PrP genotypes and experimental scrapie in orally inoculated Suffolk sheep in the United States

Authors

Katherine I. O'Rourke, U.S. Department of AgricultureFollow
G. R. Holyoak, Utah State University
W. W. Clark, U.S. Department of Agriculture
J. R. Mickelson, University of Minnesota
S. Wang, Utah State University
R. P. Melco, University of Minnesota
T. E. Besser, Washington State UniversityFollow
W. C. Foote, Utah State University

Date of this Version

1997

Comments

Published in Journal of General Virology (1997), 78, 975–978.

Abstract

One-hundred and three United States Suffolk sheep were inoculated orally with a scrapie agent preparation and monitored for clinical disease and histopathological lesions characteristic of scrapie. A retrospective study of the polymorphisms at codon 171 of the prion protein (PrP) gene was performed on these sheep. All 63 sheep that developed scrapie during the observation period were homozygous for the glutamine 171 (171-QQ) PrP allele. Twelve 171-QQ sheep failed to develop disease. All 5 sheep homozygous for arginine (171-RR) and all 23 heterozygous (171-QR) sheep remained free of scrapie.