Brain defects in pigs not prion based
UK researchers from the Vet Laboratories Agency concluded that BSE-like defects revealed in brains of healthy pigs are most likely not caused by a transmissible agent and probably are clinically insignificant.
BSE inoculated
However, experimentally with bovine BSE brain material inoculated pigs did develop neurological disorders, some of which without prion protein being detected. This points at the possibility that the BSE agent may produce a prion disease in pigs that remains undetected by the current postmortem tests.
The study was published in BMC Veterinary Research and is online available.
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