Immunohistochemical and biochemical characteristics of BSE and CWD in experimentally infected European red deer (Cervus elaphus elaphus)

After intracerebral or alimentary challenge, BSE in red deer more closely resembled natural infection in cattle rather than experimental BSE in small ruminants, due to the lack of accumulation of abnormal PrP in lymphoid tissues. In this respect it was different from CWD, and although the neuropathological features of both diseases were similar, BSE could be clearly differentiated from CWD by immunohistochemical and Western blotting methods currently in routine use.Red deer are susceptible to both BSE and CWD infection, but the resulting disease phenotypes are distinct and clearly distinguishable.Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) is one of a group of transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs), which include Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans, chronic wasting disease (CWD) in deer and scrapie in sheep and goats. These invariably fatal neuro-degenerative disorders typically show lesions such as spongiform change, gliosis and deposition of the disease-associated form (PrPd) of the normal cellular prion protein (PrPc).Contaminated meat and bone meal (MBM) within concentrated rations fed to cattle was the cause of the BSE epidemic in the United Kingdom (UK [1]) and elsewhere in Europe. Exotic ungulates were also exposed to this material resulting in cases of BSE in zoological collections [2,3], and it is likely that cervids in these collections were also exposed [4]. Similarly, contaminated rations could have also been fed to farmed and free ranging deer, the latter as a winter supplement. In March 2007, the European Union adopted a Commission Decision calling for a survey for TSEs in cervid populations, and monitoring of farmed and wild red deer began in the UK. Despite there not being any reported cases so far, the possibility that BSE infection occurred in deer prior to MBM bans cannot be ruled out as, on the other hand, several deer species are affected by CWD. One of those species is the elk or wapiti (Cervus elaphus nelsoni), which is closely related to