Sporadic cases of chronic wasting disease in old moose - an epidemiological study.

Transmissible spongiform encephalopathies or prion diseases comprise diseases with different levels of contagiousness under natural conditions. The hypothesis has been raised that the chronic wasting disease (CWD) cases detected in Nordic moose () may be less contagious, or not contagious between live animals under field conditions. This study aims to investigate the epidemiology of CWD cases detected in moose in Norway, Sweden and Finland using surveillance data from 2016 to 2022.

No evidence of uptake or propagation of reindeer CWD prions in environmentally exposed sheep.

Background: Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is a prion disease of cervids first reported in North America in the 1960s. In Europe, CWD was first diagnosed in 2016 in a wild reindeer in Norway. Detection of two more cases in the same mountain area led to the complete culling of this partially confined reindeer population of about 2400 animals.

Chronic wasting disease in Europe: new strains on the horizon.

Prion diseases are fatal neurodegenerative disorders with known natural occurrence in humans and a few other mammalian species. The diseases are experimentally transmissible, and the agent is derived from the host-encoded cellular prion protein (PrP), which is misfolded into a pathogenic conformer, designated PrP (scrapie). Aggregates of PrP molecules, constitute proteinaceous infectious particles, known as prions.

Chronic wasting disease in Norway-A survey of prion protein gene variation among cervids.

Susceptibility of cervids to Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD), a prion disease, can be modulated by variations in the prion protein gene (PRNP), encoding the cellular prion protein (PrP ). In prion diseases, PrP is conformationally converted to pathogenic conformers (PrP ), aggregates of which comprise infectious prions. CWD has recently been observed in its contagious form in Norwegian reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) and in novel, potentially sporadic forms, here called 'atypical CWD', in moose (Alces alces) and red deer (Cervus elaphus).

PrP(Sc) accumulation in placentas of ewes exposed to natural scrapie: influence of foetal PrP genotype and effect on ewe-to-lamb transmission.

Placentas from scrapie-affected ewes are known to be infectious. Nevertheless, placenta infectivity in such ewes is not systematic. Maternal transmission to lambs is highly suspected but contamination of the foetus in utero has not been demonstrated.