%0 Journal Article
%T Prevalence of the prion protein gene E211K variant in U.S. cattle
%A Michael P Heaton
%A John W Keele
%A Gregory P Harhay
%A Jščrgen A Richt
%A Mohammad Koohmaraie
%A Tommy L Wheeler
%A Steven D Shackelford
%A Eduardo Casas
%A D Andy King
%A Tad S Sonstegard
%A Curtis P Van Tassell
%A Holly L Neibergs
%A Chad C Chase
%A Theodore S Kalbfleisch
%A Timothy PL Smith
%A Michael L Clawson
%A William W Laegreid
%J BMC Veterinary Research
%D 2008
%I BioMed Central
%R 10.1186/1746-6148-4-25
%X The K211 allele was not detected in 6062 cattle, including those from five commercial beef processing plants (3892 carcasses) and 2170 registered cattle from 42 breeds. Multiple nearby polymorphisms in Prnp coding sequence of 1456 diverse purebred cattle (42 breeds) did not interfere with scoring E211 or K211 alleles. Based on these results, the upper bounds for prevalence of the E211K variant was estimated to be extremely low, less than 1 in 2000 cattle (Bayesian analysis based on 95% quantile of the posterior distribution with a uniform prior).No groups or breeds of U.S. cattle are presently known to harbor the Prnp K211 allele. Because a carrier was not detected, the number of additional atypical BSE cases with K211 will also be vanishingly low.Transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSE), or prion diseases, are fatal neurological disorders of humans and other mammals that are characterized by accumulation of an abnormal, protease-resistant isoform of the prion protein (PrPTSE) in the brain. In cattle, the largest disease outbreak was first recognized in 1986 in Great Britain and peaked in the early 1990's when the number of confirmed bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) cases rose to more than 30,000 per year [1,2]. During this time, BSE transmission among cattle was caused primarily by feeding meat and bone meal derived from other BSE-affected cattle [3,4]. This so-called classical, or orally acquired BSE has since been identified in 24 additional countries around the world [5]. Consumption of beef from BSE-affected animals was implicated as the most likely cause of one human prion disease, variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD) [6-9]. However, after regulations were implemented to prevent BSE-contaminated tissues from entering the animal feed supplies and active BSE surveillance was increased, the number of BSE cases dropped dramatically [5]. This was followed by a corresponding reduction in vCJD cases [10].An important outcome of intensive worldwide BS
%U http://www.biomedcentral.com/1746-6148/4/25