title: An overview of animal prion diseases.
abstract: Prion diseases are transmissible neurodegenerative conditions affecting human and a wide range of animal species. The pathogenesis of prion diseases is associated with the accumulation of aggregates of misfolded conformers of host-encoded cellular prion protein (PrPC). Animal prion diseases include scrapie of sheep and goats, bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) or mad cow disease, transmissible mink encephalopathy, feline spongiform encephalopathy, exotic ungulate spongiform encephalopathy, chronic wasting disease of cervids and spongiform encephalopathy of primates. Although some cases of sporadic atypical scrapie and BSE have also been reported, animal prion diseases have basically occurred via the acquisition of infection from contaminated feed or via the exposure to contaminated environment. Scrapie and chronic wasting disease are naturally sustaining epidemics. The transmission of BSE to human has caused more than 200 cases of variant Cruetzfeldt-Jacob disease and has raised serious public health concerns. The present review discusses the epidemiology, clinical neuropathology, transmissibility and genetics of animal prion diseases.
authors: 1Centre for Research in Endocrinology and Reproductive Sciences (CRERS), Department of Physiology and Cell Biology, University of Health Sciences (UHS), Khayaban-e-Jamia Punjab, Lahore 54600, Pakistan.
authors: Muhammad
authors: M
authors: Imran
authors: Saqib
authors: S
authors: Mahmood
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002415:Cats; D002417:Cattle; D006041:Goats; D008907:Mink; D011323:Primates; D017096:Prion Diseases / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology / Q000635:transmission / Q000662:veterinary*; D012756:Sheep