ARS | Publication request: VALIDATION OF MONOCLONAL ANTIBODY F99/97.6.1 FOR IMMUNOHISTOCHEMICAL STAINING OF BRAIN AND TONSIL IN MULE DEER (ODOCOILEUS HEMIONUS) WITH CHRONIC WASTING DISEASE

Submitted to: Journal of Veterinary Diagnostic Investigation
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: September 10, 2001
Publication Date: N/A

Interpretive Summary: Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is a fatal disease of deer and elk, occurring in free ranging animals in a limited area of the Western US and Canada, and in captive deer and elk in both countries. Diagnosis of the disease using a validated assay is a necessary component of a comprehensive control program. In this study, a standardized, automated, monoclonal antibody based assay for the marker protein (PrP-Sc) in brain and tonsil was described and validated. This assay will provide the gold standard for development of more rapid assays for this disease.

Technical Abstract: A new monoclonal antibody, F99/97.6.1, that has been used to demonstrate PrPSc in brain and tonsil of sheep with scrapie was evaluated in tonsil and brain of mule deer and brain of Rocky Mountain elk. Mab F99/97.6.1 was evaluated in 100 mule deer and 100 Rocky Mountain elk that had spongiform encephalopathy compatible with chronic wasting disease (CWD). This monoclonal antibody demonstrated abnormal prion protein in all 100 brains and in 99 of the tonsils of the mule deer with CWD. This technique also demonstrated abnormal prion protein in brain of all 100 elk that had CWD. This monoclonal antibody was shown to have excellent properties for detection the abnormal prion protein in fresh, mildly to moderately autolytic, and frozen brain in deer and elk. Abnormal prion protein was not detected in brain and tonsil in any of the control mule deer nor the brain of the negative control elk.