title: PrP gene polymorphism in sheep breeds in Slovakia and susceptibility to scrapie.
abstract: We analyzed the prion protein (PrP) genotype based on the codons 136, 154 and 171 and assigned to five risk groups (R1-R5) in healthy and scrapie-affected sheep in Slovakia. In healthy (asymptomatic) population, 119 Merino, 106 Improved Valachian, 117 Tsigai, and 48 Suffolk breeds were tested. Among the asymptomatic sheep, the low-risk genotypes R1 and R2 were most abundant in Suffolk (94%) and Merino (84%) breeds, followed by Tsigai (58%) and Improved Valachian (40%) breeds. The medium-risk group R3 was most frequent in Improved Valachian (31%) breed, followed by Tsigai (21%), Merino (10%), and Suffolk (6%) breeds. The occurrence of high-risk groups R4 and R5 was none in Suffolk breed, followed by Merino (6%), Tsigai (21%), and Improved Valachian (30%) breeds. Since 2003, altogether 48 cases of scrapie have been confirmed in Tsigai (38), Merino (4), Improved Valachian (2), Improved Valachian x Tsigai (3), and Suffolk (1) breeds. Among sheep with scrapie, Merino breed belonged to the medium-risk group R3. The majority of scrapie-affected Tsigai sheep were classified into high-risk R5 (50%) and medium-risk R3 (42%) groups. We showed an association of scrapie with medium- and high-risk groups of PrP genotype in Slovakia. In particular, the glutamine at position 171 appears to be of major importance for the susceptibility to scrapie.
authors.affiliation: University of Veterinary Medicine, Komenskeho 73, 04181 Kosice, Slovak Republic.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Tkáciková
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Rolková
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Bíres
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Novák
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Kontseková
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Imrichová
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bhide
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Hanusovská
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Mikula
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Novák
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003062:Codon / Q000235:genetics; D004591:Electrophoresis, Polyacrylamide Gel; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease; D005838:Genotype; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009691:Nucleic Acid Denaturation; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic; D011328:Prions / Q000235:genetics*; D012608:Scrapie / Q000235:genetics*; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D012756:Sheep / Q000235:genetics*; D018154:Slovakia
chemical_list: D003062:Codon; D011328:Prions