Animal prion diseases: A review of intraspecies transmission

MAURO JULIAN GALLARDO; DELGADO FERNANDO

Open Veterinary Journal

Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Tripoli

Año: 2021

2226-4485

Animal prion diseases are a group of neurodegenerative, transmissible, and fatal disorders that affect several animalspecies. The causative agent, prion, is a misfolded isoform of normal cellular prion protein, which is found in cells withhigher concentration in the central nervous system. This review explored the sources of infection and different naturaltransmission routes of animal prion diseases in susceptible populations. Chronic wasting disease in cervids and scrapiein small ruminants are prion diseases capable of maintaining themselves in susceptible populations through horizontaland vertical transmission. The other prion animal diseases can only be transmitted through food contaminated withprions. Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) is the only animal prion disease considered zoonotic. However, dueto its inability to transmit within a population, it could be controlled. The emergence of atypical cases of scrapie andBSE, even the recent report of prion disease in camels, demonstrates the importance of understanding the transmissionroutes of prion diseases to take measures to control them and to assess the risks to human and animal health.