Serial Passage of Sheep Scrapie Inoculum in Suffolk Sheep
2009
Hamir, A. N. | Kunkle, R. A. | Richt, J. A. | Greenlee, J. J. | Miller, J. M.
Scrapie is a naturally occurring fatal neurodegenerative disease of sheep and goats. Susceptibility to the disease is partly dependent upon the genetic makeup of the host. In a recent study, it was shown that sheep intracerebrally inoculated with a US scrapie agent (No. 13–7) developed scrapie and survived for an average of 19 months post inoculation. In the present study, when this scrapie inoculum was further passaged for 3 successive generations, the survival time was reduced by approximately 8 months in scrapie-susceptible (QQ on prion protein gene [PRNP] at codon 171) Suffolk sheep. It is concluded that inoculum No. 13–7 appears to have been stabilized in susceptible (171 QQ) Suffolk sheep and may be considered a specific isolate of sheep scrapie agent in the USA and therefore that it can be used to evaluate other isolates of sheep scrapie in this country.
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