Thursday, August 06, 2015
WE HAVE LOST TEXAS TO CWD TASK FORCE CATERING TO INDUSTRY
which is why we are in this mess to begin with...tss
Two more diseased deer found in Medina County 
By Zeke MacCormack
August 6, 2015 
Two more deer tested positive for chronic wasting disease from the Medina 
County ranch where a buck was earlier found with the neurological malady, a 
Texas Parks and Wildlife Department spokesman said Thursday.
Additional screening will be done at a federal facility in Iowa to confirm 
the preliminary lab results and preclude the possibility of false positives, 
Steve Lightfoot of TPWD said.
“It’s just another step in the investigative process,” Lightfoot said 
before a state CWD task force met Thursday to discuss and develop a response 
strategy to the outbreak.
Robert Patterson, owner of the Texas Mountain Ranch where three pen-raised 
white tails have been identified as CWD carriers, did not respond to calls 
seeking comment. 
A positive test at the ranch north of Hondo in June marked the first case 
in Texas of CWD in a captive-raised deer, prompting state officials to restrict 
the sale and movement of stock held by most breeders as they investigate its 
origin and reach. 
Patterson earlier said state officials had considered killing all 238 deer 
in his breeding stock for testing, but a compromise saw initial testing limited 
to 35 deer there that were considered to be at most risk.
An additional seven deer were tested last week, state officials revealed 
Thursday, but the test results are not back yet on them.
Chronic wasting disease is a form of transmissible spongiform 
encephalopathy, which also includes “mad cow disease” and scrapie, which affects 
sheep. Unlike mad cow disease, CWD is not considered a threat to human 
health.
Asked if additional testing would occur at Patterson’s ranch, Lightfoot 
said, “We’ll take some guidance from the task force.”
Texas is unique among states in allowing captive-bred deer to be released 
into the wild, raising the prospect of infection of native deer, said Clayton 
Wolf, director of wildlife for the Texas Parks and Recreation Department.
The state response is being led by the Texas Animal Health Services 
Commission, which had not responded to calls seeking an update at the time of 
this report.
State Veterinarian Dee Ellis, who leads the commission, previously called 
crafting a response “a very complex situation.”
He said the agency is trying to craft CWD guidelines that protect native 
deer but also permit the sale, movement and release of captive-raised deer 
deemed to be low-risk.zeke@express-news.net 
I listened to this cwd task force meeting. I was floored. catering to the 
industry will get us no where. liberation of herds that have not been tested in 
years, just test a few now to make up, test how ever you want, and let them go. 
closed door meetings, TAHC will not talk, typical Texas animal control by 
TAHC. cover up at all cost, just like mad cow disease.
they have not a clue of the incident rate of cwd in Texas, by their own 
mathematical standards.
we have lost Texas folks to CWD, and there is no going back now...it’s out 
of control...and it has been...just my take///
Live Audio
mentality of the Texas cwd captive game farmers and the likes of those that 
hunt them, no one need any further than from this outspoken pro shooting pen 
 ;
xxxxx 
xxxxxx stated --- Here's a good question. If CWD is such a bad thing for deer in 
the wild, can you please let me know of a single instance where a deer in the 
wild died from CWD? All I'm asking for is one single instance anywhere. I look 
forward to someone enlightening me on this as there are so many experts on the 
subject on this page...
Keith, that dog don’t hunt. does a bear crap in the woods, or, if a tree 
falls in the forest, does it make noise, and or Alzheimer’s does not kill, 
because something else kills you first. have you looked at the alzheimer’s stats 
lately? not playing that game keith. or ask those piles of 178,428 confirmed 
dead mad cows in England, ask them if they were dead. cwd tse prion like any 
other, is 100% fatal once clinical, and yes, something else might kill you 
first. infection rates in captives are sky high in some instances i.e. 79.8%, 
and if left to spread, well, I can’t imagine that. don’t want to. but from your 
own analogy Keith, it would be o.k. to just let them all become infected with 
cwd, just because, and just hope for some breeder can Frankenstein us a TSE 
resistant super buck with a big rack, another gene freak, compliments of the 
breeders and the sperm mills, trying to fix, something that was not broke, and 
in my opinion, what the captive industry are responsible for in part, in the 
first place, and frankly, I don’t want another freak show. my God did not intend 
it to be this way. sorry. but with the analogy of Keith, that could be just what 
happens i.e. 
‘’well, let’s go down to the farm tomorrow boys, walk us up to the feeder, 
and shoot us one of those genetic modified cwd resistant big old slobbering, 
stumbling, skinny, old bucks, with the great big antlers, and maybe we will not 
get mad deer disease. ‘’
I will pass on that keith.
so, follow the captive game farming industry on down that yellow brick road 
of $$$ and see where that takes you. then ask yourself how that worked out with 
the ARR/ARR scrapie resistant sheep. when you think you have one resistant, the 
durn thing mutates into another strain that is not resistant. not my thing 
keith, you can keep your freak show. 
right now, we have no genetic resistant cervid.
right now, and I am going to try and take up for the gov a bit, but to do a 
study on a captive herd full of cwd, and contain that in an experimental 
environment, housing and such, and then contain that area where nothing enters 
or exits, is very costly, and difficult, with animals so big. you just double 
fence a farm with cwd tse prion, and call it a study like that, and your asking 
for trouble. 
scorched earth for now, that’s all we have in my opinion.
consider yourself enlightened keith... 
The overall incidence of clinical CWD in white-tailed deer was 82%
Species (cohort) CWD (cases/total) Incidence (%) Age at CWD death 
(mo)
HIGHEST INFECTION RATE ON SEVERAL CWD CONFIRMED CAPTIVES 
CHRONIC WASTING DISEASE CWD WISCONSIN Almond Deer (Buckhorn Flats) Farm 
Update DECEMBER 2011 
The CWD infection rate was nearly 80%, the highest ever in a North American 
captive herd. 
RECOMMENDATION: That the Board approve the purchase of 80 acres of land for 
$465,000 for the Statewide Wildlife Habitat Program in Portage County and 
approve the restrictions on public use of the site.
SUMMARY:
For Immediate Release Thursday, October 2, 2014 
Dustin Vande Hoef 515/281-3375 or 515/326-1616 (cell) or 
Dustin.VandeHoef@IowaAgriculture.gov
*** TEST RESULTS FROM CAPTIVE DEER HERD WITH CHRONIC WASTING DISEASE 
RELEASED 79.8 percent of the deer tested positive for the disease
DES MOINES – The Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship today 
announced that the test results from the depopulation of a quarantined captive 
deer herd in north-central Iowa showed that 284 of the 356 deer, or 79.8% of the 
herd, tested positive for Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD). 
*** see history of this CWD blunder here ; 
On June 5, 2013, DNR conducted a fence inspection, after gaining approval 
from surrounding landowners, and confirmed that the fenced had been cut or 
removed in at least four separate locations; that the fence had degraded and was 
failing to maintain the enclosure around the Quarantined Premises in at least 
one area; that at least three gates had been opened;and that deer tracks were 
visible in and around one of the open areas in the sand on both sides of the 
fence, evidencing movement of deer into the Quarantined Premises.
*** Spraker suggested an interesting explanation for the occurrence of CWD. 
The deer pens at the Foot Hills Campus were built some 30-40 years ago by a Dr. 
Bob Davis. At or abut that time, allegedly, some scrapie work was conducted at 
this site. When deer were introduced to the pens they occupied ground that had 
previously been occupied by sheep. 
2012 
PO-039: A comparison of scrapie and chronic wasting disease in white-tailed 
deer 
Justin Greenlee, Jodi Smith, Eric Nicholson US Dept. Agriculture; 
Agricultural Research Service, National Animal Disease Center; Ames, IA USA 
*** After a natural route of exposure, 100% of WTD were susceptible to 
scrapie. 
*** This work demonstrates that WTD are highly susceptible to sheep 
scrapie, but on first passage, scrapie in WTD is differentiable from CWD. 
the tse prion aka mad cow type disease is not your normal pathogen.
The TSE prion disease survives ashing to 600 degrees celsius, that’s around 
1112 degrees farenheit. 
you cannot cook the TSE prion disease out of meat. 
you can take the ash and mix it with saline and inject that ash into a 
mouse, and the mouse will go down with TSE. 
Prion Infected Meat-and-Bone Meal Is Still Infectious after Biodiesel 
Production as well. 
the TSE prion agent also survives Simulated Wastewater Treatment Processes. 
IN fact, you should also know that the TSE Prion agent will survive in the 
environment for years, if not decades. 
you can bury it and it will not go away. 
The TSE agent is capable of infected your water table i.e. Detection of 
protease-resistant cervid prion protein in water from a CWD-endemic area. 
it’s not your ordinary pathogen you can just cook it out and be done with. 
that’s what’s so worrisome about Iatrogenic mode of transmission, a simple 
autoclave will not kill this TSE prion agent. 
New studies on the heat resistance of hamster-adapted scrapie agent: 
Threshold survival after ashing at 600°C suggests an inorganic template of 
replication 
The infectious agents responsible for transmissible spongiform 
encephalopathy (TSE) are notoriously resistant to most physical and chemical 
methods used for inactivating pathogens, including heat. It has long been 
recognized, for example, that boiling is ineffective and that higher 
temperatures are most efficient when combined with steam under pressure (i.e., 
autoclaving). As a means of decontamination, dry heat is used only at the 
extremely high temperatures achieved during incineration, usually in excess of 
600°C. It has been assumed, without proof, that incineration totally inactivates 
the agents of TSE, whether of human or animal origin. 
Prion Infected Meat-and-Bone Meal Is Still Infectious after Biodiesel 
Production 
Histochemical analysis of hamster brains inoculated with the solid residue 
showed typical spongiform degeneration and vacuolation. Re-inoculation of these 
brains into a new cohort of hamsters led to onset of clinical scrapie symptoms 
within 75 days, suggesting that the specific infectivity of the prion protein 
was not changed during the biodiesel process. The biodiesel reaction cannot be 
considered a viable prion decontamination method for MBM, although we observed 
increased survival time of hamsters and reduced infectivity greater than 6 log 
orders in the solid MBM residue. Furthermore, results from our study compare for 
the first time prion detection by Western Blot versus an infectivity bioassay 
for analysis of biodiesel reaction products. We could show that biochemical 
analysis alone is insufficient for detection of prion infectivity after a 
biodiesel process. 
Detection of protease-resistant cervid prion protein in water from a 
CWD-endemic area 
The data presented here demonstrate that sPMCA can detect low levels of 
PrPCWD in the environment, corroborate previous biological and experimental data 
suggesting long term persistence of prions in the environment2,3 and imply that 
PrPCWD accumulation over time may contribute to transmission of CWD in areas 
where it has been endemic for decades. This work demonstrates the utility of 
sPMCA to evaluate other environmental water sources for PrPCWD, including 
smaller bodies of water such as vernal pools and wallows, where large numbers of 
cervids congregate and into which prions from infected animals may be shed and 
concentrated to infectious levels. 
A Quantitative Assessment of the Amount of Prion Diverted to Category 1 
Materials and Wastewater During Processing 
Keywords:Abattoir;bovine spongiform encephalopathy;QRA;scrapie;TSE
In this article the development and parameterization of a quantitative 
assessment is described that estimates the amount of TSE infectivity that is 
present in a whole animal carcass (bovine spongiform encephalopathy [BSE] for 
cattle and classical/atypical scrapie for sheep and lambs) and the amounts that 
subsequently fall to the floor during processing at facilities that handle 
specified risk material (SRM). BSE in cattle was found to contain the most oral 
doses, with a mean of 9864 BO ID50s (310, 38840) in a whole carcass compared to 
a mean of 1851 OO ID50s (600, 4070) and 614 OO ID50s (155, 1509) for a sheep 
infected with classical and atypical scrapie, respectively. Lambs contained the 
least infectivity with a mean of 251 OO ID50s (83, 548) for classical scrapie 
and 1 OO ID50s (0.2, 2) for atypical scrapie. The highest amounts of infectivity 
falling to the floor and entering the drains from slaughtering a whole carcass 
at SRM facilities were found to be from cattle infected with BSE at rendering 
and large incineration facilities with 7.4 BO ID50s (0.1, 29), intermediate 
plants and small incinerators with a mean of 4.5 BO ID50s (0.1, 18), and 
collection centers, 3.6 BO ID50s (0.1, 14). The lowest amounts entering drains 
are from lambs infected with classical and atypical scrapie at intermediate 
plants and atypical scrapie at collection centers with a mean of 3 × 10−7 OO 
ID50s (2 × 10−8, 1 × 10−6) per carcass. The results of this model provide key 
inputs for the model in the companion paper published here. 
============================================================================
*** Infectious agent of sheep scrapie may persist in the environment for at 
least 16 years *** 
Gudmundur Georgsson1, Sigurdur Sigurdarson2 and Paul Brown3 
============================================================================ 
Longitudinal Detection of Prion Shedding in Saliva and Urine by 
CWD-Infected Deer by RT-QuIC 
Davin M. Henderson1, Nathaniel D. Denkers1, Clare E. Hoover1, Nina 
Garbino1, Candace K. Mathiason1 and Edward A. Hoover1# + Author 
Affiliations
1Prion Research Center, Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and 
Pathology, College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, Colorado 
State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523 ABSTRACT Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) 
is an emergent, rapidly spreading prion disease of cervids. Shedding of 
infectious prions in saliva and urine is thought to be an important factor in 
CWD transmission. To help elucidate this issue, we applied an in vitro 
amplification assay to determine the onset, duration, and magnitude of prion 
shedding in longitudinally collected saliva and urine samples from CWD-exposed 
white-tailed deer. We detected prion shedding as early as 3 months after CWD 
exposure and sustained shedding throughout the disease course. We estimated that 
a 50% lethal dose (LD50) for cervidized transgenic mice would be contained in 1 
ml of infected deer saliva or 10 ml or urine. Given the average course of 
infection and daily production of these body fluids, an infected deer would shed 
thousands of prion infectious dosesover the course of CWD infection. The direct 
and indirect environmental impact of this magnitude of prion shedding for cervid 
and non-cervid species is surely significant. 
Importance: Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is an emerging and uniformly 
fatal prion disease affecting free ranging deer and elk and now recognized in 22 
United States and 2 C anadian Provinces. It is unique among prion diseases in 
that it is transmitted naturally though wild populations. A major hypothesis for 
CWD's florid spread is that prions are shed in excreta and transmitted via 
direct or indirect environmental contact. Here we use a rapid in vitro assay to 
show that infectious doses of CWD prions are in fact shed throughout the 
multi-year disease course in deer. This finding is an important advance in 
assessing the risks posed by shed CWD prions to animals as well as humans. 
FOOTNOTES
↵#To whom correspondence should be addressed: Edward A. Hoover, Prion 
Research Center, Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Pathology, Colorado 
State University, Fort Collins, Colorado, US Email: edward.hoover@colostate.edu 
98 | Veterinary Record | January 24, 2015
EDITORIAL
Scrapie: a particularly persistent pathogen
Cristina Acín
Resistant prions in the environment have been the sword of Damocles for 
scrapie control and eradication. Attempts to establish which physical and 
chemical agents could be applied to inactivate or moderate scrapie infectivity 
were initiated in the 1960s and 1970s,with the first study of this type focusing 
on the effect of heat treatment in reducing prion infectivity (Hunter and 
Millson 1964). Nowadays, most of the chemical procedures that aim to inactivate 
the prion protein are based on the method developed by Kimberlin and 
collaborators (1983). This procedure consists of treatment with 20,000 parts per 
million free chlorine solution, for a minimum of one hour, of all surfaces that 
need to be sterilised (in laboratories, lambing pens, slaughterhouses, and so 
on). Despite this, veterinarians and farmers may still ask a range of questions, 
such as ‘Is there an official procedure published somewhere?’ and ‘Is there an 
international organisation which recommends and defines the exact method of 
scrapie decontamination that must be applied?’
From a European perspective, it is difficult to find a treatment that could 
be applied, especially in relation to the disinfection of surfaces in lambing 
pens of affected flocks. A 999/2001 EU regulation on controlling spongiform 
encephalopathies (European Parliament and Council 2001) did not specify a 
particular decontamination measure to be used when an outbreak of scrapie is 
diagnosed. There is only a brief recommendation in Annex VII concerning the 
control and eradication of transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSE 
s).
Chapter B of the regulation explains the measures that must be applied if 
new caprine animals are to be introduced to a holding where a scrapie outbreak 
has previously been diagnosed. In that case, the statement indicates that 
caprine animals can be introduced ‘provided that a cleaning and disinfection of 
all animal housing on the premises has been carried out following 
destocking’.
Issues around cleaning and disinfection are common in prion prevention 
recommendations, but relevant authorities, veterinarians and farmers may have 
difficulties in finding the specific protocol which applies. The European Food 
and Safety Authority (EFSA ) published a detailed report about the efficacy of 
certain biocides, such as sodium hydroxide, sodium hypochlorite, guanidine and 
even a formulation of copper or iron metal ions in combination with hydrogen 
peroxide, against prions (EFSA 2009). The report was based on scientific 
evidence (Fichet and others 2004, Lemmer and others 2004, Gao and others 2006, 
Solassol and others 2006) but unfortunately the decontamination measures were 
not assessed under outbreak conditions.
The EFSA Panel on Biological Hazards recently published its conclusions on 
the scrapie situation in the EU after 10 years of monitoring and control of the 
disease in sheep and goats (EFSA 2014), and one of the most interesting findings 
was the Icelandic experience regarding the effect of disinfection in scrapie 
control. The Icelandic plan consisted of: culling scrapie-affected sheep or the 
whole flock in newly diagnosed outbreaks; deep cleaning and disinfection of 
stables, sheds, barns and equipment with high pressure washing followed by 
cleaning with 500 parts per million of hypochlorite; drying and treatment with 
300 ppm of iodophor; and restocking was not permitted for at least two years. 
Even when all of these measures were implemented, scrapie recurred on several 
farms, indicating that the infectious agent survived for years in the 
environment, even as many as 16 years after restocking (Georgsson and others 
2006).
In the rest of the countries considered in the EFSA (2014) report, 
recommendations for disinfection measures were not specifically defined at the 
government level. In the report, the only recommendation that is made for sheep 
is repopulation with sheep with scrapie-resistant genotypes. This reduces the 
risk of scrapie recurrence but it is difficult to know its effect on the 
infection.
Until the EFSA was established (in May 2003), scientific opinions about TSE 
s were provided by the Scientific Steering Committee (SSC) of the EC, whose 
advice regarding inactivation procedures focused on treating animal waste at 
high temperatures (150°C for three hours) and high pressure alkaline hydrolysis 
(SSC 2003). At the same time, the TSE Risk Management Subgroup of the Advisory 
Committee on Dangerous Pathogens (ACDP) in the UK published guidance on safe 
working and the prevention of TSE infection. Annex C of the ACDP report 
established that sodium hypochlorite was considered to be effective, but only if 
20,000 ppm of available chlorine was present for at least one hour, which has 
practical limitations such as the release of chlorine gas, corrosion, 
incompatibility with formaldehyde, alcohols and acids, rapid inactivation of its 
active chemicals and the stability of dilutions (ACDP 2009).
In an international context, the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) 
does not recommend a specific disinfection protocol for prion agents in its 
Terrestrial Code or Manual. Chapter 4.13 of the Terrestrial Code, General 
recommendations on disinfection and disinsection (OIE 2014), focuses on 
foot-and-mouth disease virus, mycobacteria and Bacillus anthracis, but not on 
prion disinfection. Nevertheless, the last update published by the OIE on bovine 
spongiform encephalopathy (OIE 2012) indicates that few effective 
decontamination techniques are available to inactivate the agent on surfaces, 
and recommends the removal of all organic material and the use of sodium 
hydroxide, or a sodium hypochlorite solution containing 2 per cent available 
chlorine, for more than one hour at 20ºC.
The World Health Organization outlines guidelines for the control of TSE s, 
and also emphasises the importance of mechanically cleaning surfaces before 
disinfection with sodium hydroxide or sodium hypochlorite for one hour (WHO 
1999).
Finally, the relevant agencies in both Canada and the USA suggest that the 
best treatments for surfaces potentially contaminated with prions are sodium 
hydroxide or sodium hypochlorite at 20,000 ppm. This is a 2 per cent solution, 
while most commercial household bleaches contain 5.25 per cent sodium 
hypochlorite. It is therefore recommended to dilute one part 5.25 per cent 
bleach with 1.5 parts water (CDC 2009, Canadian Food Inspection Agency 
2013).
So what should we do about disinfection against prions? First, it is 
suggested that a single protocol be created by international authorities to 
homogenise inactivation procedures and enable their application in all 
scrapie-affected countries. Sodium hypochlorite with 20,000 ppm of available 
chlorine seems to be the procedure used in most countries, as noted in a paper 
summarised on p 99 of this issue of Veterinary Record (Hawkins and others 2015). 
But are we totally sure of its effectiveness as a preventive measure in a 
scrapie outbreak? Would an in-depth study of the recurrence of scrapie disease 
be needed?
What we can conclude is that, if we want to fight prion diseases, and 
specifically classical scrapie, we must focus on the accuracy of diagnosis, 
monitoring and surveillance; appropriate animal identification and control of 
movements; and, in the end, have homogeneous and suitable protocols to 
decontaminate and disinfect lambing barns, sheds and equipment available to 
veterinarians and farmers. Finally, further investigations into the resistance 
of prion proteins in the diversity of environmental surfaces are required.
References
snip...
98 | Veterinary Record | January 24, 2015
Persistence of ovine scrapie infectivity in a farm environment following 
cleaning and decontamination 
Steve A. C. Hawkins, MIBiol, Pathology Department1, Hugh A. Simmons, BVSc 
MRCVS, MBA, MA Animal Services Unit1, Kevin C. Gough, BSc, PhD2 and Ben C. 
Maddison, BSc, PhD3 + Author Affiliations
1Animal and Plant Health Agency, Woodham Lane, New Haw, Addlestone, Surrey 
KT15 3NB, UK 2School of Veterinary Medicine and Science, The University of 
Nottingham, Sutton Bonington, Loughborough, Leicestershire LE12 5RD, UK 3ADAS 
UK, School of Veterinary Medicine and Science, The University of Nottingham, 
Sutton Bonington, Loughborough, Leicestershire LE12 5RD, UK E-mail for 
correspondence: ben.maddison@adas.co.uk Abstract Scrapie of sheep/goats and 
chronic wasting disease of deer/elk are contagious prion diseases where 
environmental reservoirs are directly implicated in the transmission of disease. 
In this study, the effectiveness of recommended scrapie farm decontamination 
regimens was evaluated by a sheep bioassay using buildings naturally 
contaminated with scrapie. Pens within a farm building were treated with either 
20,000 parts per million free chorine solution for one hour or were treated with 
the same but were followed by painting and full re-galvanisation or replacement 
of metalwork within the pen. Scrapie susceptible lambs of the PRNP genotype 
VRQ/VRQ were reared within these pens and their scrapie status was monitored by 
recto-anal mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue. All animals became infected over 
an 18-month period, even in the pen that had been subject to the most stringent 
decontamination process. These data suggest that recommended current guidelines 
for the decontamination of farm buildings following outbreaks of scrapie do 
little to reduce the titre of infectious scrapie material and that environmental 
recontamination could also be an issue associated with these premises. 
SNIP...
Discussion
Thorough pressure washing of a pen had no effect on the amount of 
bioavailable scrapie infectivity (pen B). The routine removal of prions from 
surfaces within a laboratory setting is treatment for a minimum of one hour with 
20,000 ppm free chlorine, a method originally based on the use of brain 
macerates from infected rodents to evaluate the effectiveness of decontamination 
(Kimberlin and others 1983). Further studies have also investigated the 
effectiveness of hypochlorite disinfection of metal surfaces to simulate the 
decontamination of surgical devices within a hospital setting. Such treatments 
with hypochlorite solution were able to reduce infectivity by 5.5 logs to lower 
than the sensitivity of the bioassay used (Lemmer and others 2004). Analogous 
treatment of the pen surfaces did not effectively remove the levels of scrapie 
infectivity over that of the control pens, indicating that this method of 
decontamination is not effective within a farm setting. This may be due to the 
high level of biological matrix that is present upon surfaces within the farm 
environment, which may reduce the amount of free chlorine available to 
inactivate any infectious prion. Remarkably 1/5 sheep introduced into pen D had 
also became scrapie positive within nine months, with all animals in this pen 
being RAMALT positive by 18 months of age. Pen D was no further away from the 
control pen (pen A) than any of the other pens within this barn. Localised hot 
spots of infectivity may be present within scrapie-contaminated environments, 
but it is unlikely that pen D area had an amount of scrapie contamination that 
was significantly different than the other areas within this building. 
Similarly, there were no differences in how the biosecurity of pen D was 
maintained, or how this pen was ventilated compared with the other pens. This 
observation, perhaps, indicates the slower kinetics of disease uptake within 
this pen and is consistent with a more thorough prion removal and 
recontamination. These observations may also account for the presence of 
inadvertent scrapie cases within other studies, where despite stringent 
biosecurity, control animals have become scrapie positive during challenge 
studies using barns that also housed scrapie-affected animals (Ryder and others 
2009). The bioassay data indicate that the exposure of the sheep to a farm 
environment after decontamination efforts thought to be effective in removing 
scrapie is sufficient for the animals to become infected with scrapie. The main 
exposure routes within this scenario are likely to be via the oral route, during 
feeding and drinking, and respiratory and conjunctival routes. It has been 
demonstrated that scrapie infectivity can be efficiently transmitted via the 
nasal route in sheep (Hamir and others 2008), as is the case for CWD in both 
murine models and in white-tailed deer (Denkers and others 2010, 2013). 
Recently, it has also been demonstrated that CWD prions presented as dust when 
bound to the soil mineral montmorillonite can be infectious via the nasal route 
(Nichols and others 2013). When considering pens C and D, the actual source of 
the infectious agent in the pens is not known, it is possible that biologically 
relevant levels of prion survive on surfaces during the decontamination regimen 
(pen C). With the use of galvanising and painting (pen D) covering and sealing 
the surface of the pen, it is possible that scrapie material recontaminated the 
pens by the movement of infectious prions contained within dusts originating 
from other parts of the barn that were not decontaminated or from other areas of 
the farm.
Given that scrapie prions are widespread on the surfaces of affected farms 
(Maddison and others 2010a), irrespective of the source of the infectious prions 
in the pens, this study clearly highlights the difficulties that are faced with 
the effective removal of environmentally associated scrapie infectivity. This is 
likely to be paralleled in CWD which shows strong similarities to scrapie in 
terms of both the dissemination of prions into the environment and the facile 
mode of disease transmission. These data further contribute to the understanding 
that prion diseases can be highly transmissible between susceptible individuals 
not just by direct contact but through highly stable environmental reservoirs 
that are refractory to decontamination.
The presence of these environmentally associated prions in farm buildings 
make the control of these diseases a considerable challenge, especially in 
animal species such as goats where there is lack of genetic resistance to 
scrapie and, therefore, no scope to re-stock farms with animals that are 
resistant to scrapie.
Scrapie Sheep Goats Transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSE) 
Accepted October 12, 2014. Published Online First 31 October 2014 
Monday, November 3, 2014 
Persistence of ovine scrapie infectivity in a farm environment following 
cleaning and decontamination
PPo3-22:
Detection of Environmentally Associated PrPSc on a Farm with Endemic 
Scrapie
Ben C. Maddison,1 Claire A. Baker,1 Helen C. Rees,1 Linda A. Terry,2 Leigh 
Thorne,2 Susan J. Belworthy2 and Kevin C. Gough3 1ADAS-UK LTD; Department of 
Biology; University of Leicester; Leicester, UK; 2Veterinary Laboratories 
Agency; Surry, KT UK; 3Department of Veterinary Medicine and Science; University 
of Nottingham; Sutton Bonington, Loughborough UK
Key words: scrapie, evironmental persistence, sPMCA
Ovine scrapie shows considerable horizontal transmission, yet the routes of 
transmission and specifically the role of fomites in transmission remain poorly 
defined. Here we present biochemical data demonstrating that on a 
scrapie-affected sheep farm, scrapie prion contamination is widespread. It was 
anticipated at the outset that if prions contaminate the environment that they 
would be there at extremely low levels, as such the most sensitive method 
available for the detection of PrPSc, serial Protein Misfolding Cyclic 
Amplification (sPMCA), was used in this study. We investigated the distribution 
of environmental scrapie prions by applying ovine sPMCA to samples taken from a 
range of surfaces that were accessible to animals and could be collected by use 
of a wetted foam swab. Prion was amplified by sPMCA from a number of these 
environmental swab samples including those taken from metal, plastic and wooden 
surfaces, both in the indoor and outdoor environment. At the time of sampling 
there had been no sheep contact with these areas for at least 20 days prior to 
sampling indicating that prions persist for at least this duration in the 
environment. These data implicate inanimate objects as environmental reservoirs 
of prion infectivity which are likely to contribute to disease transmission. 
Friday, December 14, 2012 
DEFRA U.K. What is the risk of Chronic Wasting Disease CWD being introduced 
into Great Britain? A Qualitative Risk Assessment October 2012 
snip... 
In the USA, under the Food and Drug Administration’s BSE Feed Regulation 
(21 CFR 589.2000) most material (exceptions include milk, tallow, and gelatin) 
from deer and elk is prohibited for use in feed for ruminant animals. With 
regards to feed for non-ruminant animals, under FDA law, CWD positive deer may 
not be used for any animal feed or feed ingredients. For elk and deer considered 
at high risk for CWD, the FDA recommends that these animals do not enter the 
animal feed system. However, this recommendation is guidance and not a 
requirement by law. 
Animals considered at high risk for CWD include: 
1) animals from areas declared to be endemic for CWD and/or to be CWD 
eradication zones and 
2) deer and elk that at some time during the 60-month period prior to 
slaughter were in a captive herd that contained a CWD-positive animal. 
Therefore, in the USA, materials from cervids other than CWD positive 
animals may be used in animal feed and feed ingredients for non-ruminants. 
The amount of animal PAP that is of deer and/or elk origin imported from 
the USA to GB can not be determined, however, as it is not specified in TRACES. 
It may constitute a small percentage of the 8412 kilos of non-fish origin 
processed animal proteins that were imported from US into GB in 2011. 
Overall, therefore, it is considered there is a __greater than negligible 
risk___ that (nonruminant) animal feed and pet food containing deer and/or elk 
protein is imported into GB. 
There is uncertainty associated with this estimate given the lack of data 
on the amount of deer and/or elk protein possibly being imported in these 
products. 
snip... 
36% in 2007 (Almberg et al., 2011). In such areas, population declines of 
deer of up to 30 to 50% have been observed (Almberg et al., 2011). In areas of 
Colorado, the prevalence can be as high as 30% (EFSA, 2011). The clinical signs 
of CWD in affected adults are weight loss and behavioural changes that can span 
weeks or months (Williams, 2005). In addition, signs might include excessive 
salivation, behavioural alterations including a fixed stare and changes in 
interaction with other animals in the herd, and an altered stance (Williams, 
2005). These signs are indistinguishable from cervids experimentally infected 
with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE). Given this, if CWD was to be 
introduced into countries with BSE such as GB, for example, infected deer 
populations would need to be tested to differentiate if they were infected with 
CWD or BSE to minimise the risk of BSE entering the human food-chain via 
affected venison. 
snip... 
The rate of transmission of CWD has been reported to be as high as 30% and 
can approach 100% among captive animals in endemic areas (Safar et al., 2008). 
snip... 
In summary, in endemic areas, there is a medium probability that the soil 
and surrounding environment is contaminated with CWD prions and in a 
bioavailable form. In rural areas where CWD has not been reported and deer are 
present, there is a greater than negligible risk the soil is contaminated with 
CWD prion. 
snip... 
In summary, given the volume of tourists, hunters and servicemen moving 
between GB and North America, the probability of at least one person travelling 
to/from a CWD affected area and, in doing so, contaminating their clothing, 
footwear and/or equipment prior to arriving in GB is greater than negligible. 
For deer hunters, specifically, the risk is likely to be greater given the 
increased contact with deer and their environment. However, there is significant 
uncertainty associated with these estimates. 
snip... 
Therefore, it is considered that farmed and park deer may have a higher 
probability of exposure to CWD transferred to the environment than wild deer 
given the restricted habitat range and higher frequency of contact with tourists 
and returning GB residents. 
snip... 
Friday, December 14, 2012 
DEFRA U.K. What is the risk of Chronic Wasting Disease CWD being introduced 
into Great Britain? A Qualitative Risk Assessment October 2012 
I strenuously once again urge the FDA and its industry constituents, to 
make it MANDATORY that all ruminant feed be banned to all ruminants, and this 
should include all cervids as soon as possible for the following 
reasons...
======
In the USA, under the Food and Drug Administrations BSE Feed Regulation (21 
CFR 589.2000) most material (exceptions include milk, tallow, and gelatin) from 
deer and elk is prohibited for use in feed for ruminant animals. With regards to 
feed for non-ruminant animals, under FDA law, CWD positive deer may not be used 
for any animal feed or feed ingredients. For elk and deer considered at high 
risk for CWD, the FDA recommends that these animals do not enter the animal feed 
system. 
***However, this recommendation is guidance and not a requirement by law. 
======
31 Jan 2015 at 20:14 GMT 
*** Ruminant feed ban for cervids in the United States? ***
Singeltary et al
31 Jan 2015 at 20:14 GMT 
*** CHRONIC WASTING DISEASE CWD TSE PRION DISEASE AND RISK FACTORS TO 
HUMANS ***
*** LATE-BREAKING ABSTRACTS PRION 2015 CONFERENCE *** 
O18
Zoonotic Potential of CWD Prions
Liuting Qing1, Ignazio Cali1,2, Jue Yuan1, Shenghai Huang3, Diane Kofskey1, 
Pierluigi Gambetti1, Wenquan Zou1, Qingzhong Kong1 1Case Western Reserve 
University, Cleveland, Ohio, USA, 2Second University of Naples, Naples, Italy, 
3Encore Health Resources, Houston, Texas, USA
Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is a widespread and expanding prion disease 
in free-ranging and captive cervid species in North America. The zoonotic 
potential of CWD prions is a serious public health concern. Current literature 
generated with in vitro methods and in vivo animal models (transgenic mice, 
macaques and squirrel monkeys) reports conflicting results. The susceptibility 
of human CNS and peripheral organs to CWD prions remains largely unresolved. In 
our earlier bioassay experiments using several humanized transgenic mouse lines, 
we detected protease-resistant PrPSc in the spleen of two out of 140 mice that 
were intracerebrally inoculated with natural CWD isolates, but PrPSc was not 
detected in the brain of the same mice. Secondary passages with such 
PrPSc-positive CWD-inoculated humanized mouse spleen tissues led to efficient 
prion transmission with clear clinical and pathological signs in both humanized 
and cervidized transgenic mice. Furthermore, a recent bioassay with natural CWD 
isolates in a new humanized transgenic mouse line led to clinical prion 
infection in 2 out of 20 mice. ***These results indicate that the CWD prion has 
the potential to infect human CNS and peripheral lymphoid tissues and that there 
might be asymptomatic human carriers of CWD infection. 
================== 
***These results indicate that the CWD prion has the potential to infect 
human CNS and peripheral lymphoid tissues and that there might be asymptomatic 
human carriers of CWD infection.*** 
================== 
P.105: RT-QuIC models trans-species prion transmission
Kristen Davenport, Davin Henderson, Candace Mathiason, and Edward Hoover 
Prion Research Center; Colorado State University; Fort Collins, CO USA
The propensity for trans-species prion transmission is related to the 
structural characteristics of the enciphering and heterologous PrP, but the 
exact mechanism remains mostly mysterious. Studies of the effects of primary or 
tertiary prion protein structures on trans-species prion transmission have 
relied primarily upon animal bioassays, making the influence of prion protein 
structure vs. host co-factors (e.g. cellular constituents, trafficking, and 
innate immune interactions) difficult to dissect. As an alternative strategy, we 
used real-time quakinginduced conversion (RT-QuIC) to investigate trans-species 
prion conversion.
To assess trans-species conversion in the RT-QuIC system, we compared 
chronic wasting disease (CWD) and bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) prions, 
as well as feline CWD (fCWD) and feline spongiform encephalopathy (FSE). Each 
prion was seeded into each host recombinant PrP (full-length rPrP of 
white-tailed deer, bovine or feline). We demonstrated that fCWD is a more 
efficient seed for feline rPrP than for white-tailed deer rPrP, which suggests 
adaptation to the new host.
Conversely, FSE maintained sufficient BSE characteristics to more 
efficiently convert bovine rPrP than feline rPrP. Additionally, human rPrP was 
competent for conversion by CWD and fCWD. ***This insinuates that, at the level 
of protein:protein interactions, the barrier preventing transmission of CWD to 
humans is less robust than previously estimated.
================
***This insinuates that, at the level of protein:protein interactions, the 
barrier preventing transmission of CWD to humans is less robust than previously 
estimated.***
================ 
cwd environmental load factor in the land and surrounding plants and 
objects.
transportation of cervids and HUMANS from cwd zone should be regarded as a 
great risk factor, and environmental contamination. 
PL1 
Using in vitro prion replication for high sensitive detection of prions and 
prionlike proteins and for understanding mechanisms of transmission.
Claudio Soto
Mitchell Center for Alzheimer's diseases and related Brain disorders, 
Department of Neurology, University of Texas Medical School at Houston.
Prion and prion-like proteins are misfolded protein aggregates with the 
ability to selfpropagate to spread disease between cells, organs and in some 
cases across individuals. I n T r a n s m i s s i b l e s p o n g i f o r m 
encephalopathies (TSEs), prions are mostly composed by a misfolded form of the 
prion protein (PrPSc), which propagates by transmitting its misfolding to the 
normal prion protein (PrPC). The availability of a procedure to replicate prions 
in the laboratory may be important to study the mechanism of prion and 
prion-like spreading and to develop high sensitive detection of small quantities 
of misfolded proteins in biological fluids, tissues and environmental samples. 
Protein Misfolding Cyclic Amplification (PMCA) is a simple, fast and efficient 
methodology to mimic prion replication in the test tube. PMCA is a platform 
technology that may enable amplification of any prion-like misfolded protein 
aggregating through a seeding/nucleation process. In TSEs, PMCA is able to 
detect the equivalent of one single molecule of infectious PrPSc and propagate 
prions that maintain high infectivity, strain properties and species 
specificity. Using PMCA we have been able to detect PrPSc in blood and urine of 
experimentally infected animals and humans affected by vCJD with high 
sensitivity and specificity. Recently, we have expanded the principles of PMCA 
to amplify amyloid-beta (Aβ) and alphasynuclein (α-syn) aggregates implicated in 
Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases, respectively. Experiments are ongoing to 
study the utility of this technology to detect Aβ and α-syn aggregates in 
samples of CSF and blood from patients affected by these diseases.
***Recently, we have been using PMCA to study the role of environmental 
prion contamination on the horizontal spreading of TSEs. These experiments have 
focused on the study of the interaction of prions with plants and 
environmentally relevant surfaces. Our results show that plants (both leaves and 
roots) bind tightly to prions present in brain extracts and excreta (urine and 
feces) and retain even small quantities of PrPSc for long periods of time. 
Strikingly, ingestion of prioncontaminated leaves and roots produced disease 
with a 100% attack rate and an incubation period not substantially longer than 
feeding animals directly with scrapie brain homogenate. Furthermore, plants can 
uptake prions from contaminated soil and transport them to different parts of 
the plant tissue (stem and leaves). Similarly, prions bind tightly to a variety 
of environmentallyrelevant surfaces, including stones, wood, metals, plastic, 
glass, cement, etc. Prion contaminated surfaces efficiently transmit prion 
disease when these materials were directly injected into the brain of animals 
and strikingly when the contaminated surfaces were just placed in the animal 
cage. These findings demonstrate that environmental materials can efficiently 
bind infectious prions and act as carriers of infectivity, suggesting that they 
may play an important role in the horizontal transmission of the disease.
Since its invention 13 years ago, PMCA has helped to answer fundamental 
questions of prion propagation and has broad applications in research areas 
including the food industry, blood bank safety and human and veterinary disease 
diagnosis. 
see ;
and take note here ;
PL1
Using in vitro prion replication for high sensitive detection of prions and 
prionlike proteins and for understanding mechanisms of transmission.
Claudio Soto
Mitchell Center for Alzheimer's diseases and related Brain disorders, 
Department of Neurology, University of Texas Medical School at Houston.
Prion and prion-like proteins are misfolded protein aggregates with the 
ability to selfpropagate to spread disease between cells, organs and in some 
cases across individuals. I n T r a n s m i s s i b l e s p o n g i f o r m 
encephalopathies (TSEs), prions are mostly composed by a misfolded form of the 
prion protein (PrPSc), which propagates by transmitting its misfolding to the 
normal prion protein (PrPC). The availability of a procedure to replicate prions 
in the laboratory may be important to study the mechanism of prion and 
prion-like spreading and to develop high sensitive detection of small quantities 
of misfolded proteins in biological fluids, tissues and environmental samples. 
Protein Misfolding Cyclic Amplification (PMCA) is a simple, fast and efficient 
methodology to mimic prion replication in the test tube. PMCA is a platform 
technology that may enable amplification of any prion-like misfolded protein 
aggregating through a seeding/nucleation process. In TSEs, PMCA is able to 
detect the equivalent of one single molecule of infectious PrPSc and propagate 
prions that maintain high infectivity, strain properties and species 
specificity. Using PMCA we have been able to detect PrPSc in blood and urine of 
experimentally infected animals and humans affected by vCJD with high 
sensitivity and specificity. Recently, we have expanded the principles of PMCA 
to amplify amyloid-beta (Aβ) and alphasynuclein (α-syn) aggregates implicated in 
Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases, respectively. Experiments are ongoing to 
study the utility of this technology to detect Aβ and α-syn aggregates in 
samples of CSF and blood from patients affected by these diseases.
***Recently, we have been using PMCA to study the role of environmental 
prion contamination on the horizontal spreading of TSEs. These experiments have 
focused on the study of the interaction of prions with plants and 
environmentally relevant surfaces. Our results show that plants (both leaves and 
roots) bind tightly to prions present in brain extracts and excreta (urine and 
feces) and retain even small quantities of PrPSc for long periods of time. 
Strikingly, ingestion of prioncontaminated leaves and roots produced disease 
with a 100% attack rate and an incubation period not substantially longer than 
feeding animals directly with scrapie brain homogenate. Furthermore, plants can 
uptake prions from contaminated soil and transport them to different parts of 
the plant tissue (stem and leaves). Similarly, prions bind tightly to a variety 
of environmentally relevant surfaces, including stones, wood, metals, plastic, 
glass, cement, etc. Prion contaminated surfaces efficiently transmit prion 
disease when these materials were directly injected into the brain of animals 
and strikingly when the contaminated surfaces were just placed in the animal 
cage. These findings demonstrate that environmental materials can efficiently 
bind infectious prions and act as carriers of infectivity, suggesting that they 
may play an important role in the horizontal transmission of the disease.
Since its invention 13 years ago, PMCA has helped to answer fundamental 
questions of prion propagation and has broad applications in research areas 
including the food industry, blood bank safety and human and veterinary disease 
diagnosis.
I7 Early Trafficking and Dissemination of CWD Prions in Deer
Edward A. Hoover1*, Clare E. Hoover1, Davin M. Henderson1, Nathaniel D. 
Denkers1, Kristin A. Davenport1, Shannon Bartelt-Hunt2, Alan M. Elder1, Anthony 
E. Kincaid3, 4, Jason C. Bartz3, Mark D. Zabel1, Candace K. Mathiason1
1Prion Research Center, Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and 
Pathology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA 2Department of 
Civil Engineering, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Prion2015 Program Guide
10 invited speakers PRION 2015 Omaha, Nebraska, USA, 3Department of Medical 
Microbiology and immunology Creighton University, Omaha, Nebraska, USA 
4Department of Pharmacy Science, Creighton University, Omaha, Nebraska, 
USA
* P r e s e n t i n g a u t h o r ’ s e - m a i l : 
edward.hoover@colostate.edu
Efficient horizontal infection is a hallmark of chronic wasting disease 
(CWD) in freeranging cervids. The mechanisms and pathways that enable this 
remarkable process, however, remain incompletely understood--in particular the 
facile transmucosal entry, exit, and environmental persistence of CWD prions. We 
have focused on trans-mucosal CWD infection in white-tailed deer, specifically 
on early prion tissue tropism and later stage prion shedding and association 
with environmental constituents using modifications of real-time quaking-induced 
conversion combined with amplified immunohistochemistry. We have documented very 
early trans-mucosal prion passage (within hours), followed by uptake and 
amplification in upper digestive tract lymphoid t i s s u e s ( 4 w e e k s ) , 
and dissemination to more distant lymphoid and non-lymphoid tissue sites (8-12 
weeks). We have used quantitative approaches to realtime conversion to estimate 
the relatively low (i.e. vs. tissues) prion concentrations in body fluids and 
excreta; i.e. >100 (cervidized mouse) LD50 are shed daily in the urine of one 
CWD infected deer. Using similar methods, we have also demonstrated and 
quantified the impressive
===========================
P183
Novel Detection of PrPCWD on Plants Collected from Rocky Mountain National 
Park
Aimee Ortega1, Jeffrey Seligman1, Jan Leach2, Mark Zabel1 1Colorado State 
University, Prion Research Center, Department of Microbiology, Immunology and 
Pathology, Fort Collins, CO, USA, 2Colorado State University, Department of 
Bioagricultural Sciences and Pest Management, Fort Collins, CO, USA
Chronic wasting disease (CWD) affects animals such as elk, deer, and moose 
and has become endemic over the last decade. The disease is one of many 
transmissible spongiform encephalopathies which occur due to the accumulation of 
an abnormally folded, proteinase K resistant, form of the normal cellular prion 
protein PrPC. This abnormally folded form, PrPCWD, seeds conversion of PrPC into 
PrPCWD and eventually forms amyloid fibrils. The exact mechanisms behind 
transmission and spread of CWD are unknown but research has shown that it can be 
spread through h o r i z o n t a l , v e r t i c a l , and i n d i r e c t / 
environmental routes. PrPCWD has been found in both soil and water. 
Additionally, PrPCWD is very resistant to degradation which makes it stable in 
the environment for long periods of time. A study has shown that the
Prion2015 Program Guide 29
abnormal prion protein can remain viable in the environment for as long as 
16 years. We wanted to further explore the latter and determine whether prions 
could be detected in grasses and other plants in Rocky Mountain National Park 
(RMNP) by use of the protein misfolding cyclic amplification (PMCA) assay.
This past summer we surveyed three sites within RMNP and collected a total 
of 32 plants. Plants were collected from both outside and inside enclosures that 
serve to keep wildlife out and allow for restoration and regrowth of the flora. 
Plant samples were assayed by PMCA and we are now reporting for the first time 
the novel detection of PrPCWD from the surface on a number of plants 
assayed.
P195 Chronic wasting disease prions detected during early stages of 
infection by mbPMCA in tissues from white-tailed deer o r a l l y inoculated 
with f r e e and microparticle-bound prions
Alexandra Chesney1, Chad Johnson1, Tracy Nichols2, Hannah Kornely1, Dania 
Shoukfeh1, Joel Pedersen1
1University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, USA, 2United States Department of 
Agriculture (USDA), Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), Wildlife 
Services (WS), National Wildlife Research Center (NWRC), Fort Collins, CO, 
USA
Enhanced oral transmission of rodenta d a p t e d p r i o n d i s e a s e 
has been demonstrated with the disease agent bound to several types of mineral 
microparticles; however, the generalizability of this finding to ruminants has 
not been established. Contaminated soil is believed to represent a reservoir for 
environmental prions and may contribute to horizontal transmission of chronic 
wasting disease (CWD) in captive and wild cervid populations. Here, we examined 
the impact of CWD agent association with microparticles o f montmorillonite, an 
aluminosilicate clay
Prion2015 Program Guide 35
mineral that showed the largest disease transmission enhancement in rodent 
bioassays, on early disease in orally inoculated white-tailed deer. 
Amplification of prions by PMCA has been achieved from various contaminated 
organs and excretions at late stages in disease. Using microplatebased PMCA 
(mbPMCA), we detected different accumulation patterns in white-tailed deer 
tissues 42 days after oral inoculation with CWD prions bound to montmorillonite. 
We expected mbPMCA to be more sensitive than immunohistochemistry (IHC) to 
determine prion accumulations in tissues. Through evaluation of mb-PMCA positive 
tissues, we found that mbPMCA is more sensitive than IHC by at least a factor of 
106.3, and detected CWD prions in multiple tissue types that were negative by 
IHC. These findings suggest that microparticles can enhance the transmission of 
CWD in white-tailed deer and also demonstrates the consistency and 
high-throughput utility of the mbPMCA assay. Furthermore, our results indicate 
that enhanced transmission of microparticle-bound CWD agent warrants 
consideration in evaluating the relative importance o f d i r e c t and i n d i 
r e c t (environmental) transmission of CWD in natural populations and in 
disease management.
O.05: Transmission of prions to primates after extended silent incubation 
periods: Implications for BSE and scrapie risk assessment in human populations 
Emmanuel Comoy, Jacqueline Mikol, Val erie Durand, Sophie Luccantoni, 
Evelyne Correia, Nathalie Lescoutra, Capucine Dehen, and Jean-Philippe Deslys 
Atomic Energy Commission; Fontenay-aux-Roses, France 
Prion diseases (PD) are the unique neurodegenerative proteinopathies 
reputed to be transmissible under field conditions since decades. The 
transmission of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) to humans evidenced that 
an animal PD might be zoonotic under appropriate conditions. Contrarily, in the 
absence of obvious (epidemiological or experimental) elements supporting a 
transmission or genetic predispositions, PD, like the other proteinopathies, are 
reputed to occur spontaneously (atpical animal prion strains, sporadic CJD 
summing 80% of human prion cases). Non-human primate models provided the first 
evidences supporting the transmissibiity of human prion strains and the zoonotic 
potential of BSE. Among them, cynomolgus macaques brought major information for 
BSE risk assessment for human health (Chen, 2014), according to their 
phylogenetic proximity to humans and extended lifetime. We used this model to 
assess the zoonotic potential of other animal PD from bovine, ovine and cervid 
origins even after very long silent incubation periods. *** We recently observed 
the direct transmission of a natural classical scrapie isolate to macaque after 
a 10-year silent incubation period, ***with features similar to some reported 
for human cases of sporadic CJD, albeit requiring fourfold longe incubation than 
BSE. Scrapie, as recently evoked in humanized mice (Cassard, 2014), ***is the 
third potentially zoonotic PD (with BSE and L-type BSE), ***thus questioning the 
origin of human sporadic cases. We will present an updated panorama of our 
different transmission studies and discuss the implications of such extended 
incubation periods on risk assessment of animal PD for human health.
===============
***thus questioning the origin of human sporadic cases...TSS
=============== 
From: Terry S. Singeltary Sr. 
Sent: Saturday, November 15, 2014 9:29 PM 
To: Terry S. Singeltary Sr. 
Subject: THE EPIDEMIOLOGY OF CREUTZFELDT-JAKOB DISEASE R. G. WILL 
1984
THE EPIDEMIOLOGY OF CREUTZFELDT-JAKOB DISEASE 
R. G. WILL 
1984 
*** The association between venison eating and risk of CJD shows similar 
pattern, with regular venison eating associated with a 9 FOLD INCREASE IN RISK 
OF CJD (p = 0.04). (SEE LINK IN REPORT HERE...TSS) ***
snip... 
Evidence That Transmissible Mink Encephalopathy Results from Feeding 
Infected Cattle 
Over the next 8-10 weeks, approximately 40% of all the adult mink on the 
farm died from TME. 
snip... 
The rancher was a ''dead stock'' feeder using mostly (>95%) downer or 
dead dairy cattle... 
In Confidence - Perceptions of unconventional slow virus diseases of 
animals in the USA - APRIL-MAY 1989 - G A H Wells 
3. Prof. A. Robertson gave a brief account of BSE. The US approach was to 
accord it a very low profile indeed. Dr. A Thiermann showed the picture in the 
''Independent'' with cattle being incinerated and thought this was a fanatical 
incident to be avoided in the US at all costs. ... 
human cwd will NOT look like nvCJD. in fact, see ; 
*** These results would seem to suggest that CWD does indeed have zoonotic 
potential, at least as judged by the compatibility of CWD prions and their human 
PrPC target. Furthermore, extrapolation from this simple in vitro assay suggests 
that if zoonotic CWD occurred, it would most likely effect those of the PRNP 
codon 129-MM genotype and that the PrPres type would be similar to that found in 
the most common subtype of sCJD (MM1).*** 
Thursday, May 26, 2011 
Travel History, Hunting, and Venison Consumption Related to Prion Disease 
Exposure, 2006-2007 FoodNet Population Survey Journal of the American Dietetic 
Association Volume 111, Issue 6 , Pages 858-863, June 2011. 
PLUS, THE CDC DID NOT PUT THIS WARNING OUT FOR THE WELL BEING OF THE DEER 
AND ELK ; 
NOR IS THE FDA recalling this CWD positive elk meat for the well being of 
the dead elk ; 
Wednesday, March 18, 2009 Noah's Ark Holding, LLC, Dawson, MN RECALL Elk 
products contain meat derived from an elk confirmed to have CWD NV, CA, TX, CO, 
NY, UT, FL, OK RECALLS AND FIELD CORRECTIONS: FOODS CLASS II 
now, let’s see what the authors said about this casual link, personal 
communications years ago. see where it is stated NO STRONG evidence. so, does 
this mean there IS casual evidence ???? “Our conclusion stating that we found no 
strong evidence of CWD transmission to humans” From: TSS 
(216-119-163-189.ipset45.wt.net) Subject: CWD aka MAD DEER/ELK TO HUMANS ??? 
Date: September 30, 2002 at 7:06 am PST 
From: "Belay, Ermias" 
To: Cc: "Race, Richard (NIH)" ; ; "Belay, Ermias" 
Sent: Monday, September 30, 2002 9:22 AM 
Subject: RE: TO CDC AND NIH - PUB MED- 3 MORE DEATHS - CWD - YOUNG HUNTERS 
Dear Sir/Madam, 
In the Archives of Neurology you quoted (the abstract of which was attached 
to your email), we did not say CWD in humans will present like variant CJD. That 
assumption would be wrong. I encourage you to read the whole article and call me 
if you have questions or need more clarification (phone: 404-639-3091). Also, we 
do not claim that "no-one has ever been infected with prion disease from eating 
venison." Our conclusion stating that we found no strong evidence of CWD 
transmission to humans in the article you quoted or in any other forum is 
limited to the patients we investigated. 
Ermias Belay, M.D. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 
-----Original Message----- 
From: Sent: Sunday, September 29, 2002 10:15 AM 
To: rr26k@nih.gov; rrace@niaid.nih.gov; ebb8@CDC.GOV 
Subject: TO CDC AND NIH - PUB MED- 3 MORE DEATHS - CWD - YOUNG HUNTERS 
Sunday, November 10, 2002 6:26 PM ......snip........end..............TSS 
Thursday, April 03, 2008 
A prion disease of cervids: Chronic wasting disease 2008 1: Vet Res. 2008 
Apr 3;39(4):41 A prion disease of cervids: Chronic wasting disease Sigurdson CJ. 
snip... 
*** twenty-seven CJD patients who regularly consumed venison were reported 
to the Surveillance Center***, 
snip... full text ; 
============================== 
*** These results would seem to suggest that CWD does indeed have zoonotic 
potential, at least as judged by the compatibility of CWD prions and their human 
PrPC target. Furthermore, extrapolation from this simple in vitro assay suggests 
that if zoonotic CWD occurred, it would most likely effect those of the PRNP 
codon 129-MM genotype and that the PrPres type would be similar to that found in 
the most common subtype of sCJD (MM1).*** 
============================== 
*** The potential impact of prion diseases on human health was greatly 
magnified by the recognition that interspecies transfer of BSE to humans by beef 
ingestion resulted in vCJD. While changes in animal feed constituents and 
slaughter practices appear to have curtailed vCJD, there is concern that CWD of 
free-ranging deer and elk in the U.S. might also cross the species barrier. 
Thus, consuming venison could be a source of human prion disease. Whether BSE 
and CWD represent interspecies scrapie transfer or are newly arisen prion 
diseases is unknown. Therefore, the possibility of transmission of prion disease 
through other food animals cannot be ruled out. There is evidence that vCJD can 
be transmitted through blood transfusion. There is likely a pool of unknown size 
of asymptomatic individuals infected with vCJD, and there may be asymptomatic 
individuals infected with the CWD equivalent. These circumstances represent a 
potential threat to blood, blood products, and plasma supplies. 
Wednesday, July 15, 2015 
*** Additional BSE TSE prion testing detects pathologic lesion in unusual 
brain location and PrPsc by PMCA only, how many cases have we missed? *** 
Saturday, August 01, 2015 
Texas CWD Medina Captive Two more deer test positive for chronic wasting 
disease CWD TSE Prion 
Sunday, August 02, 2015 
TEXAS CWD, Have you been ThunderStruck, deer semen, straw bred bucks, super 
ovulation, and the potential TSE Prion connection, what if? 
Sunday, July 26, 2015 
TEXAS IN MELT DOWN MODE OVER CAPTIVE CWD AND THEY ARE PUTTING LIPSTICK ON 
THAT PIG AND TAKING HER TO THE DANCE LIKE MAD COW DISEASE
 Thursday, July 23, 2015 
Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) 101 Drs. Walter Cook & Donald S. Davis 
 Tuesday, July 28, 2015 
TEXAS Kills 35 Deer at Medina County Ranch (Texas Captive CWD)
Tuesday, July 21, 2015 
*** Texas CWD Medina County Herd Investigation Update July 16, 2015 
***
Friday, July 17, 2015 
TPW Commission Holds Special Meeting on Chronic Wasting Disease 
Wednesday, July 01, 2015 
TEXAS Chronic Wasting Disease Detected in Medina County Captive Deer 
Thursday, July 09, 2015 
TEXAS Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) Herd Plan for Trace-Forward Exposed 
Herd with Testing of Exposed Animals 
Tuesday, July 14, 2015 
Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission Special Meeting Thursday on Chronic 
Wasting Disease CWD 
Rare report of deer disease in Texas causes stir 
Houston Chronicle
Rare report of deer disease in Texas causes stir, especially since it’s the 
8 case of CWD documented in Texas, and the first case of CWD in Captive deer. 
here is how I would have titled this article, and why. 
Shannon Tompkins Finally Breaks Silence on Texas First Captive CWD Case and 
Starts Off Spreading False Information About Risk Factors. ... 
Thursday, July 16, 2015 
Wednesday, March 18, 2015 
Chronic Wasting Disease CWD Confirmed Texas Trans Pecos March 18, 
2015
Wednesday, March 25, 2015 
Chronic Wasting Disease CWD Cases Confirmed In New Mexico 2013 and 2014 
UPDATE 2015
Thursday, May 02, 2013 
*** Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) Texas Important Update on OBEX ONLY 
TEXTING 
Monday, February 11, 2013 
TEXAS CHRONIC WASTING DISEASE CWD Four New Positives Found in Trans Pecos 
Tuesday, July 10, 2012 
Chronic Wasting Disease Detected in Far West Texas 
Monday, March 26, 2012 
Texas Prepares for Chronic Wasting Disease CWD Possibility in Far West 
Texas 
***for anyone interested, here is some history of CWD along the Texas, New 
Mexico border, and my attempt to keep up with it...terry 
snip...
see history CWD Texas, New Mexico Border ; 
Monday, March 26, 2012 
3 CASES OF CWD FOUND NEW MEXICO MULE DEER SEVERAL MILES FROM TEXAS BORDER 
Sunday, October 04, 2009 
CWD NEW MEXICO SPREADING SOUTH TO TEXAS 2009 2009 Summary of Chronic 
Wasting Disease in New Mexico New Mexico Department of Game and Fish 
 Tuesday, August 4, 2015 
FDA U.S. Measures to Protect Against BSE 
 Terry S. Singeltary Sr.



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