Survey of Natural Scrapie in Japan : Analysis of RFLP Types of the PrP Gene and Detection of PrP<SUP>sc</SUP> Mainly in Suffolk Sheep

Survey of Natural Scrapie in Japan : Analysis of RFLP Types of the PrP Gene and Detection of PrP^sc Mainly in Suffolk Sheep

Author information

Asako ONODERA
Tetsuya IKEDA
Motohiro HORIUCHI
Naotaka ISHIGURO
Misao ONUMA
Norio HIRANO
Takeshi MIKAMI
Eiichi HONDA
Katsuya HIRAI
Kazunari KAI
Hiroyuki YUGI
Yasukazu MURAMATSU
Morikazu SHINAGAWA
Author's Organization：
Department of Veterinary Public Health, School of Veterinary Medicine, Obihiro University of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine
Department of Veterinary Public Health, School of Veterinary Medicine, Obihiro University of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine
Department of Veterinary Public Health, School of Veterinary Medicine, Obihiro University of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine
Department of Veterinary Public Health, School of Veterinary Medicine, Obihiro University of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine
Department of Epizootiology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Hokkaido University
Department of Veterinary Microbiology, Faculty of Agriculture, Iwate University
Department of Veterinary Microbiology, Faculty of Agriculture, The University of Tokyo
Department of Veterinary Microbiology, Faculty of Agriculture, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology
Department of Veterinary Microbiology, Faculty of Agriculture, Gifu University
Department of Veterinary Microbiology, Faculty of Agriculture, Yamaguchi University
Department of Veterinary Public Health, Faculty of Agriculture, Kagoshima University
Department of Veterinary Public Health, School of Veterinary Medicine, Rakuno Gakuen University
Department of Veterinary Public Health, School of Veterinary Medicine, Obihiro University of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine

Keywords: PrP^sc, RFLP type, scrapie

JOURNAL FREE ACCESS

1994 Volume 56 Issue 4 Pages 627-632

DOI https://doi.org/10.1292/jvms.56.627

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Abstract

We examined the brains, spleens and/or lymph nodes of 197 mainly Suffolk sheep collected from Hokkaido, and the Tohoku, Kanto and Chubu districts to detect PrP^sc and thus to estimate scrapie contamination in Japan. Sixteen sheep in Hokkaido and 2 sheep in other districts that were introduced from Hokkaido were positive for PrP^sc. By comparison of the frequencies of the restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) types of these 18 scrapie sheep with 128 healthy sheep, we confirmed the association of specific RFLP types of the PrP gene with natural scrapie. The frequency of RFLP type I in scrapie sheep was significantly higher than that in healthy sheep and those of other types in scrapie sheep. In contrast, the frequencies of type II and VI in healthy sheep were higher than those in scrapie sheep. Therefore, type I sheep seemed to be susceptible but type II and VI sheep seemed to be resistant to natural scrapie in Suffolk sheep in Japan. Furthermore, we investigated the distribution of the RFLP types of the PrP gene in 161 sheep in Japan to learn about the genetic background of the susceptibility to scrapie. There were variations in the distribution of the RFLP types in each district.

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