National Institute of Animal Health (NIAH)

Topics in Animal Health Research 2005

04. Rapid PrPSc detection in lymphoid tissue and application to scrapie surveillance of fallen stock in Japan

  Rapid western blot (WB) procedure to detect an abnormal isoform of prion protein (PrPSc) in lymphoid tissues has been established and applied to the surveillance of fallen stock. Using this method, we examined brain and palatal tonsil tissues with WB and detected three sheep scrapie. While one clinically scrapie-infected sheep harbored PrPSc in the brain and palatal tonsil, two sheep in the pre-clinical stage harbored PrPSc in the brain but not in the palatal tonsil. This study shows that PrPSc accumulation in the palatal tonsil is variable in natural scrapie, even among genetically-susceptible sheep.
(Research Team for Prion Diseases, TEL +81-29-838-7757)

Reference:

Shimada et al. (2005) Microbiol. Immunol.49: 801-804.

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