The Strain Properties of Korean and North American Chronic Wasting Disease Prions Are Indistinguishable.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Chronic wasting disease (CWD) in North America is an ineradicable and deadly infectious neurodegenerative disorder of free-ranging and captive cervids caused by prions. While CWD was inadvertently introduced to South Korea (SK) following importation of subclinically diseased elk from North America, it is unclear whether this event represented a bottleneck infection by an uncommon prion strain and/or if variant strains evolved during subsequent transmissions to additional farmed cervid species residing in SK. Considerable uncertainty therefore surrounds the prevalence and properties of SK CWD prion strains.

Methods

We propagated prions from the brains of 9 diseased SK cervids to multiple lines of genetically modified, CWD-susceptible mice. We ascertained the strain

SUBMITTER: Sohn HJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12455324 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature