Veterinarska stanica, Vol. 56 No. 1, 2025.
Review article
https://doi.org/10.46419/vs.56.1.6
Chronic wasting disease as a part of animal spongiform encephalopathies
Karmen Branović Čakanić
; Hrvatski Veterinarski Institut, Zagreb, Hrvatska
Ivana Kolačko
; Hrvatski Veterinarski Institut, Zagreb, Hrvatska
Šimun Naletilić
; Hrvatski veterinarski institut, Zagreb, Hrvatska
*
Željko Mihaljević
; Hrvatski veterinarski institut, Zagreb, Hrvatska
Tihana Miškić
; Ministarstvo poljoprivrede, Uprava za veterinarstvo i sigurnost hrane, Zagreb, Hrvatska
Branko Šoštarić
; Hrvatski Veterinarski Institut, Zagreb, Hrvatska
Dinko Novosel
; Hrvatski Veterinarski Institut, Zagreb, Hrvatska
* Corresponding author.
Abstract
Chronic wasting disease belongs to a group of infectious diseases known as transmissible spongiform encephalopathies. The disease has been found in the Cervidae family, specifically mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus), white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus), red deer (Cervus elaphus), elk (Cervus canadensis), moose (Alces alces), and reindeer (Rangifer tarandus). Unlike bovine spongiform encephalopathy and other animal transmissible encephalopathies, except scrapie, chronic wasting disease is a contagious prion disease that to our present knowledge affects only members of the Cervidae family. The causative agent of transmissible spongiform encephalopathies originates from the host-encoded cellular prion protein (PrPC), which is misfolded into a pathogenic conformer and was referred to as the abnormal prion of scrapie (PrPSc). Chronic wasting disease is the only prion disease to affect wild animals. The disease was first detected in Colorado (USA) in the late 1960s. Since 2024, chronic wasting disease has been diagnosed in at least 32 states in the United States and four provinces in Canada. In addition to North America, chronic wasting disease-infected elk have also been confirmed on ranches in South Korea. In terms of zoonotic potential, bovine spongiform encephalopathy is only prion disease in animals confirmed to be zoonotic, and numerous studies have yielded no conclusive evidence of the zoonotic potential of chronic wasting disease. However, to protect public health, further research on aspects of the disease is necessary. Chronic wasting disease first appeared in Europe in 2016, and the first case was in a reindeer in southern Norway. This was also the first evidence of natural infection with chronic wasting disease in reindeer. Very soon after, the second case was described in moose. It was confirmed that the European strain differed from the US strain, and that the
strains of the two cases in Europe also differed. The European Union has since implemented Decision (EU) 2016/1918 on certain protection measures for chronic wasting disease. In addition, the European Food Safety Agency issued an opinion proposing a three-year surveillance system in eight countries to determine possible presence of the disease (EU Member States: Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Sweden, and non-EU Member States, Norway and Iceland), and these countries implemented
a monitoring programme for chronic wasting disease from 1 January 2018 to 31 December 2020 (EU 2017/1972). By the end of 2022, 42 positive cases of chronic wasting disease were confirmed in moose, red deer, and reindeer in Norway, Sweden, and Finland.
Keywords
Prion; Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy (TSE); Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD)
Hrčak ID:
316659
URI
Publication date:
11.6.2024.
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