Assessing EDRF as a Potential Marker for BSE

There is a major requirement for an ante-mortem blood-based assay capable of identifying BSE-infected cattle at the preclinical stages of the disease.
<p>The majority of current diagnostics require post-mortem material or material obtained by invasive procedures such as CNS or tonsil biopsy.
<p>The only assay performed on blood requires extensive protein purification procedures and highly specialised equipment making automated high throughput difficult.
<p>This study will investigate whether a protein found in blood called EDRF can be used to reliably diagnose preclinical cases of BSE in cattle and scrapie in sheep.
<p> Find more about this project and other FSA food safety-related projects at the <a href="http://www.food.gov.uk/science/research/&quot; target="_blank">Food Standards Agency Research webpage</a>.