Prions and Mad Cow Disease

Features:

• manifests evidence of infectious agents believed responsible for TSEs
• explores prion protein detection via immunoassay, chemiluminescent ELISA, bioassay, and fluorescence
• relates differential extraction, DELFIA, multispectral techniques, and in vivo diagnostics
• consults comparable sheep-carried infection scrapie for BSE leads
• examines chronic wasting disease, a TSE striking deer and elk populations
• specifies measures for active BSE surveillance and safety monitoring of biological products
• presents models for estimating probabilities of animal-animal BSE spread

Table of Contents:

1. Taking Aim at the Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies Infectious Agents

2. Prions, the Protein Hypothesis, and Scientific Revolutions

3. A Simulation Model for Evaluating the Potential for Spread of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy in Animals or to People

4. Actions to Prevent Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy from Entering the United States

5. Overview of Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy in Cervids in the United States

6. Bioassays for Prions

7. Cyclic Amplification of Scrapie Prion Protein: Implications for Diagnosis

8. The Enfer Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies Assay: Chemiluminescent ELISA of Prion Proteins

9. Sensitive Detection of Prion Proteins by Immunoassay: CEA/Bio-Rad Test

10. The Diagnosis of Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies Using Differential Extraction and DELFIA

11. In Vivo Diagnosis of Prion Diseases

12. Diagnosis of Prion Diseases by Multispectral Techniques

13. Detection of the Prion Protein in Blood Using a Fluorescence Immunoassay

14. Prion Detection and Application to the Safety of Biological Products

Index