A United States Department of Agriculture research service scientist in Ames, Iowa, has developed a laboratory analysis that might lead to a diagnostic test for the family of diseases that include scrapie and mad cow disease.
The disease family, part of the groups called transmissible spongiform encephalopathies, is believed to be caused by abnormal proteins called prions.
The laboratory test, developed by chemist Mary Jo Schmerr, detects prions in the blood of animals and humans.
The most well known example of these diseases is bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease, which appeared in Great Britain in 1986.
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There are no documented cases of BSE in the United States and only one in Canada, which was in an animal imported from Britain. But all sheep are susceptible to another type of TSE known as scrapie.
Various types
Elk and mule deer get chronic wasting disease, and mink are susceptible to another form of transmissible encephalopathy.
Human forms of TSE that affect the brain include Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and kuru. Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease is rare in North America and kuru has never been seen outside New Guinea.
“Further development of this assay may lead to a diagnostic test for this fatal disease agent in animals and humans. Such a diagnostic test would be an important tool for the control of these diseases,” said agriculture service administrator Floyd Horn.
The British beef industry has been severely hurt by the presence of BSE in cattle. It would have a similar devastating impact in North America.
Schmerr, who works at the animal disease centre in Ames, and Andrew Alpert of Polylc, Inc. in Columbia, Maryland, are co-inventors of the lab procedure.
The agricultural research service and Fort Dodge Animal Health of Fort Dodge, Iowa, have signed a co-operative research and development agreement to develop a test kit for use in diagnosing TSEs in animals. ARS is applying for a patent.
