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1: Assess the cross-species transmissibility of TSEs in livestock and cervids. Objective 2: Develop and evaluate methods for the differentiation of TSE strains, including BSE, CWD, and scrapie. Objective 3: Investigate the pathobiology of TSEs (BSE, CWD, scrapie) in natural and secondary hosts.
Objective 1. Experiments to assess cross-species transmissibility will focus on scrapie, CWD, and TME. Objective 2. Biological assays will be conducted in mice and raccoons and a variety of biochemical assays will be evaluated for non-biological in vitro strain differentiation. Develop sample preparation steps to enrich the presence of aberrant prions in biological samples. Mass spectrometry methods of biochemical analysis will be utilized to detect, identify and compare possible differences between PrP**res of different host origins and/or strains. These data will be shared with the ARS location in Albany, CA, for further collaborations on detection and strain typing methods. Objective 3. An effort to increase our understanding of scrapie pathogenesis in U.S. sheep will focus on the influence of prion genotype. An additional, and more basic, approach will involve the application of mass spectrometry for examination of differential protein expression in central nervous system tissue during development of disease. BSL-2; Approved 10/17/04; IBC# 0275