Novel Spiroplasma sp. Isolated From CWD Is an Extreme Bacterial Thermoacidophile That Survives Autoclaving, Boiling, Formalin Treatment, and Significant Gamma Irradiation.

Rapid spreading of chronic wasting disease (CWD) in wildlife and captive cervid populations has exposed lack of progress in dealing with the transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSE) of man and animals. Since the TSE transmissible agent was resistant to extremes in environmental and chemical treatments, focus was on an unconventional agent including the prion theory. Recent breakthrough research has revealed consistent isolation of a novel Spiroplasma sp. from TSE-affected tissues that propagates in cell-free media and on agar. Here, we developed a live culture assay to test whether the CWD spiroplasma isolate possessed unconventional biologic properties akin to those of the transmissible agent of TSE. The CWD spiroplasma isolate survived boiling for 1 hour, standard liquid autoclaving, 10% formalin treatment overnight, and gamma irradiation of 20 kGy. The CWD spiroplasma isolate is an acidophile, growing best at pH 2. The biologic resistance of the CWD spiroplasma isolate may be due to unusual phage-like viruses found in the bacterial pellet or to DNA-protein binding. Because the CWD spiroplasma isolate has biologic properties consistent with the causal agent of the TSEs, TSE research focus should be redirected to development of diagnostic tests and preventive vaccines for control of CWD based upon the bacterium.