Encephalopathy in cattle experimentally infected with the scrapie agent

Abstract

Ten 8- to 10-month-old cattle were each inoculated intramuscularly, subcutaneously, intracerebrally, and orally with the scrapie agent to determine whether cattle are susceptible to it. Two inocula, both 10% homogenates of cerebrum, were used. One inoculum was from a sheep used for the second experimental ovine passage of the agent from 4 naturally affected Suffolk sheep. The other inoculum was from a goat used for the first experimental caprine passage of the agent from 2 naturally affected dairy goats living with the Suffolk sheep, the source of their infection. Between 27 and 48 months after inoculation, neurologic disease was observed in 1 of 5 cattle given the sheep brain homogenate and in 2 of 5 given the goat brain homogenate. In all 3 affected cattle, the disease was expressed clinically as increasing difficulty in rising from recumbency, stilted gait of the pelvic limbs, disorientation, and terminal recumbency during a 6- to 10-week course. Neurohistologic changes, though consistent with those of scrapie, were slight and subtle: moderate astrocytosis with sparse rod cells, some neuronal degeneration, a few vacuolated neurons, and scant spongiform change. Clinically and neurohistologically, the experimentally induced disease differed from bovine spongiform encephalopathy. The differences emphasize that such infections in cattle induce diverse responses, presumably depending largely on the strain of the agent. Pathologists should keep this variability in mind when looking for microscopic evidence of a scrapie-like encephalopathy in cattle.