Well, I doubt you've got a money maker here for a few reasons.
First, antibodies against the prion protein have been available for many years so there's nothing new there. A mouse monoclonal is publically available so I doubt there's any money in that end of it.
Second, you're talking about one pain in the rear of a screening test. Spinal taps are very, very painful and not without some risk to the patient if not performed by a pro. Getting an un-drugged cow to put up with it is going to be fairly difficult.
Third, the anitbody test itself involves a fair amount of human labor, if for nothing else than recording and tracking samples. The costs here would be extremely high for an agricultural setting.
And forth, most important of all, farmers just won't go for it.
This is the biggest problem with the whole BSE thing right now. Farmers know that if just one animal is diagnosed with BSE they stand to lose the entire herd and have the facility quarantined for perhaps several years. Voluntary testing for BSE isn't going to fly because it carries no benefit and only huge potential loss for individual farmers.
So, if somebody can convince the feds to institute mandatory random sampling, you may have a case if the expenses can be controlled. If not, I doubt a single cow will ever be tested outside a research university.
Dan.
P.S. - Can't say much about this because of contract/patent concerns, but a BSE test is being investigated right now that would overcome the expense issue at the cost of accuracy. Some BSE+ animals may slip by it, it would be fast and cheap enough to examine entire herds of both cows and sheep on a regular basis. Again, though, I think it will need an FDA mandated testing program to be viable in the states.
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