Previous, often intensive control programmes have foundered, and we cannot point to a clear-cut example of successful large-scale scrapie control.
In this paper we develop a method to fit stochastic transmission models to outbreak data and explore its use by analysing a high-incidence scrapie epidemic.
At the within-flock level, we describe scrapie transmission using a stochastic model incorporating the available data on pathogenesis, sheep demography, genetic susceptibility and incubation times.
Data are either right-censored for scrapie deaths, representing non-scrapie morality only (solid lines), or include scrapie mortality (broken lines).
However, we note that the dynamics of the disease in goats is likely to be highly dependent on sheep scrapie.
Immunological comparison of scrapie-associated fibrils isolated from animals infected with four different scrapie strains.
In future research, similar model analyses of data on less severe scrapie epidemics should provide more detailed information.
Replication of distinct scrapie prion isolates is region specific in brains of transgenic mice and hamsters.
