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. 2000 Sep 16;356(9234):999-1000.
doi: 10.1016/s0140-6736(00)02719-7.

Transmission of BSE by blood transfusion in sheep

F Houston, J D Foster, A Chong, N Hunter, C J Bostock

Transmission of BSE by blood transfusion in sheep

F Houston et al. Lancet. .

Abstract

We have shown that it is possible to transmit bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) to a sheep by transfusion with whole blood taken from another sheep during the symptom-free phase of an experimental BSE infection. BSE and variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) In human beings are caused by the same infectious agent, and the sheep-BSE experimental model has a similar pathogenesis to that of human vCJD. Although UK blood transfusions are leucodepleted--a possible protective measure against any risk from blood transmission--this report suggests that blood donated by symptom-free vCJD-infected human beings may represent a risk of spread of vCJD infection among the human population of the UK.

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