Advances in scrapie research

The bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) crisis clearly demonstrated the need to keep animal transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSE) under control in order to protect animal and human health. Scrapie is the most widespread TSE of livestock in the world. For this reason, health authorities in different countries have elaborated plans that aim towards scrapie eradication. The unusual nature of the scrapie agent and the fragmented status of scientific knowledge about it, along with the limitations of currently available diagnostic tools, make it unlikely that the objective of eradication will be achieved in the near future. Scientific research is focused on acquiring the knowledge that will improve the efficiency of these efforts.