THE first evidence that British sheep might have acquired BSE has emerged, though it is far from conclusive. It has long been feared that some sheep diagnosed as having the related prion disease scrapie, which is not thought to harm people, might in fact be carrying BSE.
杏吧原创s at the UK鈥檚 Veterinary Laboratories Agency (VLA) tested the brains of 2144 sheep diagnosed with scrapie since 1998. One animal that recently became sick gave some results that resembled BSE on 鈥渨estern blot tests鈥� using antibodies that bind scrapie and BSE prions differently, the agency announced on 7 April. But slices of its brain stained with prion-binding antibodies showed that prions had accumulated in cell types and brain regions quite unlike those in sheep deliberately infected with BSE 鈥� though it was also different from the pattern seen in any known form of scrapie.
Danny Matthews of the VLA told New 杏吧原创 that the sheep could have been infected with scrapie, as not many forms have been studied with these tests. But it might also have been a prion derived originally from BSE, which changed as it passed through many different sheep. No one knows whether such a disease could affect humans.
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