Prions in skeletal muscles of deer with chronic wasting disease.
The emergence of chronic wasting disease (CWD) in deer and elk in an increasingly wide geographic area, as well as the interspecies transmission of bovine spongiform encephalopathy to humans in the form of variant Creutzfeldt Jakob disease, have raised concerns about the zoonotic potential of CWD. Because meat consumption is the most likely means of exposure, it is important to determine whether skeletal muscle of diseased cervids contains prion infectivity. Here bioassays in transgenic mice expressing cervid prion protein revealed the presence of infectious prions in skeletal muscles of CWD-infected deer, demonstrating that humans consuming or handling meat from CWD-infected deer are at risk to prion exposure.
Angers
Rachel C
RC
Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Molecular Genetics, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40536, USA.
Browning
Shawn R
SR
Seward
Tanya S
TS
Sigurdson
Christina J
CJ
Miller
Michael W
MW
Hoover
Edward A
EA
Telling
Glenn C
GC
D000818:Animals; D001923:Brain Chemistry; D003670:Deer; D006801:Humans; D051379:Mice; D008822:Mice, Transgenic; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal / Q000737:chemistry*; D018620:PrPSc Proteins / Q000032:analysis*; D011328:Prions / Q000032:analysis*; D014020:Tissue Extracts / Q000008:administration & dosage; D034081:Wasting Disease, Chronic / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000635:transmission*
D018620:PrPSc Proteins; D011328:Prions; D014020:Tissue Extracts