A species barrier limits transmission of chronic wasting disease to mink (Mustela vison).

ABSTRACT: Transmissible mink encephalopathy (TME) occurs as sporadic outbreaks associated with ingestion of feed presumably contaminated with some type of prion disease. Mink lack a species barrier to primary oral challenge with bovine spongiform encephalopathy, whereas they have a barrier to such challenge with scrapie. We investigated whether mink have a species barrier to chronic wasting disease (CWD) by performing primary intracerebral (IC) and primary oral challenge with CWD-positive elk brain. Primary IC challenge resulted in clinical disease in two of eight mink at 31-33 months incubation. Affected mink had spongiform vacuolation and astrocytosis within the central nervous system and immunoreactivity to disease-associated prion protein (PrP(d)) in brain, retina and lymph node. CWD IC recipien

SUBMITTER: Harrington RD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2435087 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature