Ovine scrapie: follow-up of sheep belonging to an endemic scrapie-infected flock.
There is a close similarity between the unconventional virus-induced ovine scrapie and human Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. Since infection might be transmitted orally, the ovine production of an endemically scrapie-infected farm was studied. About 80% of the annual production are sold (50% as butcher-meat, 30% as breeding animals), and scrapie appears in 20% of the sheep kept on the farm. Was the same proportion of butcher-meat animals scrapie-infected? Since the scrapie agent has been detected in "clinically normal" lambs, the same problem occurs with breeding-sheep and "apparently healthy" animals: are they carriers of the pathogenic agent? Are they responsible for the spread of the ovine disease and/or of the human disease?
Chatelain
J
J
Formation de Recherche Associée C. Bernard Neurochimie des Communications Cellulaires, Hôpital St Louis, Paris, France.
Dautheville-Guibal
C
C
D000818:Animals; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D005602:France; D008297:Male; D012307:Risk Factors; D012608:Scrapie / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000635:transmission; D012756:Sheep