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Molecular analysis of iatrogenic scrapie in Italy

¹ Department of Neurological and Visual Sciences, University of Verona, Piazzale L. A. Scuro, 10, 37134 Verona, Italy
² CEA Istituto Zooprofilattico del Piemonte, Liguria e Valle d’Aosta, Via Bologna 148, 10154 Torino, Italy
³ Laboratorio di Biologia delle Malattie Neurodegenerative, Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche Mario Negri, Via Eritrea 62, 20157 Milano, Italy
⁴ Institute of Pathology, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, Cleveland, OH 44106-1712, USA

Correspondence
Maria Caramelli
cea{at}to.izs.it

An accidental intra- and interspecies transmission of scrapie occurred in Italy in 1997 and 1998 following exposure to a vaccine against Mycoplasma agalactiae. PrP^Sc in affected sheep and goats, collected from a single flock exposed to vaccination 2 years earlier, was molecularly typed. In five animals with iatrogenic scrapie, a PrP^Sc type with a 20 kDa core fragment was found in all areas of the brain investigated. In three sheep and one goat, this isoform co-occurred with a fully glycosylated isoform that had a protease-resistant backbone of 17 kDa, whereas in two sheep and four goats, the two PrP^Sc types were detected in different regions of the brain. In sheep with natural field scrapie, a PrP^Sc type with physico-chemical properties indistinguishable from the 20 kDa isoform was found. The present results suggest the co-presence of two prion strains in mammary gland and brain homogenates used for vaccination.

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