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Serial Passage of Sheep Scrapie Inoculum in Suffolk Sheep

National Animal Disease Center, ARS, USDA, 2300 Dayton Avenue, Ames, IA (JAR¹)

Abstract

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.

Key words: Immunohistochemistry; PrP genetic susceptibility; sheep scrapie strains; transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs); Western blot.

Request reprints from Dr. Amir N Hamir, National Animal Disease Center, ARS, USDA, 2300 Dayton AvenuePO Box 70, Ames, IA 50010 (USA). E-mail: amir.hamir{at}ars.usda.gov

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