title: Transmission and adaptation of chronic wasting disease to hamsters and transgenic mice: evidence for strains.
abstract: In vitro screening using the cell-free prion protein conversion system indicated that certain rodents may be susceptible to chronic wasting disease (CWD). Therefore, CWD isolates from mule deer, white-tailed deer, and elk were inoculated intracerebrally into various rodent species to assess the rodents' susceptibility and to develop new rodent models of CWD. The species inoculated were Syrian golden, Djungarian, Chinese, Siberian, and Armenian hamsters, transgenic mice expressing the Syrian golden hamster prion protein, and RML Swiss and C57BL10 wild-type mice. The transgenic mice and the Syrian golden, Chinese, Siberian, and Armenian hamsters had limited susceptibility to certain of the CWD inocula, as evidenced by incomplete attack rates and long incubation periods. For serial passages of CWD isolates in Syrian golden hamsters, incubation periods rapidly stabilized, with isolates having either short (85 to 89 days) or long (408 to 544 days) mean incubation periods and distinct neuropathological patterns. In contrast, wild-type mouse strains and Djungarian hamsters were not susceptible to CWD. These results show that CWD can be transmitted and adapted to some species of rodents and suggest that the cervid-derived CWD inocula may have contained or diverged into at least two distinct transmissible spongiform encephalopathy strains.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Persistent Viral Diseases, Rocky Mountain Veterinary Branch, NIAID, NIH, Rocky Mountain Labs, 903 S. 4th St., Hamilton, MT 59840, USA.
authors.forename: Gregory J
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: Raymond
authors.forename: Lynne D
authors.initials: LD
authors.lastname: Raymond
authors.forename: Kimberly D
authors.initials: KD
authors.lastname: Meade-White
authors.forename: Andrew G
authors.initials: AG
authors.lastname: Hughson
authors.forename: Cynthia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Favara
authors.forename: Donald
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Gardner
authors.forename: Elizabeth S
authors.initials: ES
authors.lastname: Williams
authors.forename: Michael W
authors.initials: MW
authors.lastname: Miller
authors.forename: Richard E
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: Race
authors.forename: Byron
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Caughey
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001921:Brain / Q000473:pathology; D006224:Cricetinae; D003412:Cricetulus; D003670:Deer; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D004198:Disease Susceptibility; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008647:Mesocricetus; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D008822:Mice, Transgenic; D017111:Phodopus; D013045:Species Specificity; D034081:Wasting Disease, Chronic