the first positive goat case found through RSSS. The weighted percentage of samples from sheep that have tested positive for each face color from FY 2003 through FY 2015 is depicted in Chart 3**; percent positive goats are shown in Chart 3a. In November 2013, administrative units within APHIS Veterinary Services reorganized from 2 Regions to 6 Districts (Figure 1). The distribution of sheep and goat populations by District is depicted in Chart 4a. The number of animals collected for FY 2015 by District where collected is shown in Chart 4b. A monthly comparison of RSSS collections by fiscal year is displayed in Chart 5. Chart 6 is a retrospective 6-month rolling average of the percent positive, black-faced sheep sampled at RSSS collection sites.

 

* RSSS positives are reported based on collection date and may have been confirmed after February 28, 2015.

 

** White, black and mottled face color sheep are weighted based on population. White faced sheep have the highest weight, so when the rare white face positive sheep is found it causes this statistic to markedly increase. Goats and other face colored sheep are not included in this calculation.

 

Introduction – Surveillance (Part 1)

 

Introduction – Surveillance (Part 1)

 

INTRODUCTION - Surveillance (Part 2) On-Farm Surveillance Testing sheep and goats on-farm is an essential part of scrapie surveillance. It includes both regulatory testing of scrapie exposed and potentially exposed sheep and goats and testing sheep and goats on farm for routine surveillance. As the National Scrapie Eradication Program moves closer towards meeting the goal of identifying the last remaining cases of classical scrapie, finding and testing all sheep and goats meeting targeted sampling criteria is even more important. As of February 28, 2015, 511 sheep and 214 goats have been tested on-farm for FY 2015. Twenty-eight animals (27 sheep and 1 goat) have tested positive; 26 of the positive sheep were from the same flock. The number of animals tested on-farm by month and by species for FY 2015 is shown in Chart 7. Total Animals Sampled for Scrapie Testing As of February 28, 2015, 16,188 animals have been sampled for scrapie testing in FY 2015:

 

•

15,463 RSSS samples and 725 on-farm samples (Chart 8);

 

•

Of which 12,863 were sheep and 3,325 were goats. Distribution of sampling by type (RSSS or on-farm) and by species is shown in Chart 9.

 

 

http://www.aphis.usda.gov/animal_health/animal_diseases/scrapie/downloads/monthly_scrapie_report.pdf

 

 

Increased Infectivity of Anchorless Mouse Scrapie Prions in Transgenic Mice Overexpressing Human Prion Protein

 

Brent Race1#, Katie Phillips1, Kimberly Meade-White2, James Striebel1 and Bruce Chesebro1

 

+ Author Affiliations 1Laboratory of Persistent Viral Diseases, Rocky Mountain Laboratories, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Hamilton, MT, 59840 USA 2Rocky Mountain Veterinary Branch, Rocky Mountain Laboratories, National Instituteof Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Hamilton, MT, 59840 USA

 

ABSTRACT

 

Prion protein (PrP) is found in all mammals mostly as a glycoprotein anchored to the plasma membrane by a C-terminal glycophosphatidylinositol (GPI) linkage. Following prion infection, host protease-sensitive prion protein (PrPsen or PrPC) is converted into an abnormal, disease-associated, protease-resistant form (PrPres). Biochemical characteristics such as the PrP amino acid sequence and post-translational modifications such as glycosylation and GPI anchoring, can affect the transmissibility of prions as well as the biochemical properties of the PrPres generated. Previous in vivo studies on the effects of GPI anchoring on prion infectivity have not examined cross-species transmission. Here we tested the effect of lack of GPI anchoring on a species barrier model using mice expressing human PrP. In this model, anchorless 22L prions derived from tg44 mice were more infectious than 22L prions derived from C57BL/10 mice when tested in tg66 transgenic mice, which expressed wild-type anchored human PrP at 8-16 fold above normal. Thus the lack of the GPI anchor on the PrPres from tg44 mice appeared to reduce the effect of the mouse-human PrP species barrier. In contrast, neither source of prions induced disease in tgRM transgenic mice which expressed human PrP at 2-4 fold above normal.

 

Importance Prion protein (PrP) is found in all mammals, usually attached to cells by an anchor molecule, called GPI. Following prion infection, PrP is converted into a disease-associated form (PrPres). While most prion diseases are species-specific, this finding is not consistent, and species barriers differ in strength. The amino acid sequence of PrP varies among species, and this variability affects prion species barriers. However, other PrP modifications, including glycosylation and GPI-anchoring, may also influence cross-species infectivity. We studied the effect of PrP GPI-anchoring using a mouse to human species barrier model. Experiments showed that prions produced by mice expressing only anchorless PrP were more infectious than prions produced in mice expressing anchored PrP. Thus, the lack of the GPI anchor on prions reduced the effect of the mouse-human species barrier. Our results suggest that prion diseases that produce higher levels of anchorless PrP may pose an increased risk for cross-species infection.

 

FOOTNOTES

 

↵#Corresponding author. Mailing address: Laboratory of Persistent Viral Diseases, Rocky Mountain Laboratories, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, 903 South Fourth Street, Hamilton, MT, 59840 USA, Phone: 406-363-9360, Email: raceb@niaid.nih.gov Copyright © 2015, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

 

http://jvi.asm.org/content/early/2015/03/19/JVI.00362-15.abstract?papetoc

 

Tuesday, December 16, 2014

 

Evidence for zoonotic potential of ovine scrapie prions

 

Hervé Cassard,1, n1 Juan-Maria Torres,2, n1 Caroline Lacroux,1, Jean-Yves Douet,1, Sylvie L. Benestad,3, Frédéric Lantier,4, Séverine Lugan,1, Isabelle Lantier,4, Pierrette Costes,1, Naima Aron,1, Fabienne Reine,5, Laetitia Herzog,5, Juan-Carlos Espinosa,2, Vincent Beringue5, & Olivier Andréoletti1, Affiliations Contributions Corresponding author Journal name: Nature Communications Volume: 5, Article number: 5821 DOI: doi:10.1038/ncomms6821 Received 07 August 2014 Accepted 10 November 2014 Published 16 December 2014 Article tools Citation Reprints Rights & permissions Article metrics

 

Abstract

 

Although Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) is the cause of variant Creutzfeldt Jakob disease (vCJD) in humans, the zoonotic potential of scrapie prions remains unknown. Mice genetically engineered to overexpress the human ​prion protein (tgHu) have emerged as highly relevant models for gauging the capacity of prions to transmit to humans. These models can propagate human prions without any apparent transmission barrier and have been used used to confirm the zoonotic ability of BSE. Here we show that a panel of sheep scrapie prions transmit to several tgHu mice models with an efficiency comparable to that of cattle BSE. The serial transmission of different scrapie isolates in these mice led to the propagation of prions that are phenotypically identical to those causing sporadic CJD (sCJD) in humans. These results demonstrate that scrapie prions have a zoonotic potential and raise new questions about the possible link between animal and human prions.

 

Subject terms: Biological sciences• Medical research At a glance

 

http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2014/141216/ncomms6821/full/ncomms6821.html

 

why do we not want to do TSE transmission studies on chimpanzees $

 

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

 

http://collections.europarchive.org/tna/20080102222950/http://www.bseinquiry.gov.uk/files/yb/1990/09/23001001.pdf

 

Suspect symptoms

 

What if you can catch old-fashioned CJD by eating meat from a sheep infected with scrapie?

 

28 Mar 01 Most doctors believe that sCJD is caused by a prion protein deforming by chance into a killer. But Singeltary thinks otherwise. He is one of a number of campaigners who say that some sCJD, like the variant CJD related to BSE, is caused by eating meat from infected animals. Their suspicions have focused on sheep carrying scrapie, a BSE-like disease that is widespread in flocks across Europe and North America.

 

Now scientists in France have stumbled across new evidence that adds weight to the campaigners' fears. To their complete surprise, the researchers found that one strain of scrapie causes the same brain damage in mice as sCJD.

 

"This means we cannot rule out that at least some sCJD may be caused by some strains of scrapie," says team member Jean-Philippe Deslys of the French Atomic Energy Commission's medical research laboratory in Fontenay-aux-Roses, south-west of Paris. Hans Kretschmar of the University of Göttingen, who coordinates CJD surveillance in Germany, is so concerned by the findings that he now wants to trawl back through past sCJD cases to see if any might have been caused by eating infected mutton or lamb...

 

2001

 

Suspect symptoms

 

What if you can catch old-fashioned CJD by eating meat from a sheep infected with scrapie?

 

28 Mar 01

 

Like lambs to the slaughter

 

31 March 2001

 

by Debora MacKenzie Magazine issue 2284.

 

FOUR years ago, Terry Singeltary watched his mother die horribly from a degenerative brain disease. Doctors told him it was Alzheimer's, but Singeltary was suspicious. The diagnosis didn't fit her violent symptoms, and he demanded an autopsy. It showed she had died of sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.

 

Most doctors believe that sCJD is caused by a prion protein deforming by chance into a killer. But Singeltary thinks otherwise. He is one of a number of campaigners who say that some sCJD, like the variant CJD related to BSE, is caused by eating meat from infected animals. Their suspicions have focused on sheep carrying scrapie, a BSE-like disease that is widespread in flocks across Europe and North America.

 

Now scientists in France have stumbled across new evidence that adds weight to the campaigners' fears. To their complete surprise, the researchers found that one strain of scrapie causes the same brain damage in mice as sCJD.

 

"This means we cannot rule out that at least some sCJD may be caused by some strains of scrapie," says team member Jean-Philippe Deslys of the French Atomic Energy Commission's medical research laboratory in Fontenay-aux-Roses, south-west of Paris. Hans Kretschmar of the University of Göttingen, who coordinates CJD surveillance in Germany, is so concerned by the findings that he now wants to trawl back through past sCJD cases to see if any might have been caused by eating infected mutton or lamb.

 

Scrapie has been around for centuries and until now there has been no evidence that it poses a risk to human health. But if the French finding means that scrapie can cause sCJD in people, countries around the world may have overlooked a CJD crisis to rival that caused by BSE.

 

Deslys and colleagues were originally studying vCJD, not sCJD. They injected the brains of macaque monkeys with brain from BSE cattle, and from French and British vCJD patients. The brain damage and clinical symptoms in the monkeys were the same for all three. Mice injected with the original sets of brain tissue or with infected monkey brain also developed the same symptoms.

 

As a control experiment, the team also injected mice with brain tissue from people and animals with other prion diseases: a French case of sCJD; a French patient who caught sCJD from human-derived growth hormone; sheep with a French strain of scrapie; and mice carrying a prion derived from an American scrapie strain. As expected, they all affected the brain in a different way from BSE and vCJD. But while the American strain of scrapie caused different damage from sCJD, the French strain produced exactly the same pathology.

 

"The main evidence that scrapie does not affect humans has been epidemiology," says Moira Bruce of the neuropathogenesis unit of the Institute for Animal Health in Edinburgh, who was a member of the same team as Deslys. "You see about the same incidence of the disease everywhere, whether or not there are many sheep, and in countries such as New Zealand with no scrapie." In the only previous comparisons of sCJD and scrapie in mice, Bruce found they were dissimilar.

 

But there are more than 20 strains of scrapie, and six of sCJD. "You would not necessarily see a relationship between the two with epidemiology if only some strains affect only some people," says Deslys. Bruce is cautious about the mouse results, but agrees they require further investigation. Other trials of scrapie and sCJD in mice, she says, are in progress.

 

People can have three different genetic variations of the human prion protein, and each type of protein can fold up two different ways. Kretschmar has found that these six combinations correspond to six clinical types of sCJD: each type of normal prion produces a particular pathology when it spontaneously deforms to produce sCJD.

 

But if these proteins deform because of infection with a disease-causing prion, the relationship between pathology and prion type should be different, as it is in vCJD. "If we look at brain samples from sporadic CJD cases and find some that do not fit the pattern," says Kretschmar, "that could mean they were caused by infection."

 

There are 250 deaths per year from sCJD in the US, and a similar incidence elsewhere. Singeltary and other US activists think that some of these people died after eating contaminated meat or "nutritional" pills containing dried animal brain. Governments will have a hard time facing activists like Singeltary if it turns out that some sCJD isn't as spontaneous as doctors have insisted.

 

Deslys's work on macaques also provides further proof that the human disease vCJD is caused by BSE. And the experiments showed that vCJD is much more virulent to primates than BSE, even when injected into the bloodstream rather than the brain. This, says Deslys, means that there is an even bigger risk than we thought that vCJD can be passed from one patient to another through contaminated blood transfusions and surgical instruments.

 

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg16922840.300-like-lambs-to-the-slaughter.html

 

Friday, January 30, 2015

 

*** Scrapie: a particularly persistent pathogen ***

 

http://transmissiblespongiformencephalopathy.blogspot.com/2015/01/scrapie-particularly-persistent-pathogen.html

 

Thursday, March 26, 2015

 

Increased Infectivity of Anchorless Mouse Scrapie Prions in Transgenic Mice Overexpressing Human Prion Protein

 

http://scrapie-usa.blogspot.com/2015/03/increased-infectivity-of-anchorless.html

 

UPDATE PLEASE NOTE ;

 

AS of June 30, 2011,

 

snip...

 

INCLUDING 10 POSITIVE GOATS FROM THE SAME HERD (FIGURE 7).

 

snip...

 

see updated APHIS scrapie report ;

 

http://www.aphis.usda.gov/animal_health/animal_diseases/scrapie/downloads/monthly_scrapie_rpt.pps

 

Tuesday, February 01, 2011

 

Sparse PrP-Sc accumulation in the placentas of goats with naturally acquired scrapie

 

Research article

 

snip...

 

Date: Tuesday, February 01, 2011 5:03 PM

 

To: Mr Terry Singeltary

 

Subject: Your comment on BMC Veterinary Research 2011, 7:7

 

Dear Mr Singeltary

 

Thank you for contributing to the discussion of BMC Veterinary Research 2011, 7:7 .

 

Your comment will be posted within 2 working days, as long as it contributes to the topic under discussion and does not breach patients' confidentiality or libel anyone. You will receive a further notification by email when the posting appears on the site or if it is rejected by the moderator.

 

Your posting will read:

 

Mr Terry Singeltary,

 

retired

 

Scrapie cases Goats from same herd USA Michigan

 

Comment: " In spite of the poorly defined effects of PRNP genetics, scrapie strain, dose, route and source of infection, the caprine placenta may represent a source of infection to progeny and herd mates as well as a source of persistent environmental contamination. "

 

Could this route of infection be the cause of the many cases of Goat scrapie from the same herd in Michigan USA ?

 

Has this been investigated ?

 

(Figure 6) including five goat cases in FY 2008 that originated from the same herd in Michigan. This is highly unusual for goats, and I strenuously urge that there should be an independent investigation into finding the common denominator for these 5 goats in the same herd in Michigan with Scrapie. ...

 

Kind Regards, Terry

 

Thursday, January 07, 2010

 

Scrapie and Nor-98 Scrapie November 2009 Monthly Report Fiscal Year 2010 and FISCAL YEAR 2008

 

http://scrapie-usa.blogspot.com/2010/01/scrapie-and-nor-98-scrapie-november.html

 

In FY 2010, 72 cases of classical Scrapie and 5 cases of Nor-98 like Scrapie were confirmed...

 

http://www.aphis.usda.gov/animal_health/animal_diseases/scrapie/downloads/yearly_report.ppsx

 

Scrapie Nor-98 like case in California FY 2011 AS of December 31, 2010.

 

Scrapie cases in goats FY 2002 - 2011 AS of December 31, 2010 Total goat cases = 21 Scrapie cases, 0 Nor-98 like Scrapie cases (21 field cases, 0 RSSS cases)

 

Last herd with infected goats disignated in FY 2008 Michigan 8 cases

 

http://www.aphis.usda.gov/animal_health/animal_diseases/scrapie/downloads/monthly_scrapie_rpt.pps

 

Tuesday, February 01, 2011

 

Sparse PrP-Sc accumulation in the placentas of goats with naturally acquired scrapie

 

Research article

 

http://www.biomedcentral.com/1746-6148/7/7/abstract

 

http://www.biomedcentral.com/content/pdf/1746-6148-7-7.pdf

 

"In spite of the poorly defined effects of PRNP genetics, scrapie strain, dose, route and source of infection, the caprine placenta may represent a source of infection to progeny and herd mates as well as a source of persistent environmental contamination."

 

Could this route of infection be the cause of the many cases of Goat scrapie from the same herd in Michigan USA ?

 

Has this been investigated ?

 

(Figure 6) including five goat cases in FY 2008 that originated from the same herd in Michigan. This is highly unusual for goats, and I strenuously urge that there should be an independent investigation into finding the common denominator for these 5 goats in the same herd in Michigan with Scrapie. ...

 

Kind Regards, Terry

 

SNIP...

 

Scrapie Nor-98 like case in California FY 2011 AS of December 31, 2010.

 

Scrapie cases in goats FY 2002 - 2011 AS of December 31, 2010 Total goat cases = 21 Scrapie cases, 0 Nor-98 like Scrapie cases (21 field cases, 0 RSSS cases)

 

Last herd with infected goats disignated in FY 2008 Michigan 8 cases

 

http://www.aphis.usda.gov/animal_health/animal_diseases/scrapie/downloads/monthly_scrapie_rpt.pps

 

UPDATED RESPONSE ON MY CONCERNS OF GOAT SCRAPIE IN MICHIGAN ;

 

----- 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 the route of infection of the five goats in Michigan. We advise that you contact the authors directly rather than post a comment on the article.

 

With best wishes,

 

Maria

 

Maria Kowalczuk, PhD Deputy Biology Editor BMC-series Journals

 

BioMed Central 236 Gray's Inn Road London, WC1X 8HB

 

+44 20 3192 2000 (tel) +44 20 3192 2010 (fax)

 

W: www.biomedcentral.com E: Maria.Kowalczuk@biomedcentral.com

 

Any queries about this decision should be sent to comments@biomedcentral.com

 

Regards

 

BMC Veterinary Research

 

SNIP...PLEASE SEE FULL TEXT ;

 

Tuesday, February 01, 2011

 

Sparse PrP-Sc accumulation in the placentas of goats with naturally acquired scrapie

 

Research article

 

http://scrapie-usa.blogspot.com/2011/02/sparse-prp-sc-accumulation-in-placentas.html

 

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

 

http://nor-98.blogspot.com/2012/03/atypical-nor-98-scrapie-has-spread-from.html

 

***SCRAPIE GOATS CALIFORNIA 13 CASES TO DATE ! ***

 

***SCRAPIE GOATS MICHIGAN 8 CASES TO DATE ! ***

 

(an unusually high amount of scrapie documented in goats for a happenstance of bad luck, or spontaneous event, THAT DOES NOT HAPPEN IN OTHER STATES ??? )

 

Sunday, June 2, 2013

 

Characterisation of an Unusual TSE in a Goat by Transmission in Knock-in Transgenic Mice

 

http://transmissiblespongiformencephalopathy.blogspot.com/2013/06/characterisation-of-unusual-tse-in-goat.html

 

Friday, July 26, 2013

 

Voluntary Scrapie Program USA UPDATE July 26, 2013 increase in FY 2013 is not statistically meaningful due to the sample size

 

http://scrapie-usa.blogspot.com/2013/07/voluntary-scrapie-program-usa-update.html

 

 SUMMARY REPORT CALIFORNIA atypical L-type BASE BOVINE SPONGIFORM ENCEPHALOPATHY CASE INVESTIGATION JULY 2012

 

Summary Report BSE 2012

 

Executive Summary

 

http://transmissiblespongiformencephalopathy.blogspot.com/2012/08/summary-report-california-bovine.html

 

Saturday, August 4, 2012

 

Final Feed Investigation Summary - California atypical L-type BASE BSE Case - July 2012

 

http://transmissiblespongiformencephalopathy.blogspot.com/2012/08/final-feed-investigation-summary.html

 

Saturday, August 4, 2012

 

Update from APHIS Regarding Release of the Final Report on the atypical L-type BASE BSE Epidemiological Investigation

 

http://transmissiblespongiformencephalopathy.blogspot.com/2012/08/update-from-aphis-regarding-release-of.html

 

Saturday, November 2, 2013

 

APHIS Finalizes Bovine Import Regulations in Line with International Animal Health Standards while enhancing the spread of BSE TSE prion mad cow type disease around the Globe

 

http://madcowusda.blogspot.com/2013/11/aphis-finalizes-bovine-import.html

 

Sunday, November 17, 2013

 

L-BSE in Genetically Susceptible and Resistant Sheep: Changes in Prion Strain or Phenotypic Plasticity of the Disease-Associated Prion Protein?

 

http://bse-atypical.blogspot.com/2013/11/l-bse-in-genetically-susceptible-and.html

 

 Wednesday, December 24, 2014

 

National Scrapie Eradication Program November 2014 Monthly Report Fiscal Year 2015

 

http://scrapie-usa.blogspot.com/2014/12/national-scrapie-eradication-program.html

 

 TSS

Increased Infectivity of Anchorless Mouse Scrapie Prions in Transgenic Mice Overexpressing Human Prion Protein

Increased Infectivity of Anchorless Mouse Scrapie Prions in Transgenic Mice Overexpressing Human Prion Protein

 

Brent Race1#, Katie Phillips1, Kimberly Meade-White2, James Striebel1 and Bruce Chesebro1

 

+ Author Affiliations 1Laboratory of Persistent Viral Diseases, Rocky Mountain Laboratories, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Hamilton, MT, 59840 USA 2Rocky Mountain Veterinary Branch, Rocky Mountain Laboratories, National Instituteof Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Hamilton, MT, 59840 USA

 

ABSTRACT

 

Prion protein (PrP) is found in all mammals mostly as a glycoprotein anchored to the plasma membrane by a C-terminal glycophosphatidylinositol (GPI) linkage. Following prion infection, host protease-sensitive prion protein (PrPsen or PrPC) is converted into an abnormal, disease-associated, protease-resistant form (PrPres). Biochemical characteristics such as the PrP amino acid sequence and post-translational modifications such as glycosylation and GPI anchoring, can affect the transmissibility of prions as well as the biochemical properties of the PrPres generated. Previous in vivo studies on the effects of GPI anchoring on prion infectivity have not examined cross-species transmission. Here we tested the effect of lack of GPI anchoring on a species barrier model using mice expressing human PrP. In this model, anchorless 22L prions derived from tg44 mice were more infectious than 22L prions derived from C57BL/10 mice when tested in tg66 transgenic mice, which expressed wild-type anchored human PrP at 8-16 fold above normal. Thus the lack of the GPI anchor on the PrPres from tg44 mice appeared to reduce the effect of the mouse-human PrP species barrier. In contrast, neither source of prions induced disease in tgRM transgenic mice which expressed human PrP at 2-4 fold above normal.

 

Importance Prion protein (PrP) is found in all mammals, usually attached to cells by an anchor molecule, called GPI. Following prion infection, PrP is converted into a disease-associated form (PrPres). While most prion diseases are species-specific, this finding is not consistent, and species barriers differ in strength. The amino acid sequence of PrP varies among species, and this variability affects prion species barriers. However, other PrP modifications, including glycosylation and GPI-anchoring, may also influence cross-species infectivity. We studied the effect of PrP GPI-anchoring using a mouse to human species barrier model. Experiments showed that prions produced by mice expressing only anchorless PrP were more infectious than prions produced in mice expressing anchored PrP. Thus, the lack of the GPI anchor on prions reduced the effect of the mouse-human species barrier. Our results suggest that prion diseases that produce higher levels of anchorless PrP may pose an increased risk for cross-species infection.

 

 FOOTNOTES

 

↵#Corresponding author. Mailing address: Laboratory of Persistent Viral Diseases, Rocky Mountain Laboratories, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, 903 South Fourth Street, Hamilton, MT, 59840 USA, Phone: 406-363-9360, Email: raceb@niaid.nih.gov Copyright © 2015, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

 

http://jvi.asm.org/content/early/2015/03/19/JVI.00362-15.abstract?papetoc

 

Tuesday, December 16, 2014

 

Evidence for zoonotic potential of ovine scrapie prions

 

Hervé Cassard,1, n1 Juan-Maria Torres,2, n1 Caroline Lacroux,1, Jean-Yves Douet,1, Sylvie L. Benestad,3, Frédéric Lantier,4, Séverine Lugan,1, Isabelle Lantier,4, Pierrette Costes,1, Naima Aron,1, Fabienne Reine,5, Laetitia Herzog,5, Juan-Carlos Espinosa,2, Vincent Beringue5, & Olivier Andréoletti1, Affiliations Contributions Corresponding author Journal name: Nature Communications Volume: 5, Article number: 5821 DOI: doi:10.1038/ncomms6821 Received 07 August 2014 Accepted 10 November 2014 Published 16 December 2014 Article tools Citation Reprints Rights & permissions Article metrics

 

Abstract

 

Although Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) is the cause of variant Creutzfeldt Jakob disease (vCJD) in humans, the zoonotic potential of scrapie prions remains unknown. Mice genetically engineered to overexpress the human ​prion protein (tgHu) have emerged as highly relevant models for gauging the capacity of prions to transmit to humans. These models can propagate human prions without any apparent transmission barrier and have been used used to confirm the zoonotic ability of BSE. Here we show that a panel of sheep scrapie prions transmit to several tgHu mice models with an efficiency comparable to that of cattle BSE. The serial transmission of different scrapie isolates in these mice led to the propagation of prions that are phenotypically identical to those causing sporadic CJD (sCJD) in humans. These results demonstrate that scrapie prions have a zoonotic potential and raise new questions about the possible link between animal and human prions.

 

Subject terms: Biological sciences• Medical research At a glance

 

http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2014/141216/ncomms6821/full/ncomms6821.html

 

why do we not want to do TSE transmission studies on chimpanzees $

 

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

 

http://collections.europarchive.org/tna/20080102222950/http://www.bseinquiry.gov.uk/files/yb/1990/09/23001001.pdf

 

Suspect symptoms

 

What if you can catch old-fashioned CJD by eating meat from a sheep infected with scrapie?

 

28 Mar 01 Most doctors believe that sCJD is caused by a prion protein deforming by chance into a killer. But Singeltary thinks otherwise. He is one of a number of campaigners who say that some sCJD, like the variant CJD related to BSE, is caused by eating meat from infected animals. Their suspicions have focused on sheep carrying scrapie, a BSE-like disease that is widespread in flocks across Europe and North America.

 

Now scientists in France have stumbled across new evidence that adds weight to the campaigners' fears. To their complete surprise, the researchers found that one strain of scrapie causes the same brain damage in mice as sCJD.

 

"This means we cannot rule out that at least some sCJD may be caused by some strains of scrapie," says team member Jean-Philippe Deslys of the French Atomic Energy Commission's medical research laboratory in Fontenay-aux-Roses, south-west of Paris. Hans Kretschmar of the University of Göttingen, who coordinates CJD surveillance in Germany, is so concerned by the findings that he now wants to trawl back through past sCJD cases to see if any might have been caused by eating infected mutton or lamb...

 

2001

 

Suspect symptoms

 

What if you can catch old-fashioned CJD by eating meat from a sheep infected with scrapie?

 

28 Mar 01

 

Like lambs to the slaughter

 

31 March 2001

 

by Debora MacKenzie Magazine issue 2284.

 

FOUR years ago, Terry Singeltary watched his mother die horribly from a degenerative brain disease. Doctors told him it was Alzheimer's, but Singeltary was suspicious. The diagnosis didn't fit her violent symptoms, and he demanded an autopsy. It showed she had died of sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.

 

Most doctors believe that sCJD is caused by a prion protein deforming by chance into a killer. But Singeltary thinks otherwise. He is one of a number of campaigners who say that some sCJD, like the variant CJD related to BSE, is caused by eating meat from infected animals. Their suspicions have focused on sheep carrying scrapie, a BSE-like disease that is widespread in flocks across Europe and North America.

 

Now scientists in France have stumbled across new evidence that adds weight to the campaigners' fears. To their complete surprise, the researchers found that one strain of scrapie causes the same brain damage in mice as sCJD.

 

"This means we cannot rule out that at least some sCJD may be caused by some strains of scrapie," says team member Jean-Philippe Deslys of the French Atomic Energy Commission's medical research laboratory in Fontenay-aux-Roses, south-west of Paris. Hans Kretschmar of the University of Göttingen, who coordinates CJD surveillance in Germany, is so concerned by the findings that he now wants to trawl back through past sCJD cases to see if any might have been caused by eating infected mutton or lamb.

 

Scrapie has been around for centuries and until now there has been no evidence that it poses a risk to human health. But if the French finding means that scrapie can cause sCJD in people, countries around the world may have overlooked a CJD crisis to rival that caused by BSE.

 

Deslys and colleagues were originally studying vCJD, not sCJD. They injected the brains of macaque monkeys with brain from BSE cattle, and from French and British vCJD patients. The brain damage and clinical symptoms in the monkeys were the same for all three. Mice injected with the original sets of brain tissue or with infected monkey brain also developed the same symptoms.

 

As a control experiment, the team also injected mice with brain tissue from people and animals with other prion diseases: a French case of sCJD; a French patient who caught sCJD from human-derived growth hormone; sheep with a French strain of scrapie; and mice carrying a prion derived from an American scrapie strain. As expected, they all affected the brain in a different way from BSE and vCJD. But while the American strain of scrapie caused different damage from sCJD, the French strain produced exactly the same pathology.

 

"The main evidence that scrapie does not affect humans has been epidemiology," says Moira Bruce of the neuropathogenesis unit of the Institute for Animal Health in Edinburgh, who was a member of the same team as Deslys. "You see about the same incidence of the disease everywhere, whether or not there are many sheep, and in countries such as New Zealand with no scrapie." In the only previous comparisons of sCJD and scrapie in mice, Bruce found they were dissimilar.

 

But there are more than 20 strains of scrapie, and six of sCJD. "You would not necessarily see a relationship between the two with epidemiology if only some strains affect only some people," says Deslys. Bruce is cautious about the mouse results, but agrees they require further investigation. Other trials of scrapie and sCJD in mice, she says, are in progress.

 

People can have three different genetic variations of the human prion protein, and each type of protein can fold up two different ways. Kretschmar has found that these six combinations correspond to six clinical types of sCJD: each type of normal prion produces a particular pathology when it spontaneously deforms to produce sCJD.

 

But if these proteins deform because of infection with a disease-causing prion, the relationship between pathology and prion type should be different, as it is in vCJD. "If we look at brain samples from sporadic CJD cases and find some that do not fit the pattern," says Kretschmar, "that could mean they were caused by infection."

 

There are 250 deaths per year from sCJD in the US, and a similar incidence elsewhere. Singeltary and other US activists think that some of these people died after eating contaminated meat or "nutritional" pills containing dried animal brain. Governments will have a hard time facing activists like Singeltary if it turns out that some sCJD isn't as spontaneous as doctors have insisted.

 

Deslys's work on macaques also provides further proof that the human disease vCJD is caused by BSE. And the experiments showed that vCJD is much more virulent to primates than BSE, even when injected into the bloodstream rather than the brain. This, says Deslys, means that there is an even bigger risk than we thought that vCJD can be passed from one patient to another through contaminated blood transfusions and surgical instruments.

 

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg16922840.300-like-lambs-to-the-slaughter.html

 

Friday, January 30, 2015

 

*** Scrapie: a particularly persistent pathogen ***

 

http://transmissiblespongiformencephalopathy.blogspot.com/2015/01/scrapie-particularly-persistent-pathogen.html

 

 

TSS

 

National Scrapie Eradication Report - January 2015 USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service sent this bulletin at 03/03/2015 03:00 PM EST

NOTICE: National Scrapie Eradication Report - January 2015 USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service sent this bulletin at 03/03/2015 03:00 PM EST

 

APHIS Stakeholder Registry Default Topic Image

 

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The monthly report for the National Scrapie Eradication Program for January 2015 is now available. The monthly reports are available in both PowerPoint and PDF formats.

 

•PowerPoint Monthly Report

 

•PDF Monthly Report

 

Highlights of the January 2015 Report

 

One new scrapie infected flock and two new scrapie source flocks have been designated in FY 2015. Since the beginning of FY 2015, 29 sheep have tested positive for scrapie; 26 of these positives were from the same source flock. Two goats have tested positive; both from the same herd.

 

As of January 31, for FY 2015, 11,011 sheep and 2,892 goats have been tested for scrapie.

 

Scrapie/Scrapie Program Monthly Tidbit

 

Do you know how “scrapie” got its name? Sheep and goats affected by the disease often scratch and rub against fixed objects, apparently to relieve itching. Other signs are loss of coordination, weakness, weight loss despite a healthy appetite, biting at feet or limbs, lip smacking, and abnormalities in an animal’s gait or while walking (such as high-stepping of the forelegs, hopping like a rabbit, and swaying of the back end). Death has been reported in sheep and goats where clinical signs were not observed. Visit the APHIS Scrapie Disease Information webpage to learn more.

 

Resources

 

•To report a sheep or goat with clinical signs of scrapie, please contact your local VS office.

 

•To learn more about scrapie, the disease, and the national scrapie eradication program visit the APHIS VS Scrapie Website and www.eradicatescrapie.org.

 

http://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/USDAAPHIS/bulletins/f5273c

 

Infected sheep may have come from U.S., not Ontario farm where officials slaughtered flock, court hears

 

Adrian Humphreys | February 27, 2015 | Last Updated: Mar 1 5:07 PM ET

 

http://news.nationalpost.com/2015/02/27/infected-sheep-may-have-come-from-u-s-not-ontario-farm-where-officials-slaughtered-entire-flock-court-hears/ http://scrapie-usa.blogspot.com/2015/03/infected-sheep-may-have-come-from-us.html

 

Friday, February 20, 2015

 

APHIS Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Appeal Mouse Bio-Assays 2007-00030-A Sheep Imported From Belgium and the Presence of TSE Prion Disease Kevin Shea to Singeltary 2015

 

http://transmissiblespongiformencephalopathy.blogspot.com/2015/02/aphis-freedom-of-information-act-foia.html

 

Tuesday, December 16, 2014

 

Evidence for zoonotic potential of ovine scrapie prions

 

Hervé Cassard,1, n1 Juan-Maria Torres,2, n1 Caroline Lacroux,1, Jean-Yves Douet,1, Sylvie L. Benestad,3, Frédéric Lantier,4, Séverine Lugan,1, Isabelle Lantier,4, Pierrette Costes,1, Naima Aron,1, Fabienne Reine,5, Laetitia Herzog,5, Juan-Carlos Espinosa,2, Vincent Beringue5, & Olivier Andréoletti1, Affiliations Contributions Corresponding author Journal name: Nature Communications Volume: 5, Article number: 5821 DOI: doi:10.1038/ncomms6821 Received 07 August 2014 Accepted 10 November 2014 Published 16 December 2014 Article tools Citation Reprints Rights & permissions Article metrics

 

Abstract

 

Although Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) is the cause of variant Creutzfeldt Jakob disease (vCJD) in humans, the zoonotic potential of scrapie prions remains unknown. Mice genetically engineered to overexpress the human ​prion protein (tgHu) have emerged as highly relevant models for gauging the capacity of prions to transmit to humans. These models can propagate human prions without any apparent transmission barrier and have been used used to confirm the zoonotic ability of BSE. Here we show that a panel of sheep scrapie prions transmit to several tgHu mice models with an efficiency comparable to that of cattle BSE. The serial transmission of different scrapie isolates in these mice led to the propagation of prions that are phenotypically identical to those causing sporadic CJD (sCJD) in humans. These results demonstrate that scrapie prions have a zoonotic potential and raise new questions about the possible link between animal and human prions.

 

Subject terms: Biological sciences• Medical research At a glance

 

http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2014/141216/ncomms6821/full/ncomms6821.html

 

why do we not want to do TSE transmission studies on chimpanzees $

 

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

 

http://collections.europarchive.org/tna/20080102222950/http://www.bseinquiry.gov.uk/files/yb/1990/09/23001001.pdf

 

Suspect symptoms

 

What if you can catch old-fashioned CJD by eating meat from a sheep infected with scrapie?

 

28 Mar 01 Most doctors believe that sCJD is caused by a prion protein deforming by chance into a killer. But Singeltary thinks otherwise. He is one of a number of campaigners who say that some sCJD, like the variant CJD related to BSE, is caused by eating meat from infected animals. Their suspicions have focused on sheep carrying scrapie, a BSE-like disease that is widespread in flocks across Europe and North America.

 

Now scientists in France have stumbled across new evidence that adds weight to the campaigners' fears. To their complete surprise, the researchers found that one strain of scrapie causes the same brain damage in mice as sCJD.

 

"This means we cannot rule out that at least some sCJD may be caused by some strains of scrapie," says team member Jean-Philippe Deslys of the French Atomic Energy Commission's medical research laboratory in Fontenay-aux-Roses, south-west of Paris. Hans Kretschmar of the University of Göttingen, who coordinates CJD surveillance in Germany, is so concerned by the findings that he now wants to trawl back through past sCJD cases to see if any might have been caused by eating infected mutton or lamb...

 

2001

 

Suspect symptoms

 

What if you can catch old-fashioned CJD by eating meat from a sheep infected with scrapie?

 

28 Mar 01

 

Like lambs to the slaughter

 

31 March 2001

 

by Debora MacKenzie Magazine issue 2284.

 

FOUR years ago, Terry Singeltary watched his mother die horribly from a degenerative brain disease. Doctors told him it was Alzheimer's, but Singeltary was suspicious. The diagnosis didn't fit her violent symptoms, and he demanded an autopsy. It showed she had died of sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.

 

Most doctors believe that sCJD is caused by a prion protein deforming by chance into a killer. But Singeltary thinks otherwise. He is one of a number of campaigners who say that some sCJD, like the variant CJD related to BSE, is caused by eating meat from infected animals. Their suspicions have focused on sheep carrying scrapie, a BSE-like disease that is widespread in flocks across Europe and North America.

 

Now scientists in France have stumbled across new evidence that adds weight to the campaigners' fears. To their complete surprise, the researchers found that one strain of scrapie causes the same brain damage in mice as sCJD.

 

"This means we cannot rule out that at least some sCJD may be caused by some strains of scrapie," says team member Jean-Philippe Deslys of the French Atomic Energy Commission's medical research laboratory in Fontenay-aux-Roses, south-west of Paris. Hans Kretschmar of the University of Göttingen, who coordinates CJD surveillance in Germany, is so concerned by the findings that he now wants to trawl back through past sCJD cases to see if any might have been caused by eating infected mutton or lamb.

 

Scrapie has been around for centuries and until now there has been no evidence that it poses a risk to human health. But if the French finding means that scrapie can cause sCJD in people, countries around the world may have overlooked a CJD crisis to rival that caused by BSE.

 

Deslys and colleagues were originally studying vCJD, not sCJD. They injected the brains of macaque monkeys with brain from BSE cattle, and from French and British vCJD patients. The brain damage and clinical symptoms in the monkeys were the same for all three. Mice injected with the original sets of brain tissue or with infected monkey brain also developed the same symptoms.

 

As a control experiment, the team also injected mice with brain tissue from people and animals with other prion diseases: a French case of sCJD; a French patient who caught sCJD from human-derived growth hormone; sheep with a French strain of scrapie; and mice carrying a prion derived from an American scrapie strain. As expected, they all affected the brain in a different way from BSE and vCJD. But while the American strain of scrapie caused different damage from sCJD, the French strain produced exactly the same pathology.

 

"The main evidence that scrapie does not affect humans has been epidemiology," says Moira Bruce of the neuropathogenesis unit of the Institute for Animal Health in Edinburgh, who was a member of the same team as Deslys. "You see about the same incidence of the disease everywhere, whether or not there are many sheep, and in countries such as New Zealand with no scrapie." In the only previous comparisons of sCJD and scrapie in mice, Bruce found they were dissimilar.

 

But there are more than 20 strains of scrapie, and six of sCJD. "You would not necessarily see a relationship between the two with epidemiology if only some strains affect only some people," says Deslys. Bruce is cautious about the mouse results, but agrees they require further investigation. Other trials of scrapie and sCJD in mice, she says, are in progress.

 

People can have three different genetic variations of the human prion protein, and each type of protein can fold up two different ways. Kretschmar has found that these six combinations correspond to six clinical types of sCJD: each type of normal prion produces a particular pathology when it spontaneously deforms to produce sCJD.

 

But if these proteins deform because of infection with a disease-causing prion, the relationship between pathology and prion type should be different, as it is in vCJD. "If we look at brain samples from sporadic CJD cases and find some that do not fit the pattern," says Kretschmar, "that could mean they were caused by infection."

 

There are 250 deaths per year from sCJD in the US, and a similar incidence elsewhere. Singeltary and other US activists think that some of these people died after eating contaminated meat or "nutritional" pills containing dried animal brain. Governments will have a hard time facing activists like Singeltary if it turns out that some sCJD isn't as spontaneous as doctors have insisted.

 

Deslys's work on macaques also provides further proof that the human disease vCJD is caused by BSE. And the experiments showed that vCJD is much more virulent to primates than BSE, even when injected into the bloodstream rather than the brain. This, says Deslys, means that there is an even bigger risk than we thought that vCJD can be passed from one patient to another through contaminated blood transfusions and surgical instruments.

 

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg16922840.300-like-lambs-to-the-slaughter.html

 

Friday, January 30, 2015

 

*** Scrapie: a particularly persistent pathogen ***

 

http://transmissiblespongiformencephalopathy.blogspot.com/2015/01/scrapie-particularly-persistent-pathogen.html

 

Wednesday, December 24, 2014

 

National Scrapie Eradication Program November 2014 Monthly Report Fiscal Year 2015

 

http://scrapie-usa.blogspot.com/2014/12/national-scrapie-eradication-program.html

 

RESEARCH ARTICLE

 

Phenotype Shift from Atypical Scrapie to CH1641 following Experimental Transmission in Sheep

 

Marion M. Simmons*, S. Jo Moore¤a, Richard Lockey¤b, Melanie J. Chaplin, Timm Konold, Christopher Vickery, John Spiropoulos

 

Animal and Plant Health Agency—Weybridge, Woodham Lane, Addlestone, Surrey, KT15 3NB, United Kingdom

 

¤a Current address: School of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences, Murdoch University, South Street, Murdoch, Western Australia, 6150, Australia

 

¤b Current address: University of Southampton, Southampton, SO17 1BJ, United Kingdom * marion.simmons@apha.gsi.gov.uk

 

Abstract

 

The interactions of host and infecting strain in ovine transmissible spongiform encephalopathies are known to be complex, and have a profound effect on the resulting phenotype of disease. In contrast to classical scrapie, the pathology in naturally-occurring cases of atypical scrapie appears more consistent, regardless of genotype, and is preserved on transmission within sheep homologous for the prion protein (PRNP) gene. However, the stability of transmissible spongiform encephalopathy phenotypes on passage across and within species is not absolute, and there are reports in the literature where experimental transmissions of particular isolates have resulted in a phenotype consistent with a different strain. In this study, intracerebral inoculation of atypical scrapie between two genotypes both associated with susceptibility to atypical forms of disease resulted in one sheep displaying an altered phenotype with clinical, pathological, biochemical and murine bioassay characteristics all consistent with the classical scrapie strain CH1641, and distinct from the atypical scrapie donor, while the second sheep did not succumb to challenge. One of two sheep orally challenged with the same inoculum developed atypical scrapie indistinguishable from the donor. This study adds to the range of transmissible spongiform encephalopathy phenotype changes that have been reported following various different experimental donor-recipient combinations. While these circumstances may not arise through natural exposure to disease in the field, there is the potential for iatrogenic exposure should current disease surveillance and feed controls be relaxed. Future sheep to sheep transmission of atypical scrapie might lead to instances of disease with an alternative phenotype and onward transmission potential which may have adverse implications for both public health and animal disease control policies.

 

snip...

 

Despite naturally-occurring atypical scrapie being observed in a range of genotypes, successful experimental transmissions of clinical disease have so far only been reported within a particular homologous donor-recipient genotype model using sheep which are AHQ/AHQ homozygous [8,15,16]. These published transmissions represent part of a large study at APHA which has been running since 2004, investigating the potential transmissibility of atypical scrapie in a range of both homologous and cross-genotype combinations. Here we describe an unexpected and interesting finding from that study where one experimental challenge in which atypical scrapie from an ARR/ARR donor was inoculated intracerebrally into two AHQ/AHQ recipient sheep, and in one of them the resulting disease had a phenotype that was indistinguishable from CH1641 [29], a classical scrapie strain which has some BSE-like Western blot properties.

 

http://www.plosone.org/article/fetchObject.action?uri=info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0117063&representation=PDF

 

Subject: more on scrapie/BSE strain CH1641

 

From: tom

 

Reply-To: Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy

 

Date: Sun, 10 Jan 1999 21:52:05 -0800

 

Content-Type: text/plain

 

Parts/Attachments: Parts/Attachments text/plain (37 lines) Reply Reply

 

Recall a forthcoming J Gen Virol Jan 1999 v80:1 - 4 says there are similarities between BSE and an experimental isolate of natural scrapie, CH1641. This might then be the long-sought missing scrapie strain that could have given rise to the BSE epidemic. It would raise additional questions about the harmlessness to humans of scrapie.

 

On the other hand, CH1641 happened to be one of the scrapie strains studied very recently by Collinge's group, Neurosci Lett. 1998 Oct 23;255(3):159-62. It did not have the prp-sc type identical to BSE passaged in sheep.

 

The CH1641 strain is mentioned only twice before in Medline abstracts (though there could be many fulltext mentions), one of these being the original naming of the strain in 1988:

 

The unusual properties of CH1641, a sheep-passaged isolate of scrapie.

 

Foster JD, Dickinson AG Vet Rec 1988 Jul 2;123(1):5-8

 

An isolate of scrapie designated CH1641 was identified from a natural case of scrapie in a Cheviot sheep by passage in sheep and goats. It has not been possible to transmit scrapie to mice from this source. The Sip gene which controls the incubation periods of experimental scrapie in Cheviot sheep has two alleles; sA which shortens and pA which lengthens the incubation periods of most strains of scrapie after the first experimental injection in sheep (the A group of strains). The CH1641 isolate differs from them in that the alleles of Sip act in the opposite way, with incubation being shorter in the pA homozygotes. There is some evidence that one or more genes, in addition to Sip, may be implicated in the control of scrapie incubation in sheep and the possibility of a carrier infection with CH1641 is also discussed.

 

Novel polymorphisms in the caprine PrP gene: a codon 142 mutation associated with scrapie incubation period.

 

J Gen Virol 1996 Nov;77 ( Pt 11):2885-91 Published erratum appears in J Gen Virol 1997 Mar;78(Pt 3):697 Goldmann W, Martin T, Foster J, Hughes S, Smith G, Hughes K, Dawson M, Hunter N

 

Age at disease onset and rate of progression of transmissible spongiform encephalopathies in man, sheep and mice are modulated by the host genome, in particular by the PrP gene and its allelic forms. Analysis of the caprine PrP gene revealed several different alleles. Four PrP protein variants were found, three of which were goat specific with single amino acid changes at codons 142, 143 and 240. The fourth was identical to the most common sheep PrP protein variant (Ala136-Arg154-Gln171). The dimorphism at codon 142 (Ile --> Met) appeared to be associated with differing disease incubation periods in goats experimentally infected with isolates of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, sheep scrapie CH1641 or sheep-passaged ME7 scrapie.

 

https://lists.aegee.org/?A2=ind9901&L=BSE-L&P=R6127&1=BSE-L&9=A&J=on&d=No+Match%3BMatch%3BMatches&z=4

 

https://lists.aegee.org/?A2=ind0406&L=BSE-L&P=R1381&1=BSE-L&9=A&J=on&d=No+Match%3BMatch%3BMatches&z=4

 

https://lists.aegee.org/cgi-bin/wa

 

TSE PRION UPDATE USA 2012

 

re-BSE in goats can be mistaken for scrapie

 

http://www.avma.org/onlnews/javma/feb12/120201k.asp

 

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

 

BSE IN GOATS CAN BE MISTAKEN FOR SCRAPIE

 

February 1, 2012

 

http://transmissiblespongiformencephalopathy.blogspot.com/2012/01/bse-in-goats-can-be-mistaken-for.html

 

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

 

Selection of Distinct Strain Phenotypes in Mice Infected by Ovine Natural Scrapie Isolates Similar to CH1641 Experimental Scrapie

 

Journal of Neuropathology & Experimental Neurology:

 

February 2012 - Volume 71 - Issue 2 - p 140–147

 

http://transmissiblespongiformencephalopathy.blogspot.com/2012/01/selection-of-distinct-strain-phenotypes.html

 

Monday, March 21, 2011

 

Sheep and Goat BSE Propagate More Efficiently than Cattle BSE in Human PrP Transgenic Mice

 

snip...

 

On the other hand, this component would not be distinguishable from bovine-passaged BSE prions due to the current limits of the standard biological methods and/or the molecular tools employed here to characterize prion strains. Whatever the mechanism, the notion that a passage through an intermediate species can profoundly alter prion virulence for the human species has important public-health issues, regarding emerging and/or expanding TSEs, like atypical scrapie or CWD.

 

snip...

 

Taken all together, our results suggest that the possibility of a small ruminant BSE prion as vCJD causal agent could not be ruled out, which has important implications on public and animal health policies. On one hand, although the exact magnitude and characteristic of the vCJD epidemic is still unclear, its link with cattle BSE is supported by strong epidemiological ground and several experimental data. On the other hand, the molecular typing performed in our studies, indicates that the biochemical characteristics of the PrPres detected in brains of our sheep and goat BSE-inoculated mice seem to be indistinguishable from that observed in vCJD. Considering the similarity in clinical manifestation of BSE- and scrapie-affected sheep [48], a masker effect of scrapie over BSE, as well as a potential adaptation of the BSE agent through subsequent passages, could not be ruled out. As BSE infected sheep PrPSc have been detected in many peripheral organs, small ruminant-passaged BSE prions might be a more widespread source of BSE infectivity compared to cattle [19], [49], [50]. This fact is even more worrying since our transmission studies suggest that apparently Met129 human PrP favours a BSE agent with ovine rather than a bovine sequence. Finally, it is evident that, although few natural cases have been described and so far we cannot draw any definitive conclusion about the origin of vCJD, we can not underestimate the risk of a potential goat and/or sheep BSE agent.

 

snip...

 

http://nor-98.blogspot.com/2011/03/sheep-and-goat-bse-propagate-more.html

 

 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.

 

http://www.ars.usda.gov/research/publications/publications.htm?seq_no_115=227516

 

 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.

 

http://jvi.asm.org/cgi/content/full/81/13/7230?view=long&pmid=17442721

 

 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.

 

http://www.ars.usda.gov/research/publications/publications.htm?seq_no_115=182469

 

 snip...see ;

 

http://transmissiblespongiformencephalopathy.blogspot.com/2011/07/histopathological-studies-of-ch1641.html

 

Thursday, July 14, 2011

 

Histopathological Studies of "CH1641-Like" Scrapie Sources Versus Classical Scrapie and BSE Transmitted to Ovine Transgenic Mice (TgOvPrP4)

 

http://transmissiblespongiformencephalopathy.blogspot.com/2011/07/histopathological-studies-of-ch1641.html

 

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).

 

http://collections.europarchive.org/tna/20090506010048/http://www.bseinquiry.gov.uk/files/sc/seac33/tab02.pdf

 

RB264

 

BSE - TRANSMISSION STUDIES

 

http://collections.europarchive.org/tna/20090113230127/http://www.bseinquiry.gov.uk/files/sc/Seac06/tab06.pdf

 

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

 

Selection of Distinct Strain Phenotypes in Mice Infected by Ovine Natural Scrapie Isolates Similar to CH1641 Experimental Scrapie

 

Journal of Neuropathology & Experimental Neurology:

 

February 2012 - Volume 71 - Issue 2 - p 140–147

 

http://transmissiblespongiformencephalopathy.blogspot.com/2012/01/selection-of-distinct-strain-phenotypes.html

 

Tuesday, February 01, 2011

 

Sparse PrP-Sc accumulation in the placentas of goats with naturally acquired scrapie

 

Research article

 

snip...

 

Date: Tuesday, February 01, 2011 5:03 PM

 

To: Mr Terry Singeltary

 

Subject: Your comment on BMC Veterinary Research 2011, 7:7

 

Dear Mr Singeltary

 

Thank you for contributing to the discussion of BMC Veterinary Research 2011, 7:7 .

 

Your comment will be posted within 2 working days, as long as it contributes to the topic under discussion and does not breach patients' confidentiality or libel anyone. You will receive a further notification by email when the posting appears on the site or if it is rejected by the moderator.

 

Your posting will read:

 

Mr Terry Singeltary,

 

retired

 

Scrapie cases Goats from same herd USA Michigan

 

Comment: " In spite of the poorly defined effects of PRNP genetics, scrapie strain, dose, route and source of infection, the caprine placenta may represent a source of infection to progeny and herd mates as well as a source of persistent environmental contamination. "

 

Could this route of infection be the cause of the many cases of Goat scrapie from the same herd in Michigan USA ?

 

Has this been investigated ?

 

(Figure 6) including five goat cases in FY 2008 that originated from the same herd in Michigan. This is highly unusual for goats, and I strenuously urge that there should be an independent investigation into finding the common denominator for these 5 goats in the same herd in Michigan with Scrapie. ...

 

Kind Regards, Terry

 

snip...

 

UPDATED RESPONSE ON MY CONCERNS OF GOAT SCRAPIE IN MICHIGAN ;

 

----- 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 the route of infection of the five goats in Michigan. We advise that you contact the authors directly rather than post a comment on the article.

 

With best wishes,

 

Maria

 

Maria Kowalczuk, PhD Deputy Biology Editor BMC-series Journals

 

BioMed Central 236 Gray's Inn Road London, WC1X 8HB

 

+44 20 3192 2000 (tel) +44 20 3192 2010 (fax)

 

W: www.biomedcentral.com E: Maria.Kowalczuk@biomedcentral.com

 

Any queries about this decision should be sent to comments@biomedcentral.com

 

Regards

 

BMC Veterinary Research

 

SNIP...PLEASE SEE FULL TEXT ;

 

Tuesday, February 01, 2011

 

Sparse PrP-Sc accumulation in the placentas of goats with naturally acquired scrapie

 

Research article

 

http://scrapie-usa.blogspot.com/2011/02/sparse-prp-sc-accumulation-in-placentas.html

 

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

 

http://nor-98.blogspot.com/2012/03/atypical-nor-98-scrapie-has-spread-from.html

 

***SCRAPIE GOATS CALIFORNIA 13 CASES TO DATE ! ***

 

***SCRAPIE GOATS MICHIGAN 8 CASES TO DATE ! ***

 

(an unusually high amount of scrapie documented in goats for a happenstance of bad luck, or spontaneous event, THAT DOES NOT HAPPEN IN OTHER STATES ??? )

 

http://bse-atypical.blogspot.com/2013_11_01_archive.html

 

 

TSS

Infected sheep may have come from U.S., not Ontario farm where officials slaughtered flock, court hears

Infected sheep may have come from U.S., not Ontario farm where officials slaughtered flock, court hears

 

Adrian Humphreys | February 27, 2015 | Last Updated: Mar 1 5:07 PM ET

 

The bizarre case of a flock of rare sheep — purportedly stolen from an Ontario farm by agricultural activists to thwart a federal kill order during a disease scare — was adjourned after government documents suggested the infected sheep that sparked the high-profile standoff could have actually been an animal from the United States.

 

Internal documents from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) also suggest workers may have tried to cover up any potential mistake or withheld information from its own reports, defence lawyers complain.

 

However, until more of the government’s records on the controversial case are released, it is difficult to know precisely what has gone on since 2010, when a sheep tested positive for scrapie, a degenerative disease in sheep similar to the “mad cow disease” that affects cattle.

 

Whether the diseased sheep came from the Ontario ewe, as the CFIA publicly says, or an American ram, as documents in court suggest it was once thought, is important not only for the criminal case but also for cross-border agricultural trade.

 

On Monday, a 22-page letter from Shawn Buckley, a B.C. lawyer defending sheep owner Montana Jones against criminal charges, was submitted in court asking for an adjournment until the government can provide fuller documentation.

 

An internal CFIA email is quoted in Mr. Buckley’s letter saying: “The tattoo on the animal indicates it was imported from the USA — may be interesting … since this [is] a male and imported the focus goes to its herd of origin and therefore doesn’t require much on this farm in Canada.”

 

The sheep on Ms. Jones’ farm was a female and had never been to the U.S., Ms. Jones said.

 

snip...

 

“We’ve got major concerns about disclosure in this case,” Mr. Buckley said in an interview. “A key factor is going to be them being able to try to prove that a sheep from Montana’s farm came down with scrapie in Alberta. And with the disclosure I have to date there are holes — there are huge holes.”

 

Judge Lorne Chester ordered the adjournment until April 27 to allow time for the government to provide more of its internal documents.

 

The sheep case was strange from the start.

 

In 2010, a sheep in Alberta tested positive for scrapie and the CFIA started an investigation. The CFIA then declared the sheep came from Ms. Jones’ farm in Hastings, 170 kilometres east of Toronto, where she bred Shropshire Sheep, a rare breed that traces its lineage back to the first sheep imported to Canada from England.

 

The CFIA moved to slaughter her flock. She fought to save them, often through emotional standoffs.

 

Before CFIA officers and police arrived at her farm in 2012 with an order to destroy 31 sheep, including 20 pregnant ewes, the flock went missing during the night.

 

http://news.nationalpost.com/2015/02/27/infected-sheep-may-have-come-from-u-s-not-ontario-farm-where-officials-slaughtered-entire-flock-court-hears/

 

Tuesday, December 16, 2014

 

Evidence for zoonotic potential of ovine scrapie prions

 

Hervé Cassard,1, n1 Juan-Maria Torres,2, n1 Caroline Lacroux,1, Jean-Yves Douet,1, Sylvie L. Benestad,3, Frédéric Lantier,4, Séverine Lugan,1, Isabelle Lantier,4, Pierrette Costes,1, Naima Aron,1, Fabienne Reine,5, Laetitia Herzog,5, Juan-Carlos Espinosa,2, Vincent Beringue5, & Olivier Andréoletti1, Affiliations Contributions Corresponding author Journal name: Nature Communications Volume: 5, Article number: 5821 DOI: doi:10.1038/ncomms6821 Received 07 August 2014 Accepted 10 November 2014 Published 16 December 2014 Article tools Citation Reprints Rights & permissions Article metrics

 

Abstract

 

Although Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) is the cause of variant Creutzfeldt Jakob disease (vCJD) in humans, the zoonotic potential of scrapie prions remains unknown. Mice genetically engineered to overexpress the human ​prion protein (tgHu) have emerged as highly relevant models for gauging the capacity of prions to transmit to humans. These models can propagate human prions without any apparent transmission barrier and have been used used to confirm the zoonotic ability of BSE. Here we show that a panel of sheep scrapie prions transmit to several tgHu mice models with an efficiency comparable to that of cattle BSE. The serial transmission of different scrapie isolates in these mice led to the propagation of prions that are phenotypically identical to those causing sporadic CJD (sCJD) in humans. These results demonstrate that scrapie prions have a zoonotic potential and raise new questions about the possible link between animal and human prions.

 

Subject terms: Biological sciences• Medical research At a glance

 

http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2014/141216/ncomms6821/full/ncomms6821.html

 

why do we not want to do TSE transmission studies on chimpanzees $

 

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

 

http://collections.europarchive.org/tna/20080102222950/http://www.bseinquiry.gov.uk/files/yb/1990/09/23001001.pdf

 

Suspect symptoms

 

What if you can catch old-fashioned CJD by eating meat from a sheep infected with scrapie?

 

28 Mar 01 Most doctors believe that sCJD is caused by a prion protein deforming by chance into a killer. But Singeltary thinks otherwise. He is one of a number of campaigners who say that some sCJD, like the variant CJD related to BSE, is caused by eating meat from infected animals. Their suspicions have focused on sheep carrying scrapie, a BSE-like disease that is widespread in flocks across Europe and North America.

 

Now scientists in France have stumbled across new evidence that adds weight to the campaigners' fears. To their complete surprise, the researchers found that one strain of scrapie causes the same brain damage in mice as sCJD.

 

"This means we cannot rule out that at least some sCJD may be caused by some strains of scrapie," says team member Jean-Philippe Deslys of the French Atomic Energy Commission's medical research laboratory in Fontenay-aux-Roses, south-west of Paris. Hans Kretschmar of the University of Göttingen, who coordinates CJD surveillance in Germany, is so concerned by the findings that he now wants to trawl back through past sCJD cases to see if any might have been caused by eating infected mutton or lamb...

 

2001

 

Suspect symptoms

 

What if you can catch old-fashioned CJD by eating meat from a sheep infected with scrapie?

 

28 Mar 01

 

Like lambs to the slaughter

 

31 March 2001

 

by Debora MacKenzie Magazine issue 2284.

 

FOUR years ago, Terry Singeltary watched his mother die horribly from a degenerative brain disease. Doctors told him it was Alzheimer's, but Singeltary was suspicious. The diagnosis didn't fit her violent symptoms, and he demanded an autopsy. It showed she had died of sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.

 

Most doctors believe that sCJD is caused by a prion protein deforming by chance into a killer. But Singeltary thinks otherwise. He is one of a number of campaigners who say that some sCJD, like the variant CJD related to BSE, is caused by eating meat from infected animals. Their suspicions have focused on sheep carrying scrapie, a BSE-like disease that is widespread in flocks across Europe and North America.

 

Now scientists in France have stumbled across new evidence that adds weight to the campaigners' fears. To their complete surprise, the researchers found that one strain of scrapie causes the same brain damage in mice as sCJD.

 

"This means we cannot rule out that at least some sCJD may be caused by some strains of scrapie," says team member Jean-Philippe Deslys of the French Atomic Energy Commission's medical research laboratory in Fontenay-aux-Roses, south-west of Paris. Hans Kretschmar of the University of Göttingen, who coordinates CJD surveillance in Germany, is so concerned by the findings that he now wants to trawl back through past sCJD cases to see if any might have been caused by eating infected mutton or lamb.

 

Scrapie has been around for centuries and until now there has been no evidence that it poses a risk to human health. But if the French finding means that scrapie can cause sCJD in people, countries around the world may have overlooked a CJD crisis to rival that caused by BSE.

 

Deslys and colleagues were originally studying vCJD, not sCJD. They injected the brains of macaque monkeys with brain from BSE cattle, and from French and British vCJD patients. The brain damage and clinical symptoms in the monkeys were the same for all three. Mice injected with the original sets of brain tissue or with infected monkey brain also developed the same symptoms.

 

As a control experiment, the team also injected mice with brain tissue from people and animals with other prion diseases: a French case of sCJD; a French patient who caught sCJD from human-derived growth hormone; sheep with a French strain of scrapie; and mice carrying a prion derived from an American scrapie strain. As expected, they all affected the brain in a different way from BSE and vCJD. But while the American strain of scrapie caused different damage from sCJD, the French strain produced exactly the same pathology.

 

"The main evidence that scrapie does not affect humans has been epidemiology," says Moira Bruce of the neuropathogenesis unit of the Institute for Animal Health in Edinburgh, who was a member of the same team as Deslys. "You see about the same incidence of the disease everywhere, whether or not there are many sheep, and in countries such as New Zealand with no scrapie." In the only previous comparisons of sCJD and scrapie in mice, Bruce found they were dissimilar.

 

But there are more than 20 strains of scrapie, and six of sCJD. "You would not necessarily see a relationship between the two with epidemiology if only some strains affect only some people," says Deslys. Bruce is cautious about the mouse results, but agrees they require further investigation. Other trials of scrapie and sCJD in mice, she says, are in progress.

 

People can have three different genetic variations of the human prion protein, and each type of protein can fold up two different ways. Kretschmar has found that these six combinations correspond to six clinical types of sCJD: each type of normal prion produces a particular pathology when it spontaneously deforms to produce sCJD.

 

But if these proteins deform because of infection with a disease-causing prion, the relationship between pathology and prion type should be different, as it is in vCJD. "If we look at brain samples from sporadic CJD cases and find some that do not fit the pattern," says Kretschmar, "that could mean they were caused by infection."

 

There are 250 deaths per year from sCJD in the US, and a similar incidence elsewhere. Singeltary and other US activists think that some of these people died after eating contaminated meat or "nutritional" pills containing dried animal brain. Governments will have a hard time facing activists like Singeltary if it turns out that some sCJD isn't as spontaneous as doctors have insisted.

 

Deslys's work on macaques also provides further proof that the human disease vCJD is caused by BSE. And the experiments showed that vCJD is much more virulent to primates than BSE, even when injected into the bloodstream rather than the brain. This, says Deslys, means that there is an even bigger risk than we thought that vCJD can be passed from one patient to another through contaminated blood transfusions and surgical instruments.

 

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg16922840.300-like-lambs-to-the-slaughter.html

 

Friday, January 30, 2015

 

*** Scrapie: a particularly persistent pathogen ***

 

http://transmissiblespongiformencephalopathy.blogspot.com/2015/01/scrapie-particularly-persistent-pathogen.html

 

Wednesday, December 24, 2014

 

National Scrapie Eradication Program November 2014 Monthly Report Fiscal Year 2015

 

http://scrapie-usa.blogspot.com/2014/12/national-scrapie-eradication-program.html

 

Sunday, April 29, 2012

 

Scrapie confirmed at quarantined sheep farm Canada CFIA

 

http://transmissiblespongiformencephalopathy.blogspot.com/2012/04/scrapie-confirmed-at-quarantined-sheep.html

 

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

 

20120402 - Breach of quarantine/Violation de la mise en quarantaine of an ongoing Scrapie investigation

 

http://transmissiblespongiformencephalopathy.blogspot.com/2012/04/20120402-breach-of-quarantineviolation.html

 

Thursday, February 23, 2012

 

Atypical Scrapie NOR-98 confirmed Alberta Canada sheep January 2012

 

http://transmissiblespongiformencephalopathy.blogspot.com/2012/02/atypical-scrapie-nor-98-confirmed.html

 

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

 

http://nor-98.blogspot.com/2012/03/atypical-nor-98-scrapie-has-spread-from.html

 

Monday, November 30, 2009

 

USDA AND OIE COLLABORATE TO EXCLUDE ATYPICAL SCRAPIE NOR-98 ANIMAL HEALTH CODE

 

http://nor-98.blogspot.com/2009/11/usda-and-oie-collaborate-to-exclude.html

 

Friday, June 8, 2012

 

Canadian Food Inspection Agency locates missing sheep

 

http://transmissiblespongiformencephalopathy.blogspot.com/2012/06/canadian-food-inspection-agency-locates.html

 

Sunday, May 27, 2012

 

CANADA PLANS TO IMPRISON ANYONE SPEAKING ABOUT MAD COW or ANY OTHER DISEASE OUTBREAK, CENSORSHIP IS A TERRIBLE THING

 

http://madcowusda.blogspot.com/2012/05/canada-plans-to-imprison-anyone.html

 

EDMONTON - Some of former Alberta premier Ralph Klein's most colourful quotes — and the reactions they elicited:

 

 SNIP

 

 "This all came about through the discovery of a single, isolated case of mad cow disease in one Alberta cow on May 20th. The farmer — I think he was a Louisiana fish farmer who knew nothing about cattle ranching. I guess any self-respecting rancher would have shot, shovelled and shut up, but he didn't do that." — Klein recalls how the mad cow crisis started and rancher Marwyn Peaster's role. The premier was speaking at the Western Governors Association meeting in Big Sky, Mont. September 2004.

 

 "The premier meant that in an ironic or almost a sarcastic way." — Klein spokesman Gordon Turtle.

 

 "You would have to eat 10 billion meals of brains, spinal cords, ganglia, eyeballs and tonsils." — Klein speaking in Montreal in January 2005 on the risk of humans contracting mad cow disease.

 

 "I would offer $5 billion to have a Japanese person to come over here and eat nothing but Alberta beef for a year. And if he gets mad cow disease, I would be glad to give him $5 billion — make it $10 billion — Canadian." — Klein speaking after Japan closed its borders to Canadian beef.

 

 http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/Kleinisms+former+Alberta+premier+Ralph+Klein+sound+bite/8171110/story.html

 

 http://www.inspection.gc.ca/english/anima/disemala/bseesb/comenqe.shtml

 

 Thursday, February 10, 2011

 

 TRANSMISSIBLE SPONGIFORM ENCEPHALOPATHY REPORT UPDATE CANADA FEBRUARY 2011 and how to hide mad cow disease in Canada Current as of: 2011-01-31

 

 http://madcowtesting.blogspot.com/2011/02/transmissible-spongiform-encephalopathy.html

 

 Wednesday, August 11, 2010

 

 REPORT ON THE INVESTIGATION OF THE SIXTEENTH CASE OF BOVINE SPONGIFORM ENCEPHALOPATHY (BSE) IN CANADA

 

 http://bse-atypical.blogspot.com/2010/08/report-on-investigation-of-sixteenth.html

 

 Thursday, August 19, 2010

 

 REPORT ON THE INVESTIGATION OF THE SEVENTEENTH CASE OF BOVINE SPONGIFORM ENCEPHALOPATHY (BSE) IN CANADA

 

 http://bseusa.blogspot.com/2010/08/report-on-investigation-of-seventeenth.html

 

 Friday, March 4, 2011

 

 Alberta dairy cow found with mad cow disease

 

 http://transmissiblespongiformencephalopathy.blogspot.com/2011/03/alberta-dairy-cow-found-with-mad-cow.html

 

 Tuesday, May 21, 2013

 

 Canada, USA, Bad feed, mad cows: Why we know three BSE cases had a common origin and why the SSS policy is in full force $$$

 

 http://madcowusda.blogspot.com/2013/05/canada-usa-bad-feed-mad-cows-why-we.html

 

 Increased Atypical Scrapie Detections

 

 Press reports indicate that increased surveillance is catching what otherwise would have been unreported findings of atypical scrapie in sheep. In 2009, five new cases have been reported in Quebec, Ontario, Alberta, and Saskatchewan. With the exception of Quebec, all cases have been diagnosed as being the atypical form found in older animals. Canada encourages producers to join its voluntary surveillance program in order to gain scrapie-free status. The World Animal Health will not classify Canada as scrapie-free until no new cases are reported for seven years. The Canadian Sheep Federation is calling on the government to fund a wider surveillance program in order to establish the level of prevalence prior to setting an eradication date. Besides long-term testing, industry is calling for a compensation program for farmers who report unusual deaths in their flocks.

 

 http://gain.fas.usda.gov/Recent%20GAIN%20Publications/This%20Week%20in%20Canadian%20Agriculture%20%20%20%20%20Issue%2028_Ottawa_Canada_11-6-2009.pdf

 

 Current as of: 2015-01-31

 

 Sheep flocks and/or goat herds confirmed to be infected with classical scrapie in Canada in 2015 Date confirmed Location Animal type infected January 5 Ontario Goat

 

 http://www.inspection.gc.ca/animals/terrestrial-animals/diseases/reportable/2015/scrapie-2015-/eng/1423162035296/1423162036030

 

 http://www.inspection.gc.ca/animals/terrestrial-animals/diseases/reportable/scrapie/eng/1329723409732/1329723572482

 

 Tuesday, February 10, 2015

 

 Alberta Canada First case of chronic wasting disease found in farm elk since 2002

 

 http://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2015/02/alberta-canada-first-case-of-chronic.html

 

Wednesday, February 18, 2015

 

OIE Bovine spongiform encephalopathy ,Canada

 

http://bovineprp.blogspot.com/2015/02/oie-bovine-spongiform-encephalopathy.html

 

Saturday, February 14, 2015

 

Canadian Food Inspection Agency Confirms Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) in Alberta

 

http://madcowusda.blogspot.com/2015/02/canadian-food-inspection-agency.html

 

Friday, February 20, 2015

 

A BSE CANADIAN COW MAD COW UPDATE Transcript - Briefing (February 18, 2015)

 

http://transmissiblespongiformencephalopathy.blogspot.com/2015/02/a-bse-canadian-cow-mad-cow-update.html

 

Monday, February 23, 2015

 

20th BSE Case Raises New Concerns about Canada's Feeding Practices and Voluntary Testing Program; Highlights Importance of COOL

 

http://bovineprp.blogspot.com/2015/02/20th-bse-case-raises-new-concerns-about.html

 

Friday, February 20, 2015

 

APHIS Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Appeal Mouse Bio-Assays 2007-00030-A Sheep Imported From Belgium and the Presence of TSE Prion Disease Kevin Shea to Singeltary 2015

 

http://transmissiblespongiformencephalopathy.blogspot.com/2015/02/aphis-freedom-of-information-act-foia.html

 

Tuesday, February 17, 2015

 

*** Could we spot the next BSE?, asks BVA President ***

 

http://bseusa.blogspot.com/2015/02/could-we-spot-next-bse-asks-bva.html

 

Saturday, February 28, 2015

 

BSE CANADA UPDATE Transcript - Technical Briefing to Provide an Update on Investigation of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy in Alberta February 27, 2015 4:00 p.m.

 

http://bovineprp.blogspot.com/2015/02/bse-canada-update-transcript-technical.html

 

Tuesday, February 10, 2015

 

*** Alberta Canada First case of chronic wasting disease found in farm elk since 2002

 

 http://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2015/02/alberta-canada-first-case-of-chronic.html

 

Wednesday, December 31, 2014

 

NASDA BSE, CWD, SCRAPIE, TSE, PRION, Policy Statements updated with amendments passed during the NASDA Annual Meeting Updated September 18, 2014

 

http://transmissiblespongiformencephalopathy.blogspot.com/2014/12/nasda-bse-cwd-scrapie-tse-prion-policy.html

 

Sunday, December 28, 2014

 

CHRONIC WASTING DISEASE CWD TSE PRION DISEASE AKA MAD DEER DISIEASE USDA USAHA INC DECEMBER 28, 2014

 

http://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2014/12/chronic-wasting-disease-cwd-tse-prion.html

 

Subject: *** Becky Lockhart 46, Utah’s first female House speaker, dies diagnosed with the extremely rare Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease aka mad cow type disease

 

what is CJD ? just ask USDA inc., and the OIE, they are still feeding the public and the media industry fed junk science that is 30 years old.

 

why doesn’t some of you try reading the facts, instead of rubber stamping everything the USDA inc says.

 

sporadic CJD has now been linked to BSE aka mad cow disease, Scrapie, and there is much concern now for CWD and risk factor for humans.

 

My sincere condolences to the family and friends of the House Speaker Becky Lockhart. I am deeply saddened hear this.

 

with that said, with great respect, I must ask each and every one of you Politicians that are so deeply saddened to hear of this needless death of the Honorable House Speaker Becky Lockhart, really, cry me a friggen river. I am seriously going to ask you all this...I have been diplomatic for about 17 years and it has got no where. people are still dying. so, are you all stupid or what??? how many more need to die ??? how much is global trade of beef and other meat products that are not tested for the TSE prion disease, how much and how many bodies is this market worth?

 

Saturday, January 17, 2015

 

*** Becky Lockhart 46, Utah’s first female House speaker, dies diagnosed with the extremely rare Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease

 

http://creutzfeldt-jakob-disease.blogspot.com/2015/01/becky-lockhart-46-utahs-first-female.html

 

Thursday, January 15, 2015

 

41-year-old Navy Commander with sporadic Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease CJD TSE Prion: Case Report

 

http://creutzfeldt-jakob-disease.blogspot.com/2015/01/41-year-old-navy-commander-with.html

 

*** HUMAN MAD COW DISEASE nvCJD TEXAS CASE NOT LINKED TO EUROPEAN TRAVEL CDC ***

 

Sunday, November 23, 2014

 

*** Confirmed Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (variant CJD) Case in Texas in June 2014 confirmed as USA case NOT European

 

the patient had resided in Kuwait, Russia and Lebanon. The completed investigation did not support the patient's having had extended travel to European countries, including the United Kingdom, or travel to Saudi Arabia. The specific overseas country where this patient’s infection occurred is less clear largely because the investigation did not definitely link him to a country where other known vCJD cases likely had been infected.

 

http://vcjd.blogspot.com/2014/11/confirmed-variant-creutzfeldt-jakob.html

 

Sunday, December 14, 2014

 

ALERT new variant Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease nvCJD or vCJD, sporadic CJD strains, TSE prion aka Mad Cow Disease United States of America Update December 14, 2014 Report

 

http://transmissiblespongiformencephalopathy.blogspot.com/2014/12/alert-new-variant-creutzfeldt-jakob.html

 

Sunday, February 08, 2015

 

FDA SCIENCE BOARD TO THE FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION BOVINE HEPARIN BSE CJD TSE PRION Wednesday, June 4, 2014

 

http://creutzfeldt-jakob-disease.blogspot.com/2015/02/fda-science-board-to-food-and-drug.html

 

Thursday, January 22, 2015

 

Transmission properties of atypical Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease: a clue to disease etiology?

 

http://creutzfeldt-jakob-disease.blogspot.com/2015/01/transmission-properties-of-atypical.html

 

Saturday, December 13, 2014

 

Terry S. Singeltary Sr. Publications TSE prion disease

 

Diagnosis and Reporting of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease

 

Singeltary, Sr et al. JAMA.2001; 285: 733-734. Vol. 285 No. 6, February 14, 2001 JAMA

 

snip...

 

 http://transmissiblespongiformencephalopathy.blogspot.com/2014/12/terry-s-singeltary-sr-publications-tse.html

 

 

TSS