Find information on thousands of medical conditions and prescription drugs.

Scrapie

Scrapie is a fatal, degenerative disease that affects the nervous systems of sheep and goats. It is one of several transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs), which are related to bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE or "mad cow disease"). more...

Home
Diseases
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
Sabinas brittle hair...
Saccharopinuria
Sacral agenesis
Saethre-Chotzen syndrome
Salla disease
Salmonellosis
Sandhoff disease
Sanfilippo syndrome
Sarcoidosis
Say Meyer syndrome
Scabies
Scabiophobia
Scarlet fever
Schamberg disease...
Schistosomiasis
Schizencephaly
Schizophrenia
Schmitt Gillenwater Kelly...
Sciatica
Scimitar syndrome
Sciophobia
Scleroderma
Scrapie
Scurvy
Selachophobia
Selective mutism
Seminoma
Sensorineural hearing loss
Seplophobia
Sepsis
Septo-optic dysplasia
Serum sickness
Severe acute respiratory...
Severe combined...
Sezary syndrome
Sheehan syndrome
Shigellosis
Shingles
Shock
Short bowel syndrome
Short QT syndrome
Shprintzen syndrome
Shulman-Upshaw syndrome
Shwachman syndrome
Shwachman-Diamond syndrome
Shy-Drager syndrome
Sialidosis
Sickle-cell disease
Sickle-cell disease
Sickle-cell disease
Siderosis
Silicosis
Silver-Russell dwarfism
Sipple syndrome
Sirenomelia
Sjogren's syndrome
Sly syndrome
Smallpox
Smith-Magenis Syndrome
Sociophobia
Soft tissue sarcoma
Somniphobia
Sotos syndrome
Spasmodic dysphonia
Spasmodic torticollis
Spherocytosis
Sphingolipidosis
Spinal cord injury
Spinal muscular atrophy
Spinal shock
Spinal stenosis
Spinocerebellar ataxia
Splenic-flexure syndrome
Splenomegaly
Spondylitis
Spondyloepiphyseal...
Spondylometaphyseal...
Sporotrichosis
Squamous cell carcinoma
St. Anthony's fire
Stein-Leventhal syndrome
Stevens-Johnson syndrome
Stickler syndrome
Stiff man syndrome
Still's disease
Stomach cancer
Stomatitis
Strabismus
Strep throat
Strongyloidiasis
Strumpell-lorrain disease
Sturge-Weber syndrome
Subacute sclerosing...
Sudden infant death syndrome
Sugarman syndrome
Sweet syndrome
Swimmer's ear
Swyer syndrome
Sydenham's chorea
Syncope
Syndactyly
Syndrome X
Synovial osteochondromatosis
Synovial sarcoma
Synovitis
Syphilis
Syringomas
Syringomyelia
Systemic carnitine...
Systemic lupus erythematosus
Systemic mastocytosis
Systemic sclerosis
T
U
V
W
X
Y
Z
Medicines

Like other spongiform encephalopathies, scrapie is believed to be caused by a prion. Scrapie has been known since the 18th century (1732) and does not appear to be transmissible to humans.

The name scrapie is derived from one of the symptoms of the condition, wherein affected animals will compulsively scrape off their fleece against rocks, trees or fences. The disease apparently causes an uncontrollable itching sensation in the animals. Other symptoms include excessive lip-smacking, strange gaits, and convulsive collapse.

Scrapie is infectious and transmissible among similar animals, and so one of the most common ways to contain scrapie (since it is incurable) is to quarantine and destroy those affected. However, scrapie tends to persist in flocks and can also arise apparently spontaneously in flocks that have not previously had cases of the disease. The mechanism of transmission between animals and other aspects of the biology of the disease are only poorly understood and these are active areas of research.

In the United Kingdom, the government has put in place a National Scrapie Plan, which encourages breeding from sheep that are genetically more resistant to scrapie. It is intended that this will eventually reduce the incidence of the disease in the UK sheep population. Scrapie occurs in Europe and North America, but to date Australia and New Zealand (both major sheep-producing countries) are scrapie-free.

A test is now available which is performed by sampling a small amount of lymphatic tissue from the third eyelid.

Out of fear of scrapie, many European countries banned some traditional sheep or goat products made without removing the spinal cord such as smalahove and smokie.

Read more at Wikipedia.org


[List your site here Free!]


Scrapie transmission via vaccine - Shorts
From Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients, 4/1/03 by Jule Klotter

At the 1946 National Veterinary Medical Association of Great Britain and Ireland Annual Congress, W. S. Gordon, PhD, presented evidence of scrapie transmission by way of a vaccine for louping-ill. Louping-ill is a viral disease spread by the tick Ixodes ricinus L. Scrapie is considered the sheep equivalent of 'mad cow disease.' Dr. Gordon developed an effective vaccine to prevent louping-ill during 193 1-32. After four years of field trials, his vaccine was produced in three batches for widespread use in 1935. The vaccine was made from brain, spinal cord, and spleen tissues taken from sheep five days after they had received an intracerebral inoculation of louping-ill virus. Formalin was added to the 10% saline suspension to inactivate the virus.

During 1935 and 1936, no ill effects were noted in inoculated animals. Then two owners reported scrapie in their Blackface sheep who had been inoculated with louping-ill vaccine (batch 2) two and a half years earlier. Scrapie had not been seen in the Blackface breed before this. Upon investigation Dr. Gordon discovered that 8 lambs used to make batch 2 had been born to ewes who had been exposed to scrapie; some of the ewes developed scrapie in 1936-7. Dr. Gordon hypothesized that an "infective agent of scrapie" was present in the lambs' tissues used to make batch 2 and that this agent "could withstand a concentration of formalin...which inactivated the virus of louping ill; it could be transmitted by subcutaneous inoculation; it had an incubative period of two years or longer."

A four-and-a-half-year experiment involving '788 sheep was initiated by the Animal Disease Research Association in 1938. The researchers found that 60% of normal sheep inoculated intracerebrally with saline suspensions of brain and spinal cord tissue taken from sheep with scrapie developed scrapie within those four-and-a-half-years. The incubation period was seven months and up. Only 30% of the sheep receiving a subcutaneous inoculation of the suspension developed scrapie in that time, and the incubation period in this group was 15 months and up. The researchers concluded that the infective agent was probably a filtrable virus. Interestingly, Dr. Gordon reports that Cuille and Chelle of France published the results of a similar study in 1939. The French researchers found that sheep developed scrapie after receiving intracerebral, intraocular, and subcutaneous injections of spinal cord or brain tissue emulsions. Like the British experiment, this one also showed that incubation periods varied according to the type of injection: intracerebral infection took one year; intraocular took 15 months; and subcutaneous took 20 months.

Gordon, W.S., PhD. Advances in Veterinary Research. The Veterinary Record; 1946 November 23. Presented at the National Veterinary Medical Association of Great Britain and Ireland Annual Congress, 1946. Posted on http://www.vegsource.com/talk/lyman/messages/7634.html

COPYRIGHT 2003 The Townsend Letter Group
COPYRIGHT 2003 Gale Group

Return to Scrapie
Home Contact Resources Exchange Links ebay