Risk of oral infection with bovine spongiform encephalopathy agent in primates.
The uncertain extent of human exposure to bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE)--which can lead to variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD)--is compounded by incomplete knowledge about the efficiency of oral infection and the magnitude of any bovine-to-human biological barrier to transmission. We therefore investigated oral transmission of BSE to non-human primates. We gave two macaques a 5 g oral dose of brain homogenate from a BSE-infected cow. One macaque developed vCJD-like neurological disease 60 months after exposure, whereas the other remained free of disease at 76 months. On the basis of these findings and data from other studies, we made a preliminary estimate of the food exposure risk for man, which provides additional assurance that existing public health measures can prevent transmission of BSE to man.
Lasmézas
Corinne Ida
CI
Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique/Direction des Sciences du Vivant/Départment de Recherche Médicale, 18 Route du Panorama, 92265 Fontenay-aux-Roses, France.
Comoy
Emmanuel
E
Hawkins
Stephen
S
Herzog
Christian
C
Mouthon
Franck
F
Konold
Timm
T
Auvré
Frédéric
F
Correia
Evelyne
E
Lescoutra-Etchegaray
Nathalie
N
Salès
Nicole
N
Wells
Gerald
G
Brown
Paul
P
Deslys
Jean-Philippe
JP
D000818:Animals; D001921:Brain / Q000473:pathology; D001923:Brain Chemistry; D002417:Cattle; D007562:Creutzfeldt-Jakob Syndrome / Q000635:transmission; D004435:Eating; D016643:Encephalopathy, Bovine Spongiform / Q000473:pathology / Q000635:transmission*; D005506:Food Contamination; D008252:Macaca fascicularis; D018620:PrPSc Proteins / Q000032:analysis; D018419:Primate Diseases / Q000635:transmission*
D018620:PrPSc Proteins