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Blood, 1 December 2008, Vol. 112, No. 12, pp. 4739-4745. Prepublished online as a Blood First Edition Paper on July 22, 2008; DOI 10.1182/blood-2008-04-152520. This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) All Versions of this Article: blood-2008-04-152520v1 112/12/4739    most recent Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Rights and Permissions Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via CrossRef Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Houston, F. Articles by Hunter, N. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Houston, F. Articles by Hunter, N. Related Collections Transfusion Medicine Related Article in Blood Online Social Bookmarking                   What's this?  Previous Article  |  Table of Contents  |  Next Article  TRANSFUSION MEDICINE Prion diseases are efficiently transmitted by blood transfusion in sheep Fiona Houston1, Sandra McCutcheon1, Wilfred Goldmann2, Angela Chong2, James Foster2, Silvia Sisó3, Lorenzo González3, Martin Jeffrey3, and Nora Hunter2 1 Neuropathogenesis Division, Roslin Institute, Compton, United Kingdom; 2 Neuropathogenesis Division, Roslin Institute, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom; and 3 Lasswade Laboratory, Veterinary Laboratories Agency, Penicuik, United Kingdom The emergence of variant Creutzfeld-Jakob disease, following on from the bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) epidemic, led to concerns about the potential risk of iatrogenic transmission of disease by blood transfusion and the introduction of costly control measures to protect blood supplies. We previously reported preliminary data demonstrating the transmission of BSE and natural scrapie by blood transfusion in sheep. The final results of this experiment, reported here, give unexpectedly high transmission rates by transfusion of 36% for BSE and 43% for scrapie. A proportion of BSE-infected tranfusion recipients (3 of 8) survived for up to 7 years without showing clinical signs of disease. The majority of transmissions resulted from blood collected from donors at more than 50% of the estimated incubation period. The high transmission rates and relatively short and consistent incubation periods in clinically positive recipients suggest that infectivity titers in blood were substantial and/or that blood transfusion is an efficient method of transmission. This experiment has established the value of using sheep as a model for studying transmission of variant Creutzfeld-Jakob disease by blood products in humans. CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this? Related Article in Blood Online: Lessons from the blood of sheep David J. Anstee Blood 2008 112: 4369. [Full Text] [PDF] This article has been cited by other articles: L. A. Terry, L. Howells, J. Hawthorn, J. C. Edwards, S. J. Moore, S. J. Bellworthy, H. Simmons, S. Lizano, L. Estey, V. Leathers, et al. Detection of PrPsc in Blood from Sheep Infected with the Scrapie and Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy Agents J. Virol., December 1, 2009; 83(23): 12552 - 12558. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] X. Xiao, L. Miravalle, J. Yuan, J. McGeehan, Z. Dong, R. Wyza, G. T. MacLennan, A. M. Golichowski, G. Kneale, N. King, et al. Failure to Detect the Presence of Prions in the Uterine and Gestational Tissues from a Gravida with Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease Am. J. Pathol., May 1, 2009; 174(5): 1602 - 1608. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

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