Studies of the transmissibility of the agent of bovine spongiform encephalopathy to the domestic chicken.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Transmission of the prion disease bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) occurred accidentally to cattle and several other mammalian species via feed supplemented with meat and bone meal contaminated with infected bovine tissue. Prior to United Kingdom controls in 1996 on the feeding of mammalian meat and bone meal to farmed animals, the domestic chicken was potentially exposed to feed contaminated with the causal agent of BSE. Although confirmed prion diseases are unrecorded in avian species a study was undertaken to transmit BSE to the domestic chicken by parenteral and oral inoculations. Transmissibility was assessed by clinical monitoring, histopathological examinations, detection of a putative disease form of an avian prion protein (PrP) in recipient tissues and by

SUBMITTER: Moore J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3341577 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature