Detection of prions in the faeces of sheep naturally infected with classical scrapie

Table 1 Amplification of PrP^Sc from sheep faeces

Origin of faecal sample	Animal ID	number positive/total number of analyses Method 1^a	number of positive/total number of analyses Method 2^b
	R382	0/6	0/2
	R328	0/6	0/2
	R234	0/6	0/2
	R413	0/6	0/2
	R421	0/6	0/2
Unexposed sheep	R185	0/6	0/1
	R223	0/6	0/1
	R233	0/6	0/1
	R297	0/6	0/1
	R303	0/6	0/1
	Total	0/60	0/15 ^c
	1203/09	0/2	2/2 (4,4)
	1236/09	1/2 (9)^d	1/2 (4)
	1252/09	0/2	2/2 (4,4)
	1271/09	0/2	2/2 (4,4)
	1284/09	0/2	2/2 (4,4)
	1292/09	0/2	2/2 (4,4)
Preclinical exposed sheep age 9-10 months	1298/09	0/2	1/2 (4)
	1305/09	2/2 (7,10)	1/2 (4)
	1227/09	0/2	1/1 (4)
	1279/09	0/2	1/1 (4)
	1286/09	0/2	1/1 (4)
	1296/09	0/2	1/1 (4)
	1299/09	0/2	1/1 (4)
	1307/09	0/2	1/1 (4)
	Total	3/28	19/22
	317/09	0/2	0/2
	319/09	0/2	1/2 (4)
	320/09	2/2 (6,6)	1/2 (4)
	324/09	1/2 (6)	2/2 (3,4)
	421/09	0/2	0/2
	352/09	0/2	0/2
	353/09	0/2	0/2
Sheep with clinical scrapie	354/09	0/2	0/2
	359/09	0/2	1/2 (4)
	382/09	0/2	0/2
	457/09	0/2	0/2
	470/09	2/2 (8,9)	2/2 (4,4)
	606/09	0/2	0/1
	608/09	0/2	1/1 (4)
	572/09	2/2 (7,9)	0/1
	Total	7/30	8/27

^aMethod 1: Prion was extracted in NP40 and DOC, precipitated with SiO₂ and amplified by sPMCA for 10 rounds.
^bMethod 2: Prions were extracted in SDS, NaPTa precipitated and amplified by sPMCA in the presence of polyA for 4 rounds.
^cFaeces from a further 15 animals was analysed in duplicate by this method and no prions were detected (data not shown).
^dThe sPMCA round at which the sample first became positive is indicated in parenthesis.

ISSN: 1297-9716