National Institute of Animal Health (NIAH)

Topics in Animal Health Research 2013

14. The presence of disease-associated prion protein in the skeletal muscle of cattle infected with classical bovine spongiform encephalopathy

Japanese

The aim of this study was to investigate the presence of disease-associated prion protein (PrPSc) in the skeletal muscle of cattle infected with classical bovine spongiform encephalopathy (C-BSE). The study was carried out systematically in 12 different muscle samples from 43 (3 field and 40 experimental) cases of C-BSE; however, the muscle spindles were not available in many of these cases. Therefore, analysis was restricted to 31 muscles in 23 cows. Even with this restriction, low levels of PrPSc were detected in the muscle spindles of the masseter, intercostal, triceps brachii, psoas major, quadriceps femoris, and semitendinosus muscles from 3 field and 6 experimental clinical-stage cases. The present data indicate that small amounts of PrPSc are detectable by immunohistochemistry in the skeletal muscles of animals terminally affected by C-BSE.
(Influenza Prion Disease Research Center)

References:

Okada H. et al (2014) J. Vet. Med. Sci. 76(1):103–107

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