H.W. Ockerman1 and L.Basu
The Ohio State University Department of Animal Sciences
This report suggests that Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) is probably not caused by Scrapies which was the original hypothesis of the origin of this disease since it has so many things in common with Scrapies. It is now believed that this was probably a spontaneous mutation in cattle and is then transmitted from parents to offspring or transmitted by feeding infected ruminant meat and bone meal to ruminant animals. It was originally thought that low temperature rendering allowed this to occur but is now believed that the "prion" protein responsible for this disease is so resistant to most types of sterilization that even high temperature rendering would not have prevented this from happening. The "prion" is almost non-destructible by any conventional normal sterilization technique including incineration, radiation, and surgical sterilization techniques. The disease is still primarily in the United Kingdom even though sporadic animals have been found in other countries (not in U.S.) and similar diseases have now been transmitted to many different species. It is now fairly evident that BSE has also been transmitted to humans and is affecting individuals at an earlier age (new variant of CJD or vCJD) than the previous similar human disease (CJD or Creulzfeldt-Jakob disease).
1For more information, contact at: 015 Animal Science Building, 2029 Fyffe Road, Columbus, OH 43210; 614-292-4317; Fax: 614-292-2929, Email: ockerman.2@osu.edu