Update: scrapie, my British correspondant M.Leach informs me,
is endemic in sheep. Up to 40% of sheep may have it at any given time.
My assumption therefore is that most of those sheep are simply carriers,
or asymptomatic. The older sheep get, one assumes, the longer that the
agent causing scrapie (apparently a VIRUS) has had to work.
There is no country barrier to scrapie. British cows were especially badly
hit by BSE, but proximity of sheep to cows begs the question "can it happen
here, and if so, when?"
I propose that it is very important to develop a commercial test for
BSE. (Scrapie VIRUS seems to pose less danger, not having lept over a species
barrier.)
The Karolinska Institute has many links to neuro diseases, including a
prion section. Prusiner has a page at www.nmia.com/~mdibble/prion.html,
and Heaphy has a page at www-micro.msb.le.ac.uk/335/prions.html
Come on, find a company that takes prions seriously!
Fred |
