Medycyna Wet. 62 (11), 1298-1301, 2006
| Polak M. P., Larska M., Rożek W., Żmudziński J. F. |
| Discriminatory testing for BSE and scrapie in sheep and goat populations |
| The use of BSE-contaminated meat and bone meal for feeding sheep and goats may be the cause of transmitting the BSE agent into small ruminant populations. Experimental studies have shown that sheep which are fed cattle brain homogenates from BSE cases can succumb to a BSE-like disease. The distribution of BSE agents in these sheep is similar to scrapie and a wider range of organs is affected when compared with BSE in cattle. Thus, the possibility of crossing the species barrier between sheep and man cannot be excluded (as has been shown with BSE and its variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in man). The paper describes implementing one of the approved immuno-blot methods used for discriminating between BSE and scrapie in a small ruminant population. The use of two monoclonal antibodies of which only one reacts with scrapie and atypical scrapie samples facilitates differentiation between BSE and scrapie positive samples from sheep and goats. |
| Keywords: BSE, scrapie |