Identification of atypical scrapie in Canadian sheep

Brief Research Reports

Identification of atypical scrapie in Canadian sheep

Gordon B. Mitchell, Katherine I. O'Rourke, Noel P. Harrington, Andrei Soutyrine, Marion M. Simmons, Sandor Dudas, Dongyue Zhuang, Hubert Laude and Aru Balachandran1, Correspondence: 1Corresponding Author: Aru Balachandran, Canadian Food Inspection Agency, Ottawa Laboratory–Fallowfield, 3851 Fallowfield Road, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, K2H 8P9. Aru.Balachandran@inspection.gc.ca

Scrapie, a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy of sheep and goats, exists in most small ruminant-producing countries of the world. A novel form of this disease was recently recognized and is known by various names, including Nor98, Nor98-like, and atypical scrapie. Differing from classic scrapie in epidemiology, histopathology, and biochemical characteristics, atypical scrapie cases have been identified throughout Europe and in the United States. Enhanced scrapie surveillance efforts recently identified 3 cases of atypical scrapie in Canada.

Key Words: Atypical • Nor98 • prion • scrapie • sheep • transmissible spongiform encephalopathy


http://jvdi.org/cgi/content/abstract/22/3/408?maxtoshow=&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&fulltext=prion&searchid=1&FIRSTINDEX=0&volume=22&issue=3&resourcetype=HWCIT




Sunday, April 18, 2010

SCRAPIE AND ATYPICAL SCRAPIE TRANSMISSION STUDIES A REVIEW 2010


http://scrapie-usa.blogspot.com/2010/04/scrapie-and-atypical-scrapie.html




Thursday, March 11, 2010

CANADA TYPICAL AND ATYPICAL SCRAPIE REPORT TO MARCH 2010


http://www.inspection.gc.ca/english/anima/disemala/rep/2010scrtree.shtml



Wednesday, March 3, 2010

NOR-98 ATYPICAL SCRAPIE USA 4 CASES DETECTED JANUARY 2010


http://nor-98.blogspot.com/2010/03/nor-98-atypical-scrapie-usa-4-cases.html



Archive Number 20100312.0803 Published Date 12-MAR-2010 Subject PRO/AH/EDR> Scrapie, atypical, ovine - Australia: (WA) susp

SCRAPIE, ATYPICAL, OVINE - AUSTRALIA: (WESTERN AUSTRALIA) SUSPECTED

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A ProMED-mail post ProMED-mail is a program of the International Society for Infectious Diseases

[1] Date: Fri 12 Mar 2010 Source: The Australian [edited]




Archive Number 20100312.0803 Published Date 12-MAR-2010 Subject PRO/AH/EDR> Scrapie, atypical, ovine - Australia: (WA) susp SCRAPIE, ATYPICAL, OVINE - AUSTRALIA: (WESTERN AUSTRALIA) SUSPECTED

*******************************************************************

A ProMED-mail post ProMED-mail is a program of the International Society for Infectious Diseases

[1] Date: Fri 12 Mar 2010 Source: The Australian [edited]

A West Australian sheep has been found to have signs characteristic of the fatal brain disease atypical scrapie. It comes as Australia faces growing anger from its trade partners over the Rudd government's surprise decision to extend a ban on the importation of beef from countries exposed to mad cow disease for a further 2 years.

Australia's chief veterinarian, Andy Carroll, told the ABC an indicative case of the atypical scrapie had been confirmed but said it posed no risk to human or animal health or the safety of eating meat and animal products.

Nor does atypical scrapie carry the dire trade consequences associated with classical scrapie.

Classical scrapie is in the same transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSE) family as BSE, better known as mad cow disease, from which humans can be fatally infected.

Dr Carroll said samples from the sheep's brain were being sent to the World Reference Laboratory in Britain.

Neither atypical scrapie nor classical scrapie has been seen in Australia before, but a sheep in New Zealand tested positive to the atypical form last year [2009].

Atypical scrapie is a relatively recently discovered disease and the common scientific view is that it occurs spontaneously or naturally in very small numbers of older sheep in countries all over the world.

[Byline: Jodie Minus]

-- Communicated by: Sabine Zentis Castleview Pedigree English Longhorns Gut Laach 52385 Nideggen Germany

****** [2] Date: Wed 10 Mar 2010 Source: ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) [edited]

Animal health authorities are testing a sheep's brain for what could be Australia's 1st case of the disease atypical scrapie.

Although not confirmed, the sheep is thought to be from Western Australia.

This type of scrapie is described as a sporadic degenerative brain condition affecting older sheep, and is not contagious.

Ed Klim, from national advisory group SafeMeat, says a 2nd round of testing is now taking place. "We've been made aware that the Australian Animal Health Laboratory is conducting further routine testing on a sheep sample," he says.

"The disease isn't considered a health risk nor should have any impact on food safety or export markets for sheep meat of live sheep."

Australia's chief veterinarian and WA's Department of Agriculture of Food are both aware of the testing but will not comment.


-- Communicated by: Terry S Singeltary Sr


[Although atypical scrapie is not yet ruled out, it is important to realize this is a type of scrapie that thus far has only tended to appear as a sporadic condition in older animals. Currently it has not been shown to follow the same genetic tendencies for propagation as the usual scrapie.

However, the atypical phenotypic appearance has been shown to be preserved on experimental passage.

Atypical scrapie was first identified in Norwegian sheep in 1998 and has subsequently been identified in many countries, as Australia may join that list. It is likely that this case will be sent to the UK for definitive conformation.

[Ref: M Simmons, T Konold, L Thurston, et al. BMC Veterinary Research 2010, 6:14 [provisional abstract available at ]

"Background ----------- "Retrospective studies have identified cases predating the initial identification of this form of scrapie, and epidemiological studies have indicated that it does not conform to the behaviour of an infectious disease, giving rise to the hypothesis that it represents spontaneous disease. However, atypical scrapie isolates have been shown to be infectious experimentally, through intracerebral inoculation in transgenic mice and sheep. [Many of the neurological diseases can be transmitted by intracerebral inoculation, which causes this moderator to approach intracerebral studies as a tool for study, but not necessarily as a direct indication of transmissibility of natural diseases. - Mod.TG]

"The 1st successful challenge of a sheep with 'field' atypical scrapie from an homologous donor sheep was reported in 2007.

"Results -------- "This study demonstrates that atypical scrapie has distinct clinical, pathological, and biochemical characteristics which are maintained on transmission and sub-passage, and which are distinct from other strains of transmissible spongiform encephalopathies in the same host genotype.

"Conclusions ------------ Atypical scrapie is consistently transmissible within AHQ homozygous sheep, and the disease phenotype is preserved on sub-passage."

Lastly, this moderator wishes to thank Terry Singletary for some of his behind the scenes work of providing citations and references for this posting. - Mod.TG]


The HealthMap/ProMED-mail interactive map of Australia is available at . - Sr.Tech.Ed.MJ]


http://www.promedmail.org/pls/otn/f?p=2400:1001:57555::NO::F2400_P1001_BACK_PAGE,F2400_P1001_PUB_MAIL_ID:1000,81729



Sunday, March 28, 2010 Nor-98 atypical Scrapie, atypical BSE, spontaneous TSE, trade policy, sound science ?


http://nor-98.blogspot.com/2010/03/nor-98-atypical-scrapie-atypical-bse.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




Monday, December 14, 2009

Similarities between Forms of Sheep Scrapie and Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease Are Encoded by Distinct Prion Types

hmmm, this is getting interesting now...

Sporadic CJD type 1 and atypical/ Nor98 scrapie are characterized by fine (reticular) deposits,

see also ;

All of the Heidenhain variants were of the methionine/ methionine type 1 molecular subtype.


http://cjdusa.blogspot.com/2009/09/co-existence-of-scrapie-prion-protein.html



see full text ;

Monday, December 14, 2009

Similarities between Forms of Sheep Scrapie and Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease Are Encoded by Distinct Prion Types


http://nor-98.blogspot.com/2009/12/similarities-between-forms-of-sheep.html





Saturday, April 10, 2010

TOYOTA VS MAD COW DISEASE USA OIE BSE MRR IMPORT AND EXPORT TRADE WARS

http://usdameatexport.blogspot.com/2010/04/toyota-vs-mad-cow-disease-usa-oie-bse.html






Wednesday, April 28, 2010


BSE, Scrapie, CWD, REPORT OF THE MEETING OF THE OIE TERRESTRIAL ANIMAL HEALTH STANDARDS COMMISSION Paris, 8-12 February 2010

REPORT OF THE MEETING OF THE OIE TERRESTRIAL ANIMAL HEALTH STANDARDS COMMISSION

Paris, 8-12 February 2010


http://usdameatexport.blogspot.com/2010/04/bse-scrapie-cwd-report-of-meeting-of.html





DAMNING TESTIMONY FROM STANLEY PRUSINER THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE WINNER ON PRIONS SPEAKING ABOUT ANN VENEMAN

''they don't wanna know, the dont' care''

watch and listen to video here, turn it up ;

http://maddeer.org/video/embedded/prusinerclip.html





URGENT DATA ON ATYPICAL BSE RISK FACTORS TO HUMANS AND ANIMALS OIE REFUSE TO ACKNOWLEDGE $

position: Post Doctoral Fellow Atypical BSE in Cattle

Closing date: December 24, 2009

Anticipated start date: January/February 2010

Employer: Canadian and OIE Reference Laboratories for BSE CFIA Lethbridge Laboratory, Lethbridge/Alberta

snip...

To date the OIE/WAHO assumes that the human and animal health standards set out in the BSE chapter for classical BSE (C-Type) applies to all forms of BSE which include the H-type and L-type atypical forms. This assumption is scientifically not completely justified and accumulating evidence suggests that this may in fact not be the case. Molecular characterization and the spatial distribution pattern of histopathologic lesions and immunohistochemistry (IHC) signals are used to identify and characterize atypical BSE. Both the L-type and H-type atypical cases display significant differences in the conformation and spatial accumulation of the disease associated prion protein (PrPSc) in brains of afflicted cattle. Transmission studies in bovine transgenic and wild type mouse models support that the atypical BSE types might be unique strains because they have different incubation times and lesion profiles when compared to C-type BSE. When L-type BSE was inoculated into ovine transgenic mice and Syrian hamster the resulting molecular fingerprint had changed, either in the first or a subsequent passage, from L-type into C-type BSE. In addition, non-human primates are specifically susceptible for atypical BSE as demonstrated by an approximately 50% shortened incubation time for L-type BSE as compared to C-type. Considering the current scientific information available, it cannot be assumed that these different BSE types pose the same human health risks as C-type BSE or that these risks are mitigated by the same protective measures.



http://www.prionetcanada.ca/detail.aspx?menu=5&dt=293380&app=93&cat1=387&tp=20&lk=no&cat2





14th International Congress on Infectious Diseases H-type and L-type Atypical BSE January 2010 (special pre-congress edition)

18.173 page 189

Experimental Challenge of Cattle with H-type and L-type Atypical BSE

A. Buschmann1, U. Ziegler1, M. Keller1, R. Rogers2, B. Hills3, M.H. Groschup1. 1Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut, Greifswald-Insel Riems, Germany, 2Health Canada, Bureau of Microbial Hazards, Health Products & Food Branch, Ottawa, Canada, 3Health Canada, Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy Secretariat, Ottawa, Canada

Background: After the detection of two novel BSE forms designated H-type and L-type atypical BSE the question of the pathogenesis and the agent distribution of these two types in cattle was fully open. From initial studies of the brain pathology, it was already known that the anatomical distribution of L-type BSE differs from that of the classical type where the obex region in the brainstem always displays the highest PrPSc concentrations. In contrast in L-type BSE cases, the thalamus and frontal cortex regions showed the highest levels of the pathological prion protein, while the obex region was only weakly involved.

Methods:We performed intracranial inoculations of cattle (five and six per group) using 10%brainstemhomogenates of the two German H- and L-type atypical BSE isolates. The animals were inoculated under narcosis and then kept in a free-ranging stable under appropriate biosafety conditions.At least one animal per group was killed and sectioned in the preclinical stage and the remaining animals were kept until they developed clinical symptoms. The animals were examined for behavioural changes every four weeks throughout the experiment following a protocol that had been established during earlier BSE pathogenesis studies with classical BSE.

Results and Discussion: All animals of both groups developed clinical symptoms and had to be euthanized within 16 months. The clinical picture differed from that of classical BSE, as the earliest signs of illness were loss of body weight and depression. However, the animals later developed hind limb ataxia and hyperesthesia predominantly and the head. Analysis of brain samples from these animals confirmed the BSE infection and the atypical Western blot profile was maintained in all animals. Samples from these animals are now being examined in order to be able to describe the pathogenesis and agent distribution for these novel BSE types. Conclusions: A pilot study using a commercially avaialble BSE rapid test ELISA revealed an essential restriction of PrPSc to the central nervous system for both atypical BSE forms. A much more detailed analysis for PrPSc and infectivity is still ongoing.


http://www.isid.org/14th_icid/


http://ww2.isid.org/Downloads/IMED2009_AbstrAuth.pdf


http://www.isid.org/publications/ICID_Archive.shtml



14th ICID International Scientific Exchange Brochure -

Final Abstract Number: ISE.114

Session: International Scientific Exchange

Transmissible Spongiform encephalopathy (TSE) animal and human TSE in North America

update October 2009

T. Singeltary

Bacliff, TX, USA

Background:

An update on atypical BSE and other TSE in North America. Please remember, the typical U.K. c-BSE, the atypical l-BSE (BASE), and h-BSE have all been documented in North America, along with the typical scrapie's, and atypical Nor-98 Scrapie, and to date, 2 different strains of CWD, and also TME. All these TSE in different species have been rendered and fed to food producing animals for humans and animals in North America (TSE in cats and dogs ?), and that the trading of these TSEs via animals and products via the USA and Canada has been immense over the years, decades.

Methods:

12 years independent research of available data

Results:

I propose that the current diagnostic criteria for human TSEs only enhances and helps the spreading of human TSE from the continued belief of the UKBSEnvCJD only theory in 2009. With all the science to date refuting it, to continue to validate this old myth, will only spread this TSE agent through a multitude of potential routes and sources i.e. consumption, medical i.e., surgical, blood, dental, endoscopy, optical, nutritional supplements, cosmetics etc.

Conclusion:

I would like to submit a review of past CJD surveillance in the USA, and the urgent need to make all human TSE in the USA a reportable disease, in every state, of every age group, and to make this mandatory immediately without further delay. The ramifications of not doing so will only allow this agent to spread further in the medical, dental, surgical arena's. Restricting the reporting of CJD and or any human TSE is NOT scientific. Iatrogenic CJD knows NO age group, TSE knows no boundaries. I propose as with Aguzzi, Asante, Collinge, Caughey, Deslys, Dormont, Gibbs, Gajdusek, Ironside, Manuelidis, Marsh, et al and many more, that the world of TSE Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy is far from an exact science, but there is enough proven science to date that this myth should be put to rest once and for all, and that we move forward with a new classification for human and animal TSE that would properly identify the infected species, the source species, and then the route.

page 114 ;


http://ww2.isid.org/Downloads/14th_ICID_ISE_Abstracts.pdf



Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Transmissible Spongiform encephalopathy (TSE) animal and human TSE in North America 14th

ICID International Scientific Exchange Brochure -


http://transmissiblespongiformencephalopathy.blogspot.com/2010/02/transmissible-spongiform-encephalopathy.html




Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy


http://transmissiblespongiformencephalopathy.blogspot.com/



Atypical BSE, BSE, and other human and animal TSE in North America Update October 19, 2009

snip...

I ask Professor Kong ;

Thursday, December 04, 2008 3:37 PM Subject: RE: re--Chronic Wating Disease (CWD) and Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathies (BSE): Public Health Risk Assessment

''IS the h-BSE more virulent than typical BSE as well, or the same as cBSE, or less virulent than cBSE? just curious.....''

Professor Kong reply ;

.....snip

''As to the H-BSE, we do not have sufficient data to say one way or another, but we have found that H-BSE can infect humans. I hope we could publish these data once the study is complete. Thanks for your interest.''

Best regards,

Qingzhong Kong, PhD Associate Professor Department of Pathology Case Western Reserve University Cleveland, OH 44106 USA

END...TSS

I look forward to further transmission studies, and a true ENHANCED BSE/atypical BSE surveillance program put forth testing all cattle for human and animal consumption for 5 years. a surveillance program that uses the most sensitive TSE testing, and has the personnel that knows how to use them, and can be trusted. I look forward to a stringent mad cow feed ban being put forth, and then strictly enforced. we need a forced, not voluntary feed ban, an enhanced feed ban at that, especially excluding blood. we need some sort of animal traceability. no more excuses about privacy. if somebody is putting out a product that is killing folks and or has the potential to kill you, then everybody needs to know who they are, and where that product came from. same with hospitals, i think medical incidents in all states should be recorded, and made public, when it comes to something like a potential accidental transmission exposure event. so if someone is out there looking at a place to go have surgery done, if you have several hospitals having these type 'accidental exposure events', than you can go some place else. it only makes sense. somewhere along the road, the consumer lost control, and just had to take whatever they were given, and then charged these astronomical prices. some where along the line the consumer just lost interest, especially on a long incubating disease such as mad cow disease i.e. Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy. like i said before, there is much more to the mad cow story than bovines and eating a hamburger, we must start focusing on all TSE in all species. ...TSS


http://bse-atypical.blogspot.com/2009/10/atypical-bse-bse-and-other-human-and.html





I find it appauling that in 2010, the O.I.E. is still going by science on Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy that is decades old. New emerging strains of Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy have emerged, in different species, along with new science that shows these new strains of T.S.E. are more virulent than the c-B.S.E. MOST every Country that went by the O.I.E. B.S.E. guidelines, most all came down with B.S.E. THE O.I.E. has now shown they are nothing more than a National Trading Brokerage for all strains of animal T.S.E. AS i said before, O.I.E. should hang up there jock strap now, since it appears they will buckle every time a country makes some political hay about trade protocol, commodities and futures. IF they are not going to be science based, they should do everyone a favor and dissolve there organization. ...



still disgusted in Bacliff, Texas USA 77518


Terry S. Singeltary Sr.

Atypical/Nor98 scrapie in the Basque Country: a case report of eight outbreaks

Subject: Atypical/Nor98 scrapie in the Basque Country: a case report of eight outbreaks

Atypical/Nor98 scrapie in the Basque Country: a case report of eight outbreaks

Since 2002, an active surveillance program for transmissible spongiform encephalopathy in small ruminants in European Union countries allowed identification of a considerable number of atypical cases in small ruminant with similarities to the previously identified atypical scrapie cases termed Nor98.

Results: Here we report molecular and neuropathological features of eight atypical/Nor98 scrapie cases detected between 2002 and 2009. Significant features of the affected sheep included: their relatively high ages (mean age 7.9 years, range between 4.3 and 12.8), their breed (all Latxa) and their PRNP genotypes (AFRQ/ALRQ, ALRR/ALRQ, AFRQ/AFRQ, AFRQ/AHQ, ALRQ/ALRH, ALRQ/ALRQ).

All the sheep were confirmed as atypical scrapie by immunohistochemistry and immunoblotting. Two cases presented more PrP immunolabelling in cerebral cortex than in cerebellum.

Conclusions: This work indicates that atypical scrapie constitutes the most common small ruminant transmissible spongiform encephalopathy form in Latxa sheep in the Spanish Basque Country.

Moreover, a new genotype (ALRQ/ALRH) was found associated to atypical scrapie.

Author: Ana Rodriguez-MartinezJoseba GarridoSonia MazaLeyre BenedictoMarivi GeijoNieves GomezEsmeralda MinguijonSylvie BenestadRamon Juste Credits/Source: BMC Veterinary Research 2010, 6:17


http://7thspace.com/headlines/339700/atypicalnor98_scrapie_in_the_basque_country_a_case_report_of_eight_outbreaks.html




another outbreak of spontaneous atypical scrapie ???



FURTHER INTO THIS STUDY ;



Case presentation

Between 2002 and 2008 the mean number of sheep analysed per year in the Basque Country was 764 and until September 2009, the total number of animals screened added up to 5620. Of these, eight Latxa ewes with molecular and pathological features of AS/Nor98 were found. The cases were detected widely distributed within this region and amounted to a significantly (p=0.0196) higher prevalence (0.15 %) than

6

that of classical scrapie (0.02 %) (Table 1). The first two cases were fallen stock and appeared in 2004, the third one was a slaughtered ewe tested in 2005 that was confirmed by Western blotting as Nor98 at the Norwegian National Veterinary Institute. The three following cases were detected in 2008, the first two cases at the beginning of the year and the third at the end of the year. The two last cases were detected at the beginning of 2009 and had been slaughtered for human consumption. Clinical symptoms were reported in only one of the cases (M31 (2008)). It drew the attention of the veterinary inspector at the slaughterhouse because it showed slight neurological signs such as ataxia, and poor condition. There were no further veterinary inspection reports of clinical signs for the remaining slaughtered animals or any of the fallen stock. In this context, it needs to be emphasized that due to frequent lack of clinical records as a consequence of the inefficiency of passive surveillance, there is no adequate clinical information on these scrapie cases in general. The mean age of all the eight cases was 7.9 years (range between 4.3 and 12.8).

SNIP...

We described eight atypical scrapie cases detected between 2002 and 2009 from the Basque Country. All AS/Nor98 cases were found in Latxa sheep which breed represents 85% of the Basque Country sheep population [54,55,57]. The occurrence of these cases seemed to be random and, in agreement with other AS surveillance studies [22], there was no apparent temporal trend,. Geographically, the distribution of atypical scrapie cases was in accordance with that described in other regions of the world. First, a single positive sheep per affected flock was detected, as observed in the majority of other AS cases [1,19,20]. Second, they presented a wide distribution in the Basque Country, with reports of cases in all three provinces. At this point it should be mentioned that the highest proportion was observed in Guipuzcoa (62.5%) but it may be due to the fact that it constituted the province with the highest rate of sheep slaughter

9

(over 90%) analysed in the Basque Country. Nevertheless, the sample size was still too small to draw any definite conclusion. Moreover, the occurrence of atypical scrapie cases pointed to an absence of time clustering, since there were long periods with no detection of cases and then, within a few months 2 or 3 affected animals were detected. However, it must be taken into consideration that, (i) not all sheep older than 18 months of age were analysed as a consequence of the random sampling procedure contrary to the exhaustive one legislated for cattle, (ii) the brain sampling may not have been optimal, e.g. only the medulla oblongata was collected or, particularly in the case of fallen stock, the brain samples were sometimes severely autolytic and liquefied, thus increasing the chances of sampling an area where PrPSc was absent, (iii) due to the young age of some animals, the stage of the disease, the small sampling site and the relatively low number of animals and short period of time involved, the possibility of longer and more tenuous temporal and spatial trends in PrPSc distribution could not be excluded. For these reasons, the number of AS and CS cases may be underrepresented and could suffer from a certain bias. One of the cases (M45) described here was confirmed to be Nor98. PrPSc deposition, distribution and molecular profile of the cases M72, M31, M15, M9-1 and M9-2 were identical to the features of this Nor98-confirmed case and to previous descriptions [1,38]. Moreover, the mean age observed was in accordance to other observations for atypical scrapie [36]. Among some of the features our cases had in common with M45, the following should be emphasised: i) the molecular protein profile showed a characteristic low molecular weight band under 14 kDa, ii) the cerebellum was the most affected region, iii) PrPSc was mainly detected in the neuropil predominantly as fine granular deposits, and iv) a faint to moderate PrPSc signal intensity was seen. The detection of more intense PrPSc deposits in cerebellum or

10

cerebral cortex rather than in the medulla oblongata may indicate that the prion is likely not to enter the brain through the medulla (DMNV) as described for classical scrapie [58], thus suggesting a rather sporadic aetiology, as observed in human sporadic TSE cases. Cases M15 and M27 however, presented some differences. Albeit PrPSc molecular pattern was similar to the Nor98 confirmed case, both animals showed more PrPSc deposits in the frontal lobe of cerebral cortex than in the cerebellum by immunohistochemistry (IHC) and also by immunoblot (WB) for case M27. By contrast, case M15 showed small differences between IHC and WB results since the signal in the pooled obex and cerebellum in WB was more intense than in the cerebellum and medulla oblongata in IHC. This could have been biased by the sampling for frozen tissues and by severe tissue autolysis and could be the explanation for a negative and extremely faint PrPSc signal in WB of case M7 in the cerebellum and obex, respectively. The fact that these cases showed more PrPSc accumulation in cerebral cortex than in cerebellum might be influenced by other still unknown environmental or genetics factors. Alternatively, this might happen more commonly than observed because of the limited number of AS/Nor98 cases where both the cerebellar and the cerebral cortices are available for analysis. When the sampling of brain is carried out with a spoon through the foramen magnum some cerebellum can also be collected along with the medulla oblongata and this can be targeted as the optimum sample for WB testing, particularly if the IHC results indicate a possible atypical scrapie case. Unfortunately, cerebrum is not routinely collected by this method so little is known about its PrPSc status. The availability of this brain region for M7 would have been useful to clear up any doubt on its diagnosis and classification. This case was questionable because we did not obtain a clear pattern in the WB with the band lower than 14kDa size and because the detected signal in the cerebellum by means of IHC was extremely faint. The poor

11

condition of the sample and the scant material available did not allow us to obtain, after repetitions of the analyses, a clear evidence of being an AS/Nor98 case. The fact that it was confirmed for the National Reference Laboratory allowed arguing that it was a scrapie case. Besides, there were several features supporting it as an atypical scrapie case. First, for CS, we would have expected to obtain a more intense signal in the WB and a clear three bands pattern of PrPSc in the region of the obex [17]. Second, even not having an optimal signal in the WB that showed the lower band characteristic of atypical cases and having evidences according to which the case was positive by means of IHC and rapid test, the possibility of an atypical scrapie case should not be excluded. In this case, it could have happened that there was little amount of abnormal PrPSc so that after PK digestion the amount of resistant PrPSc was reduced considerably below the detection threshold of WB, as observed in the cerebellum of case M15. Third, the age of this sheep was higher than the mean age of CS cases described in Latxa breed [59] and in other breeds [60,61]. Finally, this was the only detected case in its herd, which was in agreement with the epidemiology of the AS/Nor98 [1,19,20].

The majority of PrP genotypes described herein were observed in other AS/Nor98 cases [36]. We found an over-representation of animals carrying AF141RQ and AL141RQ alleles, suggesting that these alleles may confer more susceptibility to atypical scrapie in Latxa breed sheep. We also described a novel genotype associated to AS that has not been previously described (AL141RQ/AL141RH).

Case reports from this study and other case reports from Spain (http://www.eeb.es/pags/espana.htm) and Portugal [35], indicate a high frequency of atypical cases compared to CS outbreaks in the Iberian Peninsula. It could be speculated that AS/Nor98 is the traditional form of scrapie in the Iberian part of the Basque country, whilst in the French part, the classical form has been predominant [59]. This

12

would point to some unidentified epidemiological features limiting the spread of classical scrapie in the Iberian Peninsula. However, since the analysis of all sheep can not be guaranteed, it is difficult to test this hypothesis. The analysis of all sheep would provide more information about the epidemiology and pathology of this disease. Moreover, it could contribute in assessing whether AS is present in the Basque Country with the same high frequencies as others human TSEs, such as sporadic Creutzfeldt- Jakob disease [60] and Fatal Familiar Insomnia compared to other Spanish autonomous communities (National Epidemiology Centre:





http://www.isciii.es/htdocs/centros/epidemiologia/epidemiologia_listado_ecj.jsp).



Conclusions

This work indicates that AS/Nor98 constitutes the most common small ruminant Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy form in the Latxa breed in the Spanish Basque Country, where it also affects a genotype (ALRQ/ALRH) not previously associated to this form of TSE.


SNIP....SEE FULL TEXT ;


Atypical/Nor98 scrapie in the Basque Country: a case report of eight outbreaks BMC Veterinary Research 2010, 6:17 doi:10.1186/1746-6148-6-17




http://www.biomedcentral.com/content/pdf/1746-6148-6-17.pdf




TSS

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

NOR-98 ATYPICAL SCRAPIE USA 4 CASES DETECTED JANUARY 2010

Greetings,

Unusual event if you consider the officials hypothisis that Nor-98 atypical scrapie is a spontaneous event. seems there was a great deal of spontaneous mutations for this time period ;-)...TSS


http://nor-98.blogspot.com/2010/03/nor-98-atypical-scrapie-usa-4-cases.html



Thursday, March 11, 2010

CANADA TYPICAL AND ATYPICAL SCRAPIE REPORT TO MARCH 2010


http://nor-98.blogspot.com/2010/03/canada-typical-and-atypical-scrapie.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



Monday, December 14, 2009

Similarities between Forms of Sheep Scrapie and Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease Are Encoded by Distinct Prion Types

hmmm, this is getting interesting now...

Sporadic CJD type 1 and atypical/ Nor98 scrapie are characterized by fine (reticular) deposits,

see also ;

All of the Heidenhain variants were of the methionine/ methionine type 1 molecular subtype.


http://cjdusa.blogspot.com/2009/09/co-existence-of-scrapie-prion-protein.html



see full text ;

Monday, December 14, 2009

Similarities between Forms of Sheep Scrapie and Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease Are Encoded by Distinct Prion Types


http://nor-98.blogspot.com/2009/12/similarities-between-forms-of-sheep.html



P03.141

Aspects of the Cerebellar Neuropathology in Nor98

Gavier-Widén, D1; Benestad, SL2; Ottander, L1; Westergren, E1 1National Veterinary Insitute, Sweden; 2National Veterinary Institute,

Norway Nor98 is a prion disease of old sheep and goats. This atypical form of scrapie was first described in Norway in 1998. Several features of Nor98 were shown to be different from classical scrapie including the distribution of disease associated prion protein (PrPd) accumulation in the brain. The cerebellum is generally the most affected brain area in Nor98. The study here presented aimed at adding information on the neuropathology in the cerebellum of Nor98 naturally affected sheep of various genotypes in Sweden and Norway. A panel of histochemical and immunohistochemical (IHC) stainings such as IHC for PrPd, synaptophysin, glial fibrillary acidic protein, amyloid, and cell markers for phagocytic cells were conducted. The type of histological lesions and tissue reactions were evaluated. The types of PrPd deposition were characterized. The cerebellar cortex was regularly affected, even though there was a variation in the severity of the lesions from case to case. Neuropil vacuolation was more marked in the molecular layer, but affected also the granular cell layer. There was a loss of granule cells. Punctate deposition of PrPd was characteristic. It was morphologically and in distribution identical with that of synaptophysin, suggesting that PrPd accumulates in the synaptic structures. PrPd was also observed in the granule cell layer and in the white matter. The pathology features of Nor98 in the cerebellum of the affected sheep showed similarities with those of sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans.

***The pathology features of Nor98 in the cerebellum of the affected sheep showed similarities with those of sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans.


http://www.prion2007.com/pdf/Prion%20Book%20of%20Abstracts.pdf


PR-26

NOR98 SHOWS MOLECULAR FEATURES REMINISCENT OF GSS

R. Nonno1, E. Esposito1, G. Vaccari1, E. Bandino2, M. Conte1, B. Chiappini1, S. Marcon1, M. Di Bari1, S.L. Benestad3, U. Agrimi1 1 Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Department of Food Safety and Veterinary Public Health, Rome, Italy (romolo.nonno@iss.it); 2 Istituto Zooprofilattico della Sardegna, Sassari, Italy; 3 National Veterinary Institute, Department of Pathology, Oslo, Norway

Molecular variants of PrPSc are being increasingly investigated in sheep scrapie and are generally referred to as "atypical" scrapie, as opposed to "classical scrapie". Among the atypical group, Nor98 seems to be the best identified. We studied the molecular properties of Italian and Norwegian Nor98 samples by WB analysis of brain homogenates, either untreated, digested with different concentrations of proteinase K, or subjected to enzymatic deglycosylation. The identity of PrP fragments was inferred by means of antibodies spanning the full PrP sequence. We found that undigested brain homogenates contain a Nor98-specific PrP fragment migrating at 11 kDa (PrP11), truncated at both the C-terminus and the N-terminus, and not N-glycosylated. After mild PK digestion, Nor98 displayed full-length PrP (FL-PrP) and N-glycosylated C-terminal fragments (CTF), along with increased levels of PrP11. Proteinase K digestion curves (0,006-6,4 mg/ml) showed that FL-PrP and CTF are mainly digested above 0,01 mg/ml, while PrP11 is not entirely digested even at the highest concentrations, similarly to PrP27-30 associated with classical scrapie. Above 0,2 mg/ml PK, most Nor98 samples showed only PrP11 and a fragment of 17 kDa with the same properties of PrP11, that was tentatively identified as a dimer of PrP11. Detergent solubility studies showed that PrP11 is insoluble in 2% sodium laurylsorcosine and is mainly produced from detergentsoluble, full-length PrPSc. Furthermore, among Italian scrapie isolates, we found that a sample with molecular and pathological properties consistent with Nor98 showed plaque-like deposits of PrPSc in the thalamus when the brain was analysed by PrPSc immunohistochemistry. Taken together, our results show that the distinctive pathological feature of Nor98 is a PrP fragment spanning amino acids ~ 90-155. This fragment is produced by successive N-terminal and C-terminal cleavages from a full-length and largely detergent-soluble PrPSc, is produced in vivo and is extremely resistant to PK digestion.

*** Intriguingly, these conclusions suggest that some pathological features of Nor98 are reminiscent of Gerstmann-Sträussler-Scheinker disease.

119


http://www.neuroprion.com/pdf_docs/conferences/prion2006/abstract_book.pdf


A newly identified type of scrapie agent can naturally infect sheep with resistant PrP genotypes

Annick Le Dur*,?, Vincent Béringue*,?, Olivier Andréoletti?, Fabienne Reine*, Thanh Lan Laï*, Thierry Baron§, Bjørn Bratberg¶, Jean-Luc Vilotte?, Pierre Sarradin**, Sylvie L. Benestad¶, and Hubert Laude*,?? +Author Affiliations

*Virologie Immunologie Moléculaires and ?Génétique Biochimique et Cytogénétique, Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique, 78350 Jouy-en-Josas, France; ?Unité Mixte de Recherche, Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique-Ecole Nationale Vétérinaire de Toulouse, Interactions Hôte Agent Pathogène, 31066 Toulouse, France; §Agence Française de Sécurité Sanitaire des Aliments, Unité Agents Transmissibles Non Conventionnels, 69364 Lyon, France; **Pathologie Infectieuse et Immunologie, Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique, 37380 Nouzilly, France; and ¶Department of Pathology, National Veterinary Institute, 0033 Oslo, Norway

***Edited by Stanley B. Prusiner, University of California, San Francisco, CA (received for review March 21, 2005)

Abstract Scrapie in small ruminants belongs to transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs), or prion diseases, a family of fatal neurodegenerative disorders that affect humans and animals and can transmit within and between species by ingestion or inoculation. Conversion of the host-encoded prion protein (PrP), normal cellular PrP (PrPc), into a misfolded form, abnormal PrP (PrPSc), plays a key role in TSE transmission and pathogenesis. The intensified surveillance of scrapie in the European Union, together with the improvement of PrPSc detection techniques, has led to the discovery of a growing number of so-called atypical scrapie cases. These include clinical Nor98 cases first identified in Norwegian sheep on the basis of unusual pathological and PrPSc molecular features and "cases" that produced discordant responses in the rapid tests currently applied to the large-scale random screening of slaughtered or fallen animals. Worryingly, a substantial proportion of such cases involved sheep with PrP genotypes known until now to confer natural resistance to conventional scrapie. Here we report that both Nor98 and discordant cases, including three sheep homozygous for the resistant PrPARR allele (A136R154R171), efficiently transmitted the disease to transgenic mice expressing ovine PrP, and that they shared unique biological and biochemical features upon propagation in mice. *** These observations support the view that a truly infectious TSE agent, unrecognized until recently, infects sheep and goat flocks and may have important implications in terms of scrapie control and public health.


http://www.pnas.org/content/102/44/16031.abstract


Monday, December 1, 2008

When Atypical Scrapie cross species barriers

Authors

Andreoletti O., Herva M. H., Cassard H., Espinosa J. C., Lacroux C., Simon S., Padilla D., Benestad S. L., Lantier F., Schelcher F., Grassi J., Torres, J. M., UMR INRA ENVT 1225, Ecole Nationale Veterinaire de Toulouse.France; ICISA-INlA, Madrid, Spain; CEA, IBiTec-5, DSV, CEA/Saclay, Gif sur Yvette cedex, France; National Veterinary Institute, Postboks 750 Sentrum, 0106 Oslo, Norway, INRA IASP, Centre INRA de Tours, 3738O Nouzilly, France.

Content

Atypical scrapie is a TSE occurring in small ruminants and harbouring peculiar clinical, epidemiological and biochemical properties. Currently this form of disease is identified in a large number of countries. In this study we report the transmission of an atypical scrapie isolate through different species barriers as modeled by transgenic mice (Tg) expressing different species PRP sequence.

The donor isolate was collected in 1995 in a French commercial sheep flock. inoculation into AHQ/AHQ sheep induced a disease which had all neuro-pathological and biochemical characteristics of atypical scrapie. Transmitted into Transgenic mice expressing either ovine or PrPc, the isolate retained all the described characteristics of atypical scrapie.

Surprisingly the TSE agent characteristics were dramatically different v/hen passaged into Tg bovine mice. The recovered TSE agent had biological and biochemical characteristics similar to those of atypical BSE L in the same mouse model. Moreover, whereas no other TSE agent than BSE were shown to transmit into Tg porcine mice, atypical scrapie was able to develop into this model, albeit with low attack rate on first passage.

Furthermore, after adaptation in the porcine mouse model this prion showed similar biological and biochemical characteristics than BSE adapted to this porcine mouse model. Altogether these data indicate.

(i) the unsuspected potential abilities of atypical scrapie to cross species barriers

(ii) the possible capacity of this agent to acquire new characteristics when crossing species barrier

These findings raise some interrogation on the concept of TSE strain and on the origin of the diversity of the TSE agents and could have consequences on field TSE control measures.

http://www.neuroprion.org/resources/pdf_docs/conferences/prion2008/abstract-book-prion2008.pdf

SCRAPIE, ATYPICAL, OVINE - AUSTRALIA: (WESTERN AUSTRALIA) SUSPECTED ******************************************************************* A ProMED-mail post ProMED-mail is a program of the International Society for Infectious Diseases

[1] Date: Fri 12 Mar 2010

Source: The Australian [edited]



A West Australian sheep has been found to have signs characteristic of the fatal brain disease atypical scrapie. It comes as Australia faces growing anger from its trade partners over the Rudd government's surprise decision to extend a ban on the importation of beef from countries exposed to mad cow disease for a further 2 years.

Australia's chief veterinarian, Andy Carroll, told the ABC an indicative case of the atypical scrapie had been confirmed but said it posed no risk to human or animal health or the safety of eating meat and animal products.

Nor does atypical scrapie carry the dire trade consequences associated with classical scrapie.

Classical scrapie is in the same transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSE) family as BSE, better known as mad cow disease, from which humans can be fatally infected.

Dr Carroll said samples from the sheep's brain were being sent to the World Reference Laboratory in Britain.

Neither atypical scrapie nor classical scrapie has been seen in Australia before, but a sheep in New Zealand tested positive to the atypical form last year [2009].

Atypical scrapie is a relatively recently discovered disease and the common scientific view is that it occurs spontaneously or naturally in very small numbers of older sheep in countries all over the world.

[Byline: Jodie Minus]

-- Communicated by: Sabine Zentis Castleview Pedigree English Longhorns Gut Laach 52385 Nideggen Germany

****** [2] Date: Wed 10 Mar 2010 Source: ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) [edited]

Animal health authorities are testing a sheep's brain for what could be Australia's 1st case of the disease atypical scrapie.

Although not confirmed, the sheep is thought to be from Western Australia.

This type of scrapie is described as a sporadic degenerative brain condition affecting older sheep, and is not contagious.

Ed Klim, from national advisory group SafeMeat, says a 2nd round of testing is now taking place. "We've been made aware that the Australian Animal Health Laboratory is conducting further routine testing on a sheep sample," he says.

"The disease isn't considered a health risk nor should have any impact on food safety or export markets for sheep meat of live sheep."

Australia's chief veterinarian and WA's Department of Agriculture of Food are both aware of the testing but will not comment.

-- Communicated by: Terry S Singeltary Sr

[Although atypical scrapie is not yet ruled out, it is important to realize this is a type of scrapie that thus far has only tended to appear as a sporadic condition in older animals. Currently it has not been shown to follow the same genetic tendencies for propagation as the usual scrapie.

However, the atypical phenotypic appearance has been shown to be preserved on experimental passage.

Atypical scrapie was first identified in Norwegian sheep in 1998 and has subsequently been identified in many countries, as Australia may join that list. It is likely that this case will be sent to the UK for definitive conformation.

[Ref: M Simmons, T Konold, L Thurston, et al. BMC Veterinary Research 2010, 6:14 [provisional abstract available at ]

"Background ----------- "Retrospective studies have identified cases predating the initial identification of this form of scrapie, and epidemiological studies have indicated that it does not conform to the behaviour of an infectious disease, giving rise to the hypothesis that it represents spontaneous disease. However, atypical scrapie isolates have been shown to be infectious experimentally, through intracerebral inoculation in transgenic mice and sheep. [Many of the neurological diseases can be transmitted by intracerebral inoculation, which causes this moderator to approach intracerebral studies as a tool for study, but not necessarily as a direct indication of transmissibility of natural diseases. - Mod.TG]

"The 1st successful challenge of a sheep with 'field' atypical scrapie from an homologous donor sheep was reported in 2007.

"Results -------- "This study demonstrates that atypical scrapie has distinct clinical, pathological, and biochemical characteristics which are maintained on transmission and sub-passage, and which are distinct from other strains of transmissible spongiform encephalopathies in the same host genotype.

"Conclusions ------------ Atypical scrapie is consistently transmissible within AHQ homozygous sheep, and the disease phenotype is preserved on sub-passage."

Lastly, this moderator wishes to thank Terry Singletary for some of his behind the scenes work of providing citations and references for this posting. - Mod.TG]

The HealthMap/ProMED-mail interactive map of Australia is available at . - Sr.Tech.Ed.MJ]

[see also: 2009 ---- Scrapie, atypical, ovine - New Zealand (02) 20091029.3740 Scrapie, atypical, ovine - New Zealand 20090220.0714 2007 ---- Scrapie, atypical, sheep - USA (WY): 1st report 20070318.0949 2005 ---- Scrapie, atypical, ovine - Falkland Islands 20051120.3371 2004 ---- Scrapie, atypical, sheep - UK and Ireland 20041210.3274 Scrapie, atypical, sheep - UK (02) 20040409.0965 Scrapie, atypical, sheep - UK 20040408.0952 Scrapie, atypical, sheep - France: OIE 20040201.0390] ...................................sb/tg/mj/lm

*##########################################################* ************************************************************



http://www.promedmail.org/pls/apex/f?p=2400:1001:3033292671016132::NO::F2400_P1001_BACK_PAGE,F2400_P1001_PUB_MAIL_ID:1010,81729






Thursday, March 18, 2010

The natural atypical scrapie phenotype is preserved on experimental transmission and sub-passage in PRNP homologous sheep



http://nor-98.blogspot.com/2010/03/natural-atypical-scrapie-phenotype-is.html



1: J Infect Dis 1980 Aug;142(2):205-8

Oral transmission of kuru, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, and scrapie to nonhuman primates.

Gibbs CJ Jr, Amyx HL, Bacote A, Masters CL, Gajdusek DC.

Kuru and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease of humans and scrapie disease of sheep and goats were transmitted to squirrel monkeys (Saimiri sciureus) that were exposed to the infectious agents only by their nonforced consumption of known infectious tissues. The asymptomatic incubation period in the one monkey exposed to the virus of kuru was 36 months; that in the two monkeys exposed to the virus of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease was 23 and 27 months, respectively; and that in the two monkeys exposed to the virus of scrapie was 25 and 32 months, respectively. Careful physical examination of the buccal cavities of all of the monkeys failed to reveal signs or oral lesions. One additional monkey similarly exposed to kuru has remained asymptomatic during the 39 months that it has been under observation.

snip...

The successful transmission of kuru, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, and scrapie by natural feeding to squirrel monkeys that we have reported provides further grounds for concern that scrapie-infected meat may occasionally give rise in humans to Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.

PMID: 6997404


http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=6997404&dopt=Abstract


Whether true or not. the hypothesis that these agents might be transmissible to man raises two considerations. First, the safety of laboratory personnel requires prompt attention. Second, action such as the "scorched meat" policy of USDA makes the solution of the acrapie problem urgent if the sheep industry is not to suffer grievously.

snip...

76/10.12/4.6


http://web.archive.org/web/20010305223125/www.bseinquiry.gov.uk/files/yb/1976/10/12004001.pdf



Nature. 1972 Mar 10;236(5341):73-4.

Transmission of scrapie to the cynomolgus monkey (Macaca fascicularis). Gibbs CJ Jr, Gajdusek DC.

Nature 236, 73 - 74 (10 March 1972); doi:10.1038/236073a0

Transmission of Scrapie to the Cynomolgus Monkey (Macaca fascicularis)

C. J. GIBBS jun. & D. C. GAJDUSEK

National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Stroke, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland

SCRAPIE has been transmitted to the cynomolgus, or crab-eating, monkey (Macaca fascicularis) with an incubation period of more than 5 yr from the time of intracerebral inoculation of scrapie-infected mouse brain. The animal developed a chronic central nervous system degeneration, with ataxia, tremor and myoclonus with associated severe scrapie-like pathology of intensive astroglial hypertrophy and proliferation, neuronal vacuolation and status spongiosus of grey matter. The strain of scrapie virus used was the eighth passage in Swiss mice (NIH) of a Compton strain of scrapie obtained as ninth intracerebral passage of the agent in goat brain, from Dr R. L. Chandler (ARC, Compton, Berkshire).


http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v236/n5341/abs/236073a0.html



EMBO reports 4, 5, 530–533 (2003) doi:10.1038/sj.embor.embor827 AOP Published online: 11 April 2003

Widespread PrPSc accumulation in muscles of hamsters orally infected with scrapie

Achim Thomzig, Christine Kratzel, Gudrun Lenz, Dominique Krüger & Michael Beekes

Robert Koch-Institut, P26, Nordufer 20, D-13353 Berlin, Germany

To whom correspondence should be addressed Michael Beekes Tel: +49 30 4547 2396; Fax: +49 30 4547 2609; BeekesM@rki.de

Received 13 February 2003; Accepted 13 March 2003; Published online 11 April 2003.

Abstract

Scrapie, bovine spongiform encephalopathy and chronic wasting disease are orally communicable, transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs). As zoonotic transmissions of TSE agents may pose a risk to human health, the identification of reservoirs for infectivity in animal tissues and their exclusion from human consumption has become a matter of great importance for consumer protection. In this study, a variety of muscles from hamsters that were orally challenged with scrapie was screened for the presence of a molecular marker for TSE infection, PrPSc (the pathological isoform of the prion protein PrP). Sensitive western blotting revealed consistent PrPSc accumulation in skeletal muscles from forelimb and hindlimb, head, back and shoulder, and in tongue. Previously, our animal model has provided substantial baseline information about the peripheral routing of infection in naturally occurring and orally acquired ruminant TSEs. Therefore, the findings described here highlight further the necessity to investigate thoroughly whether muscles of TSE-infected sheep, cattle, elk and deer contain infectious agents.

EMBO reports 4, 5, 530–533 (2003) doi:10.1038/sj.embor.embor827 AOP Published online: 11 April 2003



http://www.nature.com/embor/journal/v4/n5/full/embor827.html





EVIDENCE OF SCRAPIE IN SHEEP AS A RESULT OF FOOD BORNE EXPOSURE

This is provided by the statistically significant increase in the incidence of sheep scrape from 1985, as determined from analyses of the submissions made to VI Centres, and from individual case and flock incident studies. ........



http://web.archive.org/web/20030517224223/http://www.bseinquiry.gov.uk/files/yb/1994/02/07002001.pdf


Terry S. Singeltary Sr.
P.O. Box 42
Bacliff, Texas USA 77518

The natural atypical scrapie phenotype is preserved on experimental transmission and sub-passage in PRNP homologous sheep

The natural atypical scrapie phenotype is preserved on experimental transmission and sub-passage in PRNP homologous sheep

BMC Veterinary Research 2010, 6:14 doi:10.1186/1746-6148-6-14 Marion M Simmons (m.m.simmons@vla.defra.gsi.gov.uk) Timm Konold (t.konold@vla.defra.gsi.gov.uk) Lisa Thurston (l.thurston@vla.defra.gsi.gov.uk) Susan J Bellworthy (s.j.bellworthy@vla.defra.gsi.gov.uk) Melanie J Chaplin (m.j.chaplin@vla.defra.gsi.gov.uk) S JO Moore (j.s.moore@vla.defra.gsi.gov.uk)

ISSN 1746-6148 Article type Research article Submission date 26 October 2009 Acceptance date 10 March 2010 Publication date 10 March 2010 Article URL http://www.biomedcentral.com/1746-6148/6/14

Like all articles in BMC journals, this peer-reviewed article was published immediately upon acceptance. It can be downloaded, printed and distributed freely for any purposes (see copyright notice below).

Articles in BMC journals are listed in PubMed and archived at PubMed Central. For information about publishing your research in BMC journals or any BioMed Central journal, go to http://www.biomedcentral.com/info/authors/

The natural atypical scrapie phenotype is preserved on experimental transmission and sub-passage in PRNP homologous sheep

Marion M Simmons1*, Timm Konold1, Lisa Thurston1, Susan J Bellworthy1, Melanie J Chaplin2, S Jo Moore1

1Department of Pathology, Veterinary Laboratories Agency Weybridge, New Haw, Addlestone KT15 3NB, UK

2Molecular Pathogenesis and Genetics Department, Veterinary Laboratories Agency Weybridge, New Haw, Addlestone KT15 3NB, UK

*Corresponding author Email addresses: MMS: m.m.simmons@vla.defra.gsi.gov.uk TK: t.konold@vla.defra.gsi.gov.uk LT: l.thurston@vla.defra.gsi.gov.uk SJB: s.j.bellworthy@vla.defra.gsi.gov.uk MJC: m.j.chaplin@vla.defra.gsi.gov.uk SJM: j.s.moore@vla.defra.gsi.gov.uk

Abstract

Background

Atypical scrapie was first identified in Norwegian sheep in 1998 and has subsequently been identified in many countries. Retrospective studies have identified cases predating the initial identification of this form of scrapie, and epidemiological studies have indicated that it does not conform to the behaviour of an infectious disease, giving rise to the hypothesis that it represents spontaneous disease. However, atypical scrapie isolates have been shown to be infectious experimentally, through intracerebral inoculation in transgenic mice and sheep. The first successful challenge of a sheep with ‘field’ atypical scrapie from an homologous donor sheep was reported in 2007.

Results

This study demonstrates that atypical scrapie has distinct clinical, pathological and biochemical characteristics which are maintained on transmission and sub-passage, and which are distinct from other strains of transmissible spongiform encephalopathies in the same host genotype.

Conclusions

Atypical scrapie is consistently transmissible within AHQ homozygous sheep, and the disease phenotype is preserved on sub-passage.

snip...

Discussion

This data confirms the experimental transmissibility of atypical scrapie, and the stability of disease phenotype – clinical, biochemical and pathological – on PRNP homologous experimental transmission in AHQ/AHQ animals. The mean incubation time of these cases (751 days) is approximately 50% of the average age at death in field cases with atypical scrapie [20]. This observation that intracerebral challenge shortens the incubation period is consistent with the substantial reductions in incubation period which are seen in the classical scrapie controls which are 90% (for VRQ/VRQ) and 60% (for VRQ/ARQ) less than the average age at onset of field cases (Ortiz-Pelaez, personal communication) in these genotypes.

There was a slight shortening of mean incubation period between the initial experimentally challenged sheep (790 days) and those which succumbed following sub-passage (695 days), but the group sizes are too small to draw any robust conclusions from this observation.

The wide range of incubation periods seen cannot be readily interpreted due to the very small numbers of animals in this study (a necessary restriction due to the very limited amount of suitable donor material, and limited number of recipients of a suitable genotype). It is interesting to note that the outliers (cases 1 and 2, Table 1) received the same inoculum. All donor inocula give similar incubation periods in ovinised transgenic (Tg338) mice when inoculated as part of a separate study (Spiropoulos, personal communication), although some difference in titre is likely to be masked by the sensitivity of these mice. In one titration of an atypical scrapie isolate the mean incubation period did not change more than 10% over the first three log dilutions (Spiropoulos and Simmons, unpublished data).

The absence of any visible lymphoreticular system (LRS) involvement in the experimentally challenged animals is consistent with what has been observed in natural cases of atypical scrapie [13] and cannot be attributed to the experimental route of exposure, since the classical scrapie controls challenged by the same route had widespread labelling of disease-associated PrP (PrPSc) in the lymphoid tissues. The clinical presentation of atypical scrapie cases was different to classical scrapie or BSE in sheep: atypical scrapie did not appear to cause evident pruritus, whereas the scrapie and BSE cases described here usually presented with pruritus. Compulsive behaviour, such as circling, was only observed in atypical scrapie, and an impaired menace response was considerably more frequent in atypical scrapie cases. The difference in the clinical picture does not appear to be confined to the genotype or the route of inoculation since similar signs in the absence of pruritus have been observed in naturally affected atypical scrapie cases of various genotypes [1,10,29], whereas pruritus is frequent in naturally affected classical scrapie cases [26] or sheep orally challenged or naturally infected with the BSE agent under experimental settings [24]. Ataxia with hypermetria, head tremor and an absent menace response, which were predominantly observed in sheep with atypical scrapie, are signs indicative of a dysfunction of the cerebellum [30]. This concurs with the lesion and PrPSc immunolabelling pattern distribution in atypical scrapie, which is particularly prominent in the cerebellum. However, the lateralisation of clinical signs (circling to one side or a unilaterally deficient menace response) seen in atypical scrapie is unusual and to the authors’ knowledge has not been described elsewhere in ovine BSE or classical scrapie. It is unlikely that the intracerebral route was responsible for the apparent lateralisation of clinical signs because it was not observed in ovine cases of BSE [24] and classical scrapie inoculated by the same route (cases 18-20, Table 1). Compulsive circling in the absence of vestibular signs like head tilt and nystagmus is suggestive of an asymmetric lesion of the forebrain, usually on the same side as the circling direction [31]. A unilateral absent menace response has been associated with a unilateral cerebellar lesion on the same side as the deficit [32]. This would suggest that the signs in case 2 (Table 1), which presented with a left absent menace response and circling to the left, was predominantly caused by a lesion of the left side of the brain. Unfortunately, the whole brain of this case was not available to evaluate symmetry of neuropathological changes, but there was no evidence of any pronounced asymmetrical lesion or PrPSc distribution in the bilateral sections examined in case 6, which also circled to the left.

Conclusions

This study shows that a single PRNP genotype, AHQ/AHQ can display a range of disease phenotypes which are consistent and readily distinguishable from each other, supporting the suggestion that such characteristics can be attributable, predominantly, to the agent strain. However, the relative over-representation of the AHQ genotype in the atypical naturally-affected populations supports the hypothesis that field strains have strong genotype ‘tropisms’ or that there is genotype selection of strains, as proposed by Spiropoulos [15]. The consistent disease phenotype seen in natural disease, primary experimental transmission and subsequent passage, supports the experimental inoculation model as a valid tool for the study of atypical scrapie, regardless of whether the disease in the field is acquired or spontaneous. It also enables the creation of atypical scrapie samples in a consistent manner for test evaluation and/or quality assurance purposes, helping to improve surveillance approaches for disease detection and confirmation in the field.


http://www.biomedcentral.com/content/pdf/1746-6148-6-14.pdf




Archive Number 20100312.0803
Published Date 12-MAR-2010
Subject PRO/AH/EDR> Scrapie, atypical, ovine - Australia: (WA) susp


SCRAPIE, ATYPICAL, OVINE - AUSTRALIA: (WESTERN AUSTRALIA) SUSPECTED ******************************************************************* A ProMED-mail post ProMED-mail is a program of the International Society for Infectious Diseases

[1] Date: Fri 12 Mar 2010 Source: The Australian [edited]

A West Australian sheep has been found to have signs characteristic of the fatal brain disease atypical scrapie. It comes as Australia faces growing anger from its trade partners over the Rudd government's surprise decision to extend a ban on the importation of beef from countries exposed to mad cow disease for a further 2 years.



snip...


[Although atypical scrapie is not yet ruled out, it is important to realize this is a type of scrapie that thus far has only tended to appear as a sporadic condition in older animals. Currently it has not been shown to follow the same genetic tendencies for propagation as the usual scrapie.

However, the atypical phenotypic appearance has been shown to be preserved on experimental passage.

Atypical scrapie was first identified in Norwegian sheep in 1998 and has subsequently been identified in many countries, as Australia may join that list. It is likely that this case will be sent to the UK for definitive conformation.

[Ref: M Simmons, T Konold, L Thurston, et al. BMC Veterinary Research 2010, 6:14 [provisional abstract available at ]

"Background ----------- "Retrospective studies have identified cases predating the initial identification of this form of scrapie, and epidemiological studies have indicated that it does not conform to the behaviour of an infectious disease, giving rise to the hypothesis that it represents spontaneous disease. However, atypical scrapie isolates have been shown to be infectious experimentally, through intracerebral inoculation in transgenic mice and sheep. [Many of the neurological diseases can be transmitted by intracerebral inoculation, which causes this moderator to approach intracerebral studies as a tool for study, but not necessarily as a direct indication of transmissibility of natural diseases. - Mod.TG]

"The 1st successful challenge of a sheep with 'field' atypical scrapie from an homologous donor sheep was reported in 2007.

"Results -------- "This study demonstrates that atypical scrapie has distinct clinical, pathological, and biochemical characteristics which are maintained on transmission and sub-passage, and which are distinct from other strains of transmissible spongiform encephalopathies in the same host genotype.

"Conclusions ------------ Atypical scrapie is consistently transmissible within AHQ homozygous sheep, and the disease phenotype is preserved on sub-passage."

Lastly, this moderator wishes to thank Terry Singletary for some of his behind the scenes work of providing citations and references for this posting. - Mod.TG]

The HealthMap/ProMED-mail interactive map of Australia is available at . - Sr.Tech.Ed.MJ]




http://www.promedmail.org/pls/apex/f?p=2400:1001:589791602457438::NO::F2400_P1001_BACK_PAGE,F2400_P1001_PUB_MAIL_ID:1010,81729



hmmm, this is getting interesting now...


Sporadic CJD type 1 and atypical/ Nor98 scrapie are characterized by fine (reticular) deposits,

see also ;

All of the Heidenhain variants were of the methionine/ methionine type 1 molecular subtype.


http://cjdusa.blogspot.com/2009/09/co-existence-of-scrapie-prion-protein.html



see full text ;

Monday, December 14, 2009

Similarities between Forms of Sheep Scrapie and Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease Are Encoded by Distinct Prion Types


http://nor-98.blogspot.com/2009/12/similarities-between-forms-of-sheep.html




Epidemiology of Scrapie in the United States 1977


http://www.bseinquiry.gov.uk/files/mb/m08b/tab64.pdf


http://web.archive.org/web/20030513212324/http://www.bseinquiry.gov.uk/files/mb/m08b/tab64.pdf




Wednesday, March 3, 2010

NOR-98 ATYPICAL SCRAPIE USA 4 CASES DETECTED JANUARY 2010


http://nor-98.blogspot.com/2010/03/nor-98-atypical-scrapie-usa-4-cases.html



Wednesday, March 3, 2010

NOR-98 ATYPICAL SCRAPIE USA 4 CASES DETECTED JANUARY 2010


http://nor-98.blogspot.com/2010/03/nor-98-atypical-scrapie-usa-4-cases.html



Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Nor98-like Scrapie in the United States of America


http://nor-98.blogspot.com/2009/04/nor98-like-scrapie-in-united-states-of.html



P03.141

Aspects of the Cerebellar Neuropathology in Nor98

Gavier-Widén, D1; Benestad, SL2; Ottander, L1; Westergren, E1 1National Veterinary Insitute, Sweden; 2National Veterinary Institute,

Norway Nor98 is a prion disease of old sheep and goats. This atypical form of scrapie was first described in Norway in 1998. Several features of Nor98 were shown to be different from classical scrapie including the distribution of disease associated prion protein (PrPd) accumulation in the brain. The cerebellum is generally the most affected brain area in Nor98. The study here presented aimed at adding information on the neuropathology in the cerebellum of Nor98 naturally affected sheep of various genotypes in Sweden and Norway. A panel of histochemical and immunohistochemical (IHC) stainings such as IHC for PrPd, synaptophysin, glial fibrillary acidic protein, amyloid, and cell markers for phagocytic cells were conducted. The type of histological lesions and tissue reactions were evaluated. The types of PrPd deposition were characterized. The cerebellar cortex was regularly affected, even though there was a variation in the severity of the lesions from case to case. Neuropil vacuolation was more marked in the molecular layer, but affected also the granular cell layer. There was a loss of granule cells. Punctate deposition of PrPd was characteristic. It was morphologically and in distribution identical with that of synaptophysin, suggesting that PrPd accumulates in the synaptic structures. PrPd was also observed in the granule cell layer and in the white matter. The pathology features of Nor98 in the cerebellum of the affected sheep showed similarities with those of sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans.

***The pathology features of Nor98 in the cerebellum of the affected sheep showed similarities with those of sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans.


http://www.prion2007.com/pdf/Prion%20Book%20of%20Abstracts.pdf



PR-26

NOR98 SHOWS MOLECULAR FEATURES REMINISCENT OF GSS

R. Nonno1, E. Esposito1, G. Vaccari1, E. Bandino2, M. Conte1, B. Chiappini1, S. Marcon1, M. Di Bari1, S.L. Benestad3, U. Agrimi1 1 Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Department of Food Safety and Veterinary Public Health, Rome, Italy (romolo.nonno@iss.it); 2 Istituto Zooprofilattico della Sardegna, Sassari, Italy; 3 National Veterinary Institute, Department of Pathology, Oslo, Norway

Molecular variants of PrPSc are being increasingly investigated in sheep scrapie and are generally referred to as "atypical" scrapie, as opposed to "classical scrapie". Among the atypical group, Nor98 seems to be the best identified. We studied the molecular properties of Italian and Norwegian Nor98 samples by WB analysis of brain homogenates, either untreated, digested with different concentrations of proteinase K, or subjected to enzymatic deglycosylation. The identity of PrP fragments was inferred by means of antibodies spanning the full PrP sequence. We found that undigested brain homogenates contain a Nor98-specific PrP fragment migrating at 11 kDa (PrP11), truncated at both the C-terminus and the N-terminus, and not N-glycosylated. After mild PK digestion, Nor98 displayed full-length PrP (FL-PrP) and N-glycosylated C-terminal fragments (CTF), along with increased levels of PrP11. Proteinase K digestion curves (0,006-6,4 mg/ml) showed that FL-PrP and CTF are mainly digested above 0,01 mg/ml, while PrP11 is not entirely digested even at the highest concentrations, similarly to PrP27-30 associated with classical scrapie. Above 0,2 mg/ml PK, most Nor98 samples showed only PrP11 and a fragment of 17 kDa with the same properties of PrP11, that was tentatively identified as a dimer of PrP11. Detergent solubility studies showed that PrP11 is insoluble in 2% sodium laurylsorcosine and is mainly produced from detergentsoluble, full-length PrPSc. Furthermore, among Italian scrapie isolates, we found that a sample with molecular and pathological properties consistent with Nor98 showed plaque-like deposits of PrPSc in the thalamus when the brain was analysed by PrPSc immunohistochemistry. Taken together, our results show that the distinctive pathological feature of Nor98 is a PrP fragment spanning amino acids ~ 90-155. This fragment is produced by successive N-terminal and C-terminal cleavages from a full-length and largely detergent-soluble PrPSc, is produced in vivo and is extremely resistant to PK digestion.

*** Intriguingly, these conclusions suggest that some pathological features of Nor98 are reminiscent of Gerstmann-Sträussler-Scheinker disease.

119


http://www.neuroprion.com/pdf_docs/conferences/prion2006/abstract_book.pdf



A newly identified type of scrapie agent can naturally infect sheep with resistant PrP genotypes

Annick Le Dur*,?, Vincent Béringue*,?, Olivier Andréoletti?, Fabienne Reine*, Thanh Lan Laï*, Thierry Baron§, Bjørn Bratberg¶, Jean-Luc Vilotte?, Pierre Sarradin**, Sylvie L. Benestad¶, and Hubert Laude*,?? +Author Affiliations

*Virologie Immunologie Moléculaires and ?Génétique Biochimique et Cytogénétique, Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique, 78350 Jouy-en-Josas, France; ?Unité Mixte de Recherche, Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique-Ecole Nationale Vétérinaire de Toulouse, Interactions Hôte Agent Pathogène, 31066 Toulouse, France; §Agence Française de Sécurité Sanitaire des Aliments, Unité Agents Transmissibles Non Conventionnels, 69364 Lyon, France; **Pathologie Infectieuse et Immunologie, Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique, 37380 Nouzilly, France; and ¶Department of Pathology, National Veterinary Institute, 0033 Oslo, Norway

***Edited by Stanley B. Prusiner, University of California, San Francisco, CA (received for review March 21, 2005)

Abstract Scrapie in small ruminants belongs to transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs), or prion diseases, a family of fatal neurodegenerative disorders that affect humans and animals and can transmit within and between species by ingestion or inoculation. Conversion of the host-encoded prion protein (PrP), normal cellular PrP (PrPc), into a misfolded form, abnormal PrP (PrPSc), plays a key role in TSE transmission and pathogenesis. The intensified surveillance of scrapie in the European Union, together with the improvement of PrPSc detection techniques, has led to the discovery of a growing number of so-called atypical scrapie cases. These include clinical Nor98 cases first identified in Norwegian sheep on the basis of unusual pathological and PrPSc molecular features and "cases" that produced discordant responses in the rapid tests currently applied to the large-scale random screening of slaughtered or fallen animals. Worryingly, a substantial proportion of such cases involved sheep with PrP genotypes known until now to confer natural resistance to conventional scrapie. Here we report that both Nor98 and discordant cases, including three sheep homozygous for the resistant PrPARR allele (A136R154R171), efficiently transmitted the disease to transgenic mice expressing ovine PrP, and that they shared unique biological and biochemical features upon propagation in mice. *** These observations support the view that a truly infectious TSE agent, unrecognized until recently, infects sheep and goat flocks and may have important implications in terms of scrapie control and public health.


http://www.pnas.org/content/102/44/16031.abstract



Monday, December 1, 2008

When Atypical Scrapie cross species barriers

Authors

Andreoletti O., Herva M. H., Cassard H., Espinosa J. C., Lacroux C., Simon S., Padilla D., Benestad S. L., Lantier F., Schelcher F., Grassi J., Torres, J. M., UMR INRA ENVT 1225, Ecole Nationale Veterinaire de Toulouse.France; ICISA-INlA, Madrid, Spain; CEA, IBiTec-5, DSV, CEA/Saclay, Gif sur Yvette cedex, France; National Veterinary Institute, Postboks 750 Sentrum, 0106 Oslo, Norway, INRA IASP, Centre INRA de Tours, 3738O Nouzilly, France.

Content

Atypical scrapie is a TSE occurring in small ruminants and harbouring peculiar clinical, epidemiological and biochemical properties. Currently this form of disease is identified in a large number of countries. In this study we report the transmission of an atypical scrapie isolate through different species barriers as modeled by transgenic mice (Tg) expressing different species PRP sequence.

The donor isolate was collected in 1995 in a French commercial sheep flock. inoculation into AHQ/AHQ sheep induced a disease which had all neuro-pathological and biochemical characteristics of atypical scrapie. Transmitted into Transgenic mice expressing either ovine or PrPc, the isolate retained all the described characteristics of atypical scrapie.

Surprisingly the TSE agent characteristics were dramatically different v/hen passaged into Tg bovine mice. The recovered TSE agent had biological and biochemical characteristics similar to those of atypical BSE L in the same mouse model. Moreover, whereas no other TSE agent than BSE were shown to transmit into Tg porcine mice, atypical scrapie was able to develop into this model, albeit with low attack rate on first passage.

Furthermore, after adaptation in the porcine mouse model this prion showed similar biological and biochemical characteristics than BSE adapted to this porcine mouse model. Altogether these data indicate.

(i) the unsuspected potential abilities of atypical scrapie to cross species barriers

(ii) the possible capacity of this agent to acquire new characteristics when crossing species barrier

These findings raise some interrogation on the concept of TSE strain and on the origin of the diversity of the TSE agents and could have consequences on field TSE control measures.


http://www.neuroprion.org/resources/pdf_docs/conferences/prion2008/abstract-book-prion2008.pdf



12/10/76

AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH COUNCIL REPORT OF THE ADVISORY COMMITTE ON SCRAPIE Office Note CHAIRMAN: PROFESSOR PETER WILDY

snip...

A The Present Position with respect to Scrapie A] The Problem

Scrapie is a natural disease of sheep and goats. It is a slow and inexorably progressive degenerative disorder of the nervous system and it ia fatal. It is enzootic in the United Kingdom but not in all countries.

The field problem has been reviewed by a MAFF working group (ARC 35/77). It is difficult to assess the incidence in Britain for a variety of reasons but the disease causes serious financial loss; it is estimated that it cost Swaledale breeders alone $l.7 M during the five years 1971-1975. A further inestimable loss arises from the closure of certain export markets, in particular those of the United States, to British sheep.

It is clear that scrapie in sheep is important commercially and for that reason alone effective measures to control it should be devised as quickly as possible.

Recently the question has again been brought up as to whether scrapie is transmissible to man. This has followed reports that the disease has been transmitted to primates. One particularly lurid speculation (Gajdusek 1977) conjectures that the agents of scrapie, kuru, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and transmissible encephalopathy of mink are varieties of a single "virus". The U.S. Department of Agriculture concluded that it could "no longer justify or permit scrapie-blood line and scrapie-exposed sheep and goats to be processed for human or animal food at slaughter or rendering plants" (ARC 84/77)" The problem is emphasised by the finding that some strains of scrapie produce lesions identical to the once which characterise the human dementias"

Whether true or not. the hypothesis that these agents might be transmissible to man raises two considerations. First, the safety of laboratory personnel requires prompt attention. Second, action such as the "scorched meat" policy of USDA makes the solution of the acrapie problem urgent if the sheep industry is not to suffer grievously.

snip...

76/10.12/4.6


http://web.archive.org/web/20010305223125/www.bseinquiry.gov.uk/files/yb/1976/10/12004001.pdf




Nature. 1972 Mar 10;236(5341):73-4.

Transmission of scrapie to the cynomolgus monkey (Macaca fascicularis).

Gibbs CJ Jr, Gajdusek DC.

Nature 236, 73 - 74 (10 March 1972); doi:10.1038/236073a0

Transmission of Scrapie to the Cynomolgus Monkey (Macaca fascicularis)

C. J. GIBBS jun. & D. C. GAJDUSEK

National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Stroke, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland

SCRAPIE has been transmitted to the cynomolgus, or crab-eating, monkey (Macaca fascicularis) with an incubation period of more than 5 yr from the time of intracerebral inoculation of scrapie-infected mouse brain. The animal developed a chronic central nervous system degeneration, with ataxia, tremor and myoclonus with associated severe scrapie-like pathology of intensive astroglial hypertrophy and proliferation, neuronal vacuolation and status spongiosus of grey matter. The strain of scrapie virus used was the eighth passage in Swiss mice (NIH) of a Compton strain of scrapie obtained as ninth intracerebral passage of the agent in goat brain, from Dr R. L. Chandler (ARC, Compton, Berkshire).


http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v236/n5341/abs/236073a0.html



1: J Infect Dis 1980 Aug;142(2):205-8

Oral transmission of kuru, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, and scrapie to nonhuman primates.

Gibbs CJ Jr, Amyx HL, Bacote A, Masters CL, Gajdusek DC.

Kuru and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease of humans and scrapie disease of sheep and goats were transmitted to squirrel monkeys (Saimiri sciureus) that were exposed to the infectious agents only by their nonforced consumption of known infectious tissues. The asymptomatic incubation period in the one monkey exposed to the virus of kuru was 36 months; that in the two monkeys exposed to the virus of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease was 23 and 27 months, respectively; and that in the two monkeys exposed to the virus of scrapie was 25 and 32 months, respectively. Careful physical examination of the buccal cavities of all of the monkeys failed to reveal signs or oral lesions. One additional monkey similarly exposed to kuru has remained asymptomatic during the 39 months that it has been under observation.

snip...


The successful transmission of kuru, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, and scrapie by natural feeding to squirrel monkeys that we have reported provides further grounds for concern that scrapie-infected meat may occasionally give rise in humans to Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.


PMID: 6997404


http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=6997404&dopt=Abstract



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 ...


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



14th ICID International Scientific Exchange Brochure - Final Abstract Number: ISE.114 Session: International Scientific Exchange

Transmissible Spongiform encephalopathy (TSE) animal and human TSE in North America

update October 2009

T. SingeltaryBacliff, TX, USA

Background:An update on atypical BSE and other TSE in North America. Please remember, the typical U.K. c-BSE, the atypical l-BSE (BASE), and h-BSE have all been documented in North America, along with the typical scrapie's, and atypical Nor-98 Scrapie, and to date, 2 different strains of CWD, and also TME. All these TSE in different species have been rendered and fed to food producing animals for humans and animals in North America (TSE in cats and dogs ?), and that the trading of these TSEs via animals and products via the USA and Canada has been immense over the years, decades.

Methods:12 years independent research of available data

Results:I propose that the current diagnostic criteria for human TSEs only enhances and helps the spreading of human TSE from the continued belief of the UKBSEnvCJD only theory in 2009. With all the science to date refuting it, to continue to validate this old myth, will only spread this TSE agent through a multitude of potential routes and sources i.e. consumption, medical i.e., surgical, blood, dental, endoscopy, optical, nutritional supplements, cosmetics etc.

Conclusion:I would like to submit a review of past CJD surveillance in the USA, and the urgent need to make all human TSE in the USA a reportable disease, in every state, of every age group, and to make this mandatory immediately without further delay. The ramifications of not doing so will only allow this agent to spread further in the medical, dental, surgical arena's. Restricting the reporting of CJD and or any human TSE is NOT scientific. Iatrogenic CJD knows NO age group, TSE knows no boundaries. I propose as with Aguzzi, Asante, Collinge, Caughey, Deslys, Dormont, Gibbs, Gajdusek, Ironside, Manuelidis, Marsh, et al and many more, that the world of TSE Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy is far from an exact science, but there is enough proven science to date that this myth should be put to rest once and for all, and that we move forward with a new classification for human and animal TSE that would properly identify the infected species, the source species, and then the route.

see page 114 ;

http://ww2.isid.org/Downloads/14th_ICID_ISE_Abstracts.pdf



Tuesday, March 16, 2010

COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA Hansard Import restrictions on beef FRIDAY, 5 FEBRUARY 2010 AUSTRALIA

COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA

Proof Committee Hansard


SENATE RURAL AND REGIONAL AFFAIRS AND TRANSPORT REFERENCES COMMITTEE Reference: Import restrictions on beef

FRIDAY, 5 FEBRUARY 2010 CANBERRA CONDITIONS OF DISTRIBUTION

This is an uncorrected proof of evidence taken before the committee. It is made available under the condition that it is recognised as such. BY AUTHORITY OF THE SENATE [PROOF COPY] TO EXPEDITE DELIVERY, THIS TRANSCRIPT HAS NOT BEEN SUBEDITED

SNIP...

Friday, 5 February 2010 Senate RRA&T 1

RURAL AND REGIONAL AFFAIRS AND TRANSPORT

Committee met at 9.01 am

CHAIR (Senator Nash)—I declare open this public hearing of the Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport References Committee. The committee is hearing evidence on the committee’s inquiry into the impact and consequences of the government’s decision to relax import restrictions on beef. Before the committee starts taking evidence I remind all witnesses that, in giving evidence to the committee, they are protected by parliamentary privilege. It is unlawful for anyone to threaten or disadvantage a witness on account of evidence given to a committee and such action may be treated by the Senate as a contempt. It is also a contempt to give false or misleading evidence to a committee. The committee prefers all evidence to be given in public but, under the Senate’s resolutions, witnesses have the right to request to be heard in private session. It is important that witnesses give the committee notice if they intend to ask to give evidence in camera. If a witness objects to answering a question, the witness should state the ground upon which the objection is taken and the committee will determine whether it will insist on an answer, having regard to the ground which is claimed. If the committee determines to insist on an answer, a witness may request that the answer be given in camera. Such a request may, of course, also been made at any other time. On behalf of the committee, I thank all those who have made submissions and sent representatives here today for their cooperation in this inquiry.

RRA&T 2 Senate Friday, 5 February 2010

RURAL AND REGIONAL AFFAIRS AND TRANSPORT

[9.03 am]

BELLINGER, Mr Brad, Chairman, Australian Beef Association

CARTER, Mr John Edward, Director, Australian Beef Association

CHAIR—Welcome. Would you like to make an opening statement?

Mr Bellinger—Thank you. The ABA stands by its submission, which we made on 14 December last year, that the decision made by the government to allow the importation of beef from BSE affected countries is politically based, not science based. During this hearing we will bring forward compelling new evidence to back up this statement. When I returned to my property after the December hearing I received a note from an American citizen. I will read a small excerpt from the mail he sent me in order to reinforce the dangers of allowing the importation of beef from BSE affected countries. I have done a number of press releases on this topic, and this fellow has obviously picked my details up from the internet. His name is Terry Singeltary and he is from Bacliff, Texas. He states, and rightfully so:

You should be worried. Please let me explain. I’ve kept up with the mad cow saga for 12 years today, on December 14th 1997, some four months post voluntary and partial mad cow feed ban in the USA, I lost my mother to the Heinemann variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD). I know this is just another phenotype of the infamous sporadic CJDs. Here in the USA, when USA sheep scrapie was transmitted to USA bovine, the agent was not UK BSE—it was a different strain. So why then would human TSE from USA cattle look like UK CJD from UK BSE? It would not. So this accentuates that the science is inconclusive still on this devastating disease. He goes on to state:

The OIE— the International Organisation of Epizootics, the arm of the WTO— is a failed global agent that in my opinion is bought off via bogus regulations for global trade and industry reps. I have done this all these years for nothing but the truth. I am a consumer, I eat meat, but I do not have to sit idly by and see the ignorance and greed of it all while countless numbers of humans and animals are being exposed to the TSE agents. All the USA is interested in is trade, nothing else matters.

Even Dr Stanley Prusiner, who incidentally won the Nobel Health Prize in 1997 for his work on the prion—he invented the word ‘prion’, or it came from him—states:

The BSC policy was set up for one purpose only, trade—the illegal trading of all strains of TSE globally throughout North America, which is home to CBSC, IBSC and HBSC, many scrapie strains and two strains of CJD to date. (please note typo error, those should have read cBSE, lBSE, and hBSE...tss)

I would also like, while I have the opportunity, to explain the beef-off-the-shelves myth. At the first Senate hearing on 14 December, it was explained that the reason why they allowed BSC beef into Australia was the beef-off-the-shelves policy, whereby if we found a case of BSC in Australia they would have to recall all—

Friday, 5 February 2010 Senate RRA&T 3

RURAL AND REGIONAL AFFAIRS AND TRANSPORT

Senator HEFFERNAN—Which of course is total BS.

Mr Bellinger—Correct. This is written in the FSANZ document—Food Standards Australia New Zealand. Why isn’t this same policy in New Zealand? It is not—it is only in Australia. We are the only country in the world to have this idiotic policy. So we again call for the tabling of the WTO obligations paperwork. We do not believe that exists.

Mr Carter—We have an additional concern about human health. We are not scientists, but on 18 December, four days after the last hearing here, the BBC reported a new wave of deaths due to variant CJD linked to eating BSE infected beef could be underway. This is based on the work of Professor John Collinge of the National Prion Clinic, who reported that a 2009 death in Scotland was from a different genetic pool to that of the 166 deaths already reported in the UK. Those are all thought to share one gene, but Professor Collinge and his colleagues estimate that up to 350 people in this new group, represented by the person who died in Scotland, could get CJD. He thinks that CJD has moved into a new phase, and the incubation period is a long one. We tender the Australian Red Cross donor policy sheet, which bears out what Senator Back brought up last time, questioning the Chief Medical Officer, and we say that blood from people who were in the UK between 1980 and 1996 is not acceptable. That is the current ruling. We believe this now should be extended to anyone who has visited the UK, and this new evidence should ensure that Australia revisits the science of CJD.

CHAIR—Thank you, Mr Carter. Before we kick off, can I just remind colleagues that we are short of time today, so I ask that we do not traverse ground the we have previously covered and make sure that we stick to new information that is required. Mr Bellinger, when you started you referred to your view that this decision to allow the importation was politically based. I know you are going to go into this in the course of the next 20 minutes or so, but could you just give us a quick outline of what your definition of politically based is and why you think the decision was politically based?

Mr Bellinger—On the lowering of BSE standards: if you go back to 2006, for example, there were five categories for describing countries that had BSE and Australia was in the category for BSE free. Suddenly, by the time the United States got their third instance of BSE, through the influence of Robert Zoellick—who was the trade minister that signed the BSE corresponding side letter in 2004 and was George Bush’s appointment to the WTO—they suddenly changed the five categories to three categories and, instead of being BSE free, Australia became BSE negligible risk. At the time I put out a press release alerting the media to the dangers of this happening, and we are coming to the stage here when suddenly our government is saying, ‘Now let’s allow the importation of beef from BSE affected countries.’ I believe that the WTO has been influenced by large multinational meat processors and retailers to change and allow the trading of BSE beef throughout the world.

CHAIR—Thanks, Mr Bellinger.

Mr Carter—Of course, the side letter that Minister Vaile signed was at the request of Mr Zoellick, who is now in the position that Mr Bellinger has explained.

Senator HEFFERNAN—I just want to put the committee on notice that, if we do not get through what we have got to get through today, I suggest we have another hearing, because this

RRA&T 4 Senate Friday, 5 February 2010

RURAL AND REGIONAL AFFAIRS AND TRANSPORT

is the greatest ambush of Australia’s farmers of all time by a government. The evidence given at the last meeting was deadset lies. The proposition that this whole change of government policy was led by the industry is a deadset lie. While Simon Crean might want to change his mind because of the WTO and his lack of knowledge, the Australian beef industry, as you know, is under great challenge, not only from the currency but also from the undermining of our markets. This is a disgrace.



SNIP...PLEASE SEE FULL TEXT ;



*************


Tuesday, March 16, 2010


COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA Hansard Import restrictions on beef FRIDAY, 5 FEBRUARY 2010 AUSTRALIA

COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA

Proof Committee Hansard


snip...see full text 110 pages ;


http://www.aph.gov.au/hansard/senate/commttee/S12742.pdf



for those interested, please see much more here ;


http://docket-aphis-2006-0041.blogspot.com/2010/03/commonwealth-of-australia-hansard.html



2008 - 2010

The statistical incidence of CJD cases in the United States has been revised to reflect that there is one case per 9000 in adults age 55 and older. Eighty-five percent of the cases are sporadic, meaning there is no known cause at present.


http://www.cjdfoundation.org/fact.html



CJD USA RISING, with UNKNOWN PHENOTYPE ;

5 Includes 41 cases in which the diagnosis is pending, and 17 inconclusive cases; 6 Includes 46 cases with type determination pending in which the diagnosis of vCJD has been excluded.


http://www.cjdsurveillance.com/pdf/case-table.pdf



Saturday, January 2, 2010

Human Prion Diseases in the United States January 1, 2010 ***FINAL***


http://prionunitusaupdate2008.blogspot.com/2010/01/human-prion-diseases-in-united-states.html



my comments to PLosone here ;


http://www.plosone.org/annotation/listThread.action?inReplyTo=info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fannotation%2F04ce2b24-613d-46e6-9802-4131e2bfa6fd&root=info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fannotation%2F04ce2b24-613d-46e6-9802-4131e2bfa6fd



Friday, November 30, 2007

CJD QUESTIONNAIRE USA CWRU AND CJD FOUNDATION


http://cjdquestionnaire.blogspot.com/



Saturday, June 13, 2009

Monitoring the occurrence of emerging forms of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in the United States 2003 revisited 2009


http://cjdusa.blogspot.com/2009/06/monitoring-occurrence-of-emerging-forms.html



Terry S. Singeltary Sr. P.O. Box 42 Bacliff, Texas USA 77518