First of all, our test was indeed initiated with testing on human patients at the Prion Surveillance Center in Cleveland. A large number of patients were tested and the findings have been published in the Journal of The Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine. I am currently in discussion with the same laboratory for the purpose of beggining full scale trials and validation specifically for CJD. Our test was designed first and formost for the detection of the prion in CJD patients.
Tam, a good question and the simply answer is "Yes," prions are carried throughout the body through the blood system. As for testing blood, you are correct in that blood is easier to get but unfortunately, not so easy to test. Blood is a highly complex matrix and carries many nutrients including numerous "other" proteins." The test would certainly work well in blood but the down-side is that there is far too great a risk in having false positives occuring due to high concentration of other proteins. Urine is actually easy to collect. It is done with a Neilsen Tube which is inserted into the urethra and down into the bladder. Usually this is done when the animal is detained in the squeeze.
I hope this answers your questions. Ron.