From: TSS ()
Subject: PRIONS SUSPECTED IN MILK
Date: November 3, 2005 at 11:17 am PST
Published online: 3 November 2005; | doi:10.1038/news051031-7
Prions suspected in milk
Sheep mammaries shown to contain agents of fatal brain disease.
Andreas von Bubnoff
Could sheep pass a fatal brain disease between them through their milk?
© Getty
The inflamed mammary glands of sheep have been found to contain protein particles that cause scrapie, a sickness similar to mad cow disease. This suggests that the suspect proteins, called prions, may also be present in the milk of infected animals.
If prions exist in the milk of cows infected with both an inflammatory illness and mad cow disease, formally known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), this raises concerns for human health. Consumption of prion-contaminated meat from cows with BSE is believed to cause the fatal variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) in people; so might contaminated milk.
Adriano Aguzzi, the lead researcher on the study, has not detected prions in milk itself, because it is difficult to analyse for the abnormal proteins. But he says he expects to find them.
"It is unlikely that the prions are not in the milk," says Aguzzi, a pathologist at the University of Zurich Hospital, Switzerland. "And the prospect is not a pleasant one."
This raises very serious questions that need to be answered.
Neil Cashman
University of British Columbia, Vancouver
Neil Cashman, a prion researcher at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, is worried too. People have looked for prions in the milk of cows with BSE and haven't found any, he says. "But they haven't looked in cows with mammary-gland infection and BSE."
"This raises very serious questions," concludes Cashman.
Inflamed in the brain
Prions are mainly found in the brain, spinal cord and immune system. Until recently, other body parts were thought to be relatively safe. But in a series of studies, Aguzzi's group has shown that prions can be present in other organs as well, provided that these organs are inflamed.
Earlier this year, his group found prions in inflamed pancreases, livers and kidneys. A study last month showed that the urine produced by inflamed kidneys in mice also contains prions.
All this has helped to solve the mystery of how wild herds of elk and deer, which are vegetarian, might manage to contract prion diseases from each other. And it prompted Aguzzi to look at mammary glands to see if they could carry prions too.
Viral culprit?
The researchers went to Sardinia, a Mediterranean island with more than a million sheep, and analysed 261 sheep that were genetically susceptible to scrapie. Of those, seven had scrapie, and four also had an infection of their mammary glands. All these four had prions in their mammary glands; the others did not. The study appears this week in Nature Medicine1.
The mammary-gland infections were caused by a virus called Maedi Visna. Aguzzi says that if this prion-virus combination is common, it may be a clue to how to fight the transmission of scrapie. "Maybe to eradicate scrapie you have to eradicate the virus first," Aguzzi says.
The prion concentration in the sheep's mammary glands is thousands of times lower than in the brain, says Aguzzi. This is probably good news, although it is not known how many prions it takes to cause vCJD in humans.
Top
References
Ligios C., et al. Nature Medicine, 11. 1137 - 1138 (2005).
http://www.nature.com/news/2005/051031/full/051031-7.html
Infected and Source Flocks
As of August 31, 2005, there were 115 scrapie infected and source flocks (figure 3). There were 3 new infected and source flocks reported in August (Figure 4) with a total of 148 flocks reported for FY 2005 (Figure 5). The total infected and source flocks that have been released in FY 2005 are 102 (Figure 6), with 5 flocks released in August. The ratio of infected and source flocks released to newly infected and source flocks for FY 2005 = 0.69 :
1. In addition, as of August 31, 2005, 574 scrapie cases have been confirmed and reported by the National Veterinary Services Laboratories (NVSL), of which 122 were RSSS cases (Figure 7). This includes 55 newly confirmed cases in August 2005 (Figure 8). Fifteen cases of scrapie in goats have been reported since 1990 (Figure 9). The last goat case was reported in May 2005.
snip...
full text ;
http://www.aphis.usda.gov/vs/nahps/scrapie/monthly_report/monthly-report.html
SCRAPIE USA JULY 2005 UPDATE
AS of July 31, 2005, there were 120 scrapie infected soure flocks (figure 3). There were 16 new infected and source flocks reorted in July (Figure 4) with a total of 143 flocks reported for FY 2005 (Figure 5). The total infected and source flocks that have been released in FY 2005 are 89 (Figure 6), with 8 flocks released in July. The ratio of infected and source flocks released to newly infected and source flocks for FY = 0.62 : 1. IN addition, as of July 31, 2005, 524 scrapie cases have been confirmed and reported by the National Veterinary Services Laboratories (NVSL), of which 116 were RSSS cases (Figure 7). This includes 76 newly confirmed cases in July 2005 (Figure 8). Fifteen cases of scrapie in goats have been reported since 1990 (Figure 9). The last goat case was reported in May 2005. ...........
snip...
http://www.aphis.usda.gov/vs/nahps/scrapie/monthly_report/monthly-report.html
SCRAPIE USA JUNE 2005 UPDATE
AS of June 30, 2005, there were 114 scrapie infected and source flocks
(Figure 3). There were 14 new infected and source flocks reported in June
(Figure 4) with a total of 123 flocks reported for FY 2005 (Figure 5).
snip...
In addition, as of June 30, 2005, 448 scrapie cases have been confirmed and
reported by the National Veterinary Services Laboratories (NVSL), of which
106 were RSSS cases (Figure 7). This includes 81 newly confirmed cases in
June 2005 (Figure 8). Fifteen cases of scrapie in goats have been reported
since 1990 (Figure 9). The last goat case was reported in May 2005.
snip...end
http://www.aphis.usda.gov/vs/nahps/scrapie/monthly_report/monthly-report.html
From: TSS ()
Subject: SCRAPIE USA UPDATE MARCH - JUNE 2005
Date: August 24, 2005 at 7:03 pm PST
SCRAPIE USA MONTHLY REPORT 2005
AS of March 31, 2005, there were 70 scrapie infected source flocks (Figure
3). There were 11 new infected and source flocks reported in March (Figure
4) with a total of 51 flocks reported for FY 2005 (Figure 5). The total
infected and source flocks that have been released in FY 2005 are 39 (Figure
6), with 1 flock released in March. The ratio of infected and source flocks
released to newly infected and source flocks for FY 2005 = 0.76 : 1. IN
addition, as of March 31, 2005, 225 scrapie cases have been confirmed and
reported by the National Veterinary Services Laboratories (NVSL), of which
53 were RSSS cases (Figure 7). This includes 57 newly confirmed cases in
March 2005 (Figure 8). Fourteen cases of scrapie in goats have been reported
since 1990 (Figure 9). The last goat cases was reported in January 2005. New
infected flocks, source flocks, and flocks released or put on clean-up plans
for FY 2005 are depicted in Figure 10. ...
FULL TEXT ;
http://www.aphis.usda.gov/vs/nahps/scrapie/monthly_report/monthly-report.html
Published online before print October 20, 2005
Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 10.1073/pnas.0502296102
Medical Sciences
A newly identified type of scrapie agent can naturally infect sheep with resistant PrP genotypes
( sheep prion | transgenic mice )
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 *
*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, and approved September 12, 2005 (received for review March 21, 2005)
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.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Author contributions: H.L. designed research; A.L.D., V.B., O.A., F.R., T.L.L., J.-L.V., and H.L. performed research; T.B., B.B., P.S., and S.L.B. contributed new reagents/analytic tools; V.B., O.A., and H.L. analyzed data; and H.L. wrote the paper.
A.L.D. and V.B. contributed equally to this work.
To whom correspondence should be addressed.
Hubert Laude, E-mail: [email protected]
www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.0502296102
http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/abstract/0502296102v1
TSS
#################### https://lists.aegee.org/bse-l.html ####################
Subject: PRIONS SUSPECTED IN MILK
Date: November 3, 2005 at 11:17 am PST
Published online: 3 November 2005; | doi:10.1038/news051031-7
Prions suspected in milk
Sheep mammaries shown to contain agents of fatal brain disease.
Andreas von Bubnoff
Could sheep pass a fatal brain disease between them through their milk?
© Getty
The inflamed mammary glands of sheep have been found to contain protein particles that cause scrapie, a sickness similar to mad cow disease. This suggests that the suspect proteins, called prions, may also be present in the milk of infected animals.
If prions exist in the milk of cows infected with both an inflammatory illness and mad cow disease, formally known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), this raises concerns for human health. Consumption of prion-contaminated meat from cows with BSE is believed to cause the fatal variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) in people; so might contaminated milk.
Adriano Aguzzi, the lead researcher on the study, has not detected prions in milk itself, because it is difficult to analyse for the abnormal proteins. But he says he expects to find them.
"It is unlikely that the prions are not in the milk," says Aguzzi, a pathologist at the University of Zurich Hospital, Switzerland. "And the prospect is not a pleasant one."
This raises very serious questions that need to be answered.
Neil Cashman
University of British Columbia, Vancouver
Neil Cashman, a prion researcher at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, is worried too. People have looked for prions in the milk of cows with BSE and haven't found any, he says. "But they haven't looked in cows with mammary-gland infection and BSE."
"This raises very serious questions," concludes Cashman.
Inflamed in the brain
Prions are mainly found in the brain, spinal cord and immune system. Until recently, other body parts were thought to be relatively safe. But in a series of studies, Aguzzi's group has shown that prions can be present in other organs as well, provided that these organs are inflamed.
Earlier this year, his group found prions in inflamed pancreases, livers and kidneys. A study last month showed that the urine produced by inflamed kidneys in mice also contains prions.
All this has helped to solve the mystery of how wild herds of elk and deer, which are vegetarian, might manage to contract prion diseases from each other. And it prompted Aguzzi to look at mammary glands to see if they could carry prions too.
Viral culprit?
The researchers went to Sardinia, a Mediterranean island with more than a million sheep, and analysed 261 sheep that were genetically susceptible to scrapie. Of those, seven had scrapie, and four also had an infection of their mammary glands. All these four had prions in their mammary glands; the others did not. The study appears this week in Nature Medicine1.
The mammary-gland infections were caused by a virus called Maedi Visna. Aguzzi says that if this prion-virus combination is common, it may be a clue to how to fight the transmission of scrapie. "Maybe to eradicate scrapie you have to eradicate the virus first," Aguzzi says.
The prion concentration in the sheep's mammary glands is thousands of times lower than in the brain, says Aguzzi. This is probably good news, although it is not known how many prions it takes to cause vCJD in humans.
Top
References
Ligios C., et al. Nature Medicine, 11. 1137 - 1138 (2005).
http://www.nature.com/news/2005/051031/full/051031-7.html
Infected and Source Flocks
As of August 31, 2005, there were 115 scrapie infected and source flocks (figure 3). There were 3 new infected and source flocks reported in August (Figure 4) with a total of 148 flocks reported for FY 2005 (Figure 5). The total infected and source flocks that have been released in FY 2005 are 102 (Figure 6), with 5 flocks released in August. The ratio of infected and source flocks released to newly infected and source flocks for FY 2005 = 0.69 :
1. In addition, as of August 31, 2005, 574 scrapie cases have been confirmed and reported by the National Veterinary Services Laboratories (NVSL), of which 122 were RSSS cases (Figure 7). This includes 55 newly confirmed cases in August 2005 (Figure 8). Fifteen cases of scrapie in goats have been reported since 1990 (Figure 9). The last goat case was reported in May 2005.
snip...
full text ;
http://www.aphis.usda.gov/vs/nahps/scrapie/monthly_report/monthly-report.html
SCRAPIE USA JULY 2005 UPDATE
AS of July 31, 2005, there were 120 scrapie infected soure flocks (figure 3). There were 16 new infected and source flocks reorted in July (Figure 4) with a total of 143 flocks reported for FY 2005 (Figure 5). The total infected and source flocks that have been released in FY 2005 are 89 (Figure 6), with 8 flocks released in July. The ratio of infected and source flocks released to newly infected and source flocks for FY = 0.62 : 1. IN addition, as of July 31, 2005, 524 scrapie cases have been confirmed and reported by the National Veterinary Services Laboratories (NVSL), of which 116 were RSSS cases (Figure 7). This includes 76 newly confirmed cases in July 2005 (Figure 8). Fifteen cases of scrapie in goats have been reported since 1990 (Figure 9). The last goat case was reported in May 2005. ...........
snip...
http://www.aphis.usda.gov/vs/nahps/scrapie/monthly_report/monthly-report.html
SCRAPIE USA JUNE 2005 UPDATE
AS of June 30, 2005, there were 114 scrapie infected and source flocks
(Figure 3). There were 14 new infected and source flocks reported in June
(Figure 4) with a total of 123 flocks reported for FY 2005 (Figure 5).
snip...
In addition, as of June 30, 2005, 448 scrapie cases have been confirmed and
reported by the National Veterinary Services Laboratories (NVSL), of which
106 were RSSS cases (Figure 7). This includes 81 newly confirmed cases in
June 2005 (Figure 8). Fifteen cases of scrapie in goats have been reported
since 1990 (Figure 9). The last goat case was reported in May 2005.
snip...end
http://www.aphis.usda.gov/vs/nahps/scrapie/monthly_report/monthly-report.html
From: TSS ()
Subject: SCRAPIE USA UPDATE MARCH - JUNE 2005
Date: August 24, 2005 at 7:03 pm PST
SCRAPIE USA MONTHLY REPORT 2005
AS of March 31, 2005, there were 70 scrapie infected source flocks (Figure
3). There were 11 new infected and source flocks reported in March (Figure
4) with a total of 51 flocks reported for FY 2005 (Figure 5). The total
infected and source flocks that have been released in FY 2005 are 39 (Figure
6), with 1 flock released in March. The ratio of infected and source flocks
released to newly infected and source flocks for FY 2005 = 0.76 : 1. IN
addition, as of March 31, 2005, 225 scrapie cases have been confirmed and
reported by the National Veterinary Services Laboratories (NVSL), of which
53 were RSSS cases (Figure 7). This includes 57 newly confirmed cases in
March 2005 (Figure 8). Fourteen cases of scrapie in goats have been reported
since 1990 (Figure 9). The last goat cases was reported in January 2005. New
infected flocks, source flocks, and flocks released or put on clean-up plans
for FY 2005 are depicted in Figure 10. ...
FULL TEXT ;
http://www.aphis.usda.gov/vs/nahps/scrapie/monthly_report/monthly-report.html
Published online before print October 20, 2005
Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 10.1073/pnas.0502296102
Medical Sciences
A newly identified type of scrapie agent can naturally infect sheep with resistant PrP genotypes
( sheep prion | transgenic mice )
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 *
*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, and approved September 12, 2005 (received for review March 21, 2005)
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.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Author contributions: H.L. designed research; A.L.D., V.B., O.A., F.R., T.L.L., J.-L.V., and H.L. performed research; T.B., B.B., P.S., and S.L.B. contributed new reagents/analytic tools; V.B., O.A., and H.L. analyzed data; and H.L. wrote the paper.
A.L.D. and V.B. contributed equally to this work.
To whom correspondence should be addressed.
Hubert Laude, E-mail: [email protected]
www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.0502296102
http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/abstract/0502296102v1
TSS
#################### https://lists.aegee.org/bse-l.html ####################
